The upper Light is absolutely still. We are in an ocean of Light, like in an electrical, magnetic, or some other kind of field. It does not matter what kind of Light we have here. It exists; I do not need to create this second force, I just need to reveal it.

It turns out that every time we need to achieve a connection between us to form a detector, an instrument for revealing the field in which we exist. This detector is a desire, a need, which is sensitive to the field I am going to reveal: the quality of bestowal.

In other words, I must feel a need, a desire, to reveal the quality of bestowal. This is the only thing we lack, nothing else. As soon as we together reveal the need for the quality to bestow, we reveal it. That is, we must calibrate ourselves in relation to the quality of bestowal, to manage to reveal it without being in it, but only through an idea of what it represents. This is exactly what we are asking: to know what the quality of bestowal is, to be able to connect with one another the right way for the desire, the need, to bestow to appear in the connection between us. And that is all! This is the Kli (vessel) for revealing it.

We please the Creator with this attitude toward the quality to bestow, this field, the Creator. This is not that difficult and not so far away. All the effort needs to be in the thought: What is the detector of the quality of bestowal? And there is nothing else.

Baal HaSulam wrote in the book The House of the Gates to Intentions: There is a Creator and a creation, and he continues to explain that the creation’s entire problem is to reveal the Creator within which it exists. There is nothing else.

For this reason, when a person concentrates on the question: “How do I build the vessel for revealing the Creator, the quality to bestow, so it would reveal in me?”—he understand that this quality cannot reveal in him because he does not have a vessel for it, he lacks sensitivity for this quality.

Sensitivity to the quality to bestow can only appear from our revealing the desire for it together in our connection. My vessel gains sensitivity to the extent of our simultaneous rejection of one another and the desire to reveal the quality of bestowal between us. So I increase the extent of its sensitivity. And that is it.

Question: Why do I need to want to reveal the need for the quality of bestowal instead of revealing the actual quality?

Answer: There is no point to my revealing the actual quality to bestow: It exists. There is a treat in front of me, which contains everything. Everything in the world is in front of you. But you do not have an appetite for it and you cannot taste it. For example, if I am sick and have not eaten for two days, what do I think about? Revealing tastes? No I think about my need, my desire because, in fact, this is what I lack. Everything else is ready.

The upper Light is absolutely still. We are inside it. Increase your sensitivity, from opposition to it, from the negative, at least make it zero, and keep increasing it little by little until you reveal it.
[70651]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/12, The Zohar

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Question: On one hand we say that we should demand revelation now, regardless of our length of study, and on the other hand there is the notion of the necessary measure of exertion, which must be made in the preparation stage. How do the two things go together?

Answer: Reaching the necessary measure means reaching the true necessity. None of us can even begin to feel this. We simply feel bad in our ego and so we are ready to escape it to some extent. Not more than that.

Spirituality begins from the revelation of our mutual connection. We haven’t started that yet and haven’t reached it. We haven’t started this process and haven’t touched the vessel among us.

In each of us there is only emptiness, nothing. It isn’t a vessel, but merely a point. Besides that, everything else in you belongs to the beastly level and has nothing to do with spirituality. The “human” in you is just a point within which there is nothing. This point develops only by connection with other points, and thus it puts on “flesh” and creates a spiritual “body.”

The preliminary work for attaining the necessary measure is only needed in order to begin uniting with the friends. None of us has anything; no one understands anything. We come out of Egypt like some “crowd” escaping without knowing where to, in total darkness covering all our desires, thoughts, and intentions. This is the escape of the slaves of the egoism. Otherwise they cannot leave it. They are taken out after being in a state of having no choice, and nothing more is demanded of them. Then they start complaining to Moses, they build the golden calf, but this is actually the road to spirituality, otherwise you will not be born.

Therefore the measure of exertion is when you understand that the spiritual vessel is connection with others. It doesn’t belong to you. It is a very hard moment, because here you begin to enter through the wall in order to reach the spiritual world. On one side of the wall you are in the ego, in your individualism; and on the other side of the wall it will be clear to you that the spiritual “you” is what is between you and the others to the extent that you are in them, in their desires and their thoughts, when you leave your own thoughts and desires behind that wall.

Only the Light can do that for you, but you should imagine this and think about it. Nothing more than that is asked of you.
[70671]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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The Creature is the force of our shared desire to enjoy, standing opposite the force of bestowal. These are two opposing forces, like “plus” and “minus,” the north and south poles of a magnet. The entire universe is the result of the interaction of these two forces.

And if these two forces meet and unite to carry out the work, to receive energy, it results in the form of the still, vegetative, and animate levels in our perception as they create the reality that is called our world.

But if, as a result of our development, we begin to feel the need to use these forces not with the force of reception ruling over the force of bestowal, but with the force of bestowal taking precedence over reception because the possibilities in this case are limitless, then our development will raise us to the level of the force of bestowal and we begin to feel the higher system, the upper world.

But instead of this, we still see the picture of this world, feeling the power of the egoistic force, and instead of forces, we imagine the material world. The egoistic desire paints for us the pictures of still, vegetative, and animate nature, which we call this world. From all this, it is difficult for us to imagine a spiritual reality.

The one who has experienced this revelation explains that it is not necessary to wait for natural development to occur, which will be achieved eventually by everyone: all parts of the desire to enjoy. But we can accelerate our development to reach the desired state in a matter of days, months, or years. As it is said: “You will see your world in your life time.”

Everything depends on how we try to reach unity, and not to reach unity in order to gather a greater collective force, but in order to achieve the force that is above us.That is, we unite not in order to add together the forces of all the participants, like in a sports team or military unit. In our connection, we want to reveal a new quality, which none of us has and which is called the property of bestowal.

If we reveal this property between us, not within everyone, but in our yearning towards others, which is called the Reflected Light, Hassadim, then in it we will discover the force directed at us, which is called the Creator. Inside the Light of Hassadim, the Light of Hochma is revealed; in the force of bestowal, coming from us, we discover the higher force of bestowal.

Thus, it all depends on how much each of us strives to exit himself and rise to the level of bestowing on others. You shouldn’t delude yourself that we are able to exit ourselves, unite with others in order to bestow, and reveal the upper Force in our aspiration to exit ourselves. It is impossible because we do not have these qualities in us, and none of my efforts can extract from me what I do not have. I do not have bestowal!

And what is inside of me? It is the directly opposite property, a consequence of the breaking, which was created in my root before my creation for this purpose. All of this was in order to reveal this contrast in me, for me to demand the real property of bestowal. I must demand it from the upper force because only It is able to turn my egoistic force, my ego, into bestowal and love,so the hatred will turn into love. But most importantly is that in the course of this work, I establish connection with the correcting force—with the Creator.

[70658]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Lesson 2/22/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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From the lesson before the Arava Convention, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Igrot, “Letter 17″: …there is he who walks, who is worse than he who sits idly. It is he who deflects from the road, for the path of truth is a very thin line that one walks until one comes to the King’s palace.

One who begins to walk at the beginning of the line needs great care so as not to deviate to the right or to the left of the line even as much as a hair’s breadth. This is so because if at first the deviation is as a hair’s breadth, even if one continues completely straight, it is certain that he will no longer come to the King’s palace…

But how is it possible not to err? Of course we will err! Imagine that we are playing a game where you have to shoot and hit a target, like from an electronic rifle or on a computer. But this game is arranged so that you cannot manage to aim, and the sight is always veering off the target, as if deliberately. You place it on the target, but it suddenly jumps to the side. You place it there again, and it runs away again.

This is, essentially, our nature. There is no doubt that I cannot aim precisely at the center of bestowal. After all, in reality, there, at the center of the target, is where the Creator is, the quality of bestowal, love for the neighbor, which is 100% opposite to me. I am unable to go towards it directly, without adding some kind of error, at least a small deviation. And it’s never aiming straight at the target.

Even when I am already rising up the spiritual levels, I am able to achieve the intention of bestowal only in a small part of desires, like in a “very thin line.” And the rest of the “circle” is my huge “stony heart” (Lev HaEven), which I am unable to correct for the sake of bestowal. At every level there are desires that I can correct for the sake of bestowal and advance with them, while being unable to do so with all the other ones. So how can I advance precisely towards the goal? After all, what is required of me is something that I am definitely unable to do!

That is when we are rescued by the notion of the group. Every one of us, with his “sight,” meaning from the very depth of the heart (from the Light of Hochma dressed into the Light of Hassadim, by virtue of which “the heart understands”) aims at the goal. And no single person hits it precisely, because each one has some kind of error, a deviation in some direction from the central point.

But if everyone unites together, each one with his error, then we mutually correct the errors of others. That is how it is arranged. And then we aim precisely at the very center. By virtue of our efforts to unite together, even if they are not sincere, it’s as if we step over the breaking.
[70787]
From the 3rd part of the Lesson in the in the Arava desert on 2/23/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Igrot, “Letter 17″

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The more the goal of attaining bestowal unto the Creator is important to us, so should the work of creating the collective vessel and attaining bestowal unto friends be important. Thus, we will have to turn to the Creator in prayer (MAN), in order for Him to give us the force of bestowal, the will to bestow, the ability to connect amongst us and attain bestowal.

In a group, a person learns how friends should be treated, how to bond with them. When he “buys” friends for himself, he raises a prayer for them, receives strength from them, assistance. We need to attain cohesion with the Creator, as His partners, in equality and mutual love; one needs to attain that state with the friends in order to reveal what it is.

Surely, the will to receive and our initial nature despise this business. Yet, we will have to engage in it because other than that, there is no meaning to our reality, our life. For that purpose, we are born and exist on the beastly level, in the meantime, in order to reach correction.

Hence, it turns out that the friends are no less important than the Creator. And creating the collective vessel is equal to attaining the goal of Creation, attaining the love and cohesion.

We need to realize the immense power found within the group, and that is the only means to attain the goal of Creation, meaning, the attribute of bestowal. That is what our inner, personal work in the group is devoted to, and similarly, the external work relating to the entire world.

The whole world is also suffering. The question of “What is the purpose of my life?” leads each one of us to a group at some stage to study Kabbalah, and to a teacher, obligating us to study. Likewise, the entire world is seeking the meaning to its lost life, and nature is uniting us coercively into a group, an integral, global world. Whether people want it or not, they are beginning to feel they are interdependent.

Therefore, there’s not a big difference between what our groups are going through and what the whole world is enduring. Certainly, there is a difference in the pace, conditions and exposing the material; yet, the more we advance forward, we’ll be more similar, simply like twins. Our small group (those hundreds of thousands of friends belonging to it) will grow closer and closer to that large group comprised of seven billion people alive in the world, thus, we’ll reach a closer understanding of the goal.

Of course, every person does that in accordance with his degree and perception, but everyone, with no exception, must attain the importance of the “friends,” meaning, from the state in which one sees the other people as strangers to attaining the love of brothers toward all and loving each one “as himself.”
[68558]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the basis of the fusion of the three concepts: “Israel, the Light, and the Creator?

Answer: The basis is that these concepts are not separated. Everything is One. Reality is simple: the desire to receive filled with light. And the question is only one: How can we discover where we really are? How can we discover this reality? How can we add the knowledge about it to our lives, to our current state? In the end, this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals.

Beside this, there is nothing. This reality is permanent. There is no time, place, or distance, but reality simply exists. We can’t imagine this to ourselves without the characteristics of this world, but it exists. Within it we discover both the Kli (vessel or desire) and the Light, meaning all of its components, and thus we reach real existence.

We don’t understand how separated we are today from the truth. Israel, the Light, and the Creator seem separated to us. But we need to connect them into One.

The person who tries to discover the true reality is called Israel since he yearns “directly to the Creator (Yashar Kel).” Light is the Light that reforms, that brings a person to the goal. The goal is the Creator, the upper force, the root to which we long for. Thus everything is connected at the root, and through this, I return to Him, I really become like Him.
[70668]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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I am this point in the heart, and there is nothing in me except that. I long to exit from this point towards others, towards spirituality, towards the group, but I am not capable of externally escaping myself with my own strength since the point can only maintain itself and nothing more than that. This is what I need. And below this point is my ego. In the meantime, it is small and physical, at the level of the animate.

In order for me to have this tendency towards the group, this point is absolutely not enough. I need an environment that influences me in addition to my point in the heart, and then I will receive the force to bond to the group. So, then in some way, I succeed to be included in the correct environment (1). The environment begins to influence me with the importance of bestowal, the goal of spirituality (2). And this gives me the strength to begin to be included, just a bit, into the group (3).

But when I try to be included in the group, I feel an unpleasant response: criticism, evil, rejection, and hate (4). And thus I constantly work: 1-2-3-4, and again 1-2-3-4….. When I feel this hatred, I again return to the friends and ask them to influence me so that the strength to overcome myself and connect to the group will appear for me in spite of the rejection. This is how we constantly work, in parallel to studying and dissemination work.

And when all the forces and these tensions accumulate, we feel that we are in need of help, as is said, “Man will help his friends.” These forces of the environment that take care of me are already not enough for me. I need greater support from the other people. It is already not enough that the environment will supply the awakening for me. I need a real force that will allow me to be included into the group itself. I won’t have strength like this, if I don’t receive it from the others.
[70655]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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From the Constitution of the Arava Convention: During all the days of the convention I commit to disconnect internally and externally from the physical world and to forget about myself. I disconnect myself and am ready to escape from the present state, to jump into the Red Sea, to lose my head, to leave everything, remain naked and destitute, and to accept whatever comes, only because it comes from Above.

We should rise above everything that we are. Constant efforts are required here.

It says: “They helped every one his friend.” If the whole group aspires towards this ascent, to faith above reason, it will work on everyone, and it will be easy for everyone. Now we find it hard to connect, but if we want to use the power of unity, we will suddenly feel a relief.

When the general force operates on a person, the difficulties disappear. He stops fearing, and the current sweeps him away. This is what we must attain.

Actually, all the conditions are easy if we carry them out through unification.

In the convention everyone is responsible for all. It is mutuality, mutual guarantee. Everyone worries about the others, about unity. Inside me I should constantly pray for the friends so that they will connect, so that their desire will finally come true. If this prayer lives inside me, then undoubtedly I am also inside.
[70538] 
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/2012, Constitution of the Arava Convention  

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Question: I have no doubt that we will come to the convention in high spirits and greatly impressed. But what should I do if the situation changes and a descent starts?

Answer: Of course we should expect waves: each of us separately and possibly everyone together. It is clear, but it is above them that we should work. Or do you think that the first contact with spirituality will set you free of all the problems? No, you should delve inwards with all your might and hang on like a bulldog.

When a big dog attacks you, you have to shove your hand into his jaws, as deeply as you can, and then it will have to let go. It is the same here: push forward as hard as you can.

Question: Will I be able to do that by myself?

Answer: You will be able to make everyone follow you, without a word. If you care about them, you “shift yourself and the whole world to a scale of merit.” This is because the spiritual force passes from one to all and from all to everyone. It isn’t just our mutual connection; it is above us.

Question: I don’t understand what the spiritual force is, but I do know what my egoism is. It will pressure me, but I won’t admit it and will hide it. And what if it comes to extremes, to unfounded hatred? I will bring everyone harm, won’t I?

Answer: These waves have been passing through you for years. It is normal, and we should overcome it. No one says that the convention is heaven into which you fly like an angel; of course not.

We gather together and disconnect from the world in order to create an atmosphere that will impress all of us. Then together, we will be able not only to neutralize our evil inclination, but also to overcome and to control it. It will “swell up” under us, like dough, and by staying on top of it we will reach the spiritual level. We have to go through all the thickness of the concealment, which is actually revealed in hatred.

Don’t expect everything to go smoothly, without any mishaps. We want it, we want to rise in one spurt, but each one will have his own thoughts and discernments. So bring all your hatred and don’t fear it. The main thing is that it is stirred up by the desire to connect with all the friends and not by something else.

Question: And what if I see that the friend goes though this state? Should I intervene, or should I leave him alone?

Answer: You must set another example for him: to hug him, to do something without pressure, gently, in order to help him rise. Don’t just ignore it because internally he disturbs everyone. We are all in the same boat; can we let anyone drill a hole in it? You have to envelop him with warmth so that he will be happy, so that he will come out of the descent.

Question: But what if I go wrong: It could be that he is deep in thought and I may think that he is in a descent.…

Answer: Think about everyone’s salvation and everything will be fine. Only love and concern.
[70533] 
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/2012, Constitution of the Arava Convention 

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The entire work of the priests, Cohens, about whom so much is written in the Torah, is essentially dedicated to caring about others. It may seem that these are some kind of ritual services in the Temple, carried out by the chief priest (Cohen HaGadol) together with the Cohens and Levites, while all the people serve them by bringing sacrifices. However, they teach the people and lead the entire correction because the Creator is expecting it particularly from the deepest and most distant from Him levels of desire.

We think that priests are something separated from the people, somewhere high up there. But on the contrary, the “kingdom of priests” are those who go to the people and take care of them, like taking care of a baby until he grows up and teaches complete adhesion with the Creator. The responsibility of a Cohen is to bring the people to this state.

The Light acts on the upper levels of the desire, which are called Cohens, Levites, and Israel. Then, these levels of desire work on the rest of the levels. This pyramid does not change until the final correction. However, when the Light of Rav Paalim uMekabtziel comes at the end of correction, it turns this pyramid into a circle.

Until then, a special order of corrections is observed, always coming from Above down through all of the worlds, until the very end, to the broken souls, and back up from them again.

According to the depth of their desire (Aviut), the souls receive a different governance through the worlds of Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya; or they even completely disconnect from the private upper governance, which is called the level of this world. That is why those who are in the lower worlds must receive governance through higher levels, the Cohens, Levites, and Israel, who have to provide the nations of the world with care, teaching, and upbringing. (This is how the four levels of desire are called.)

The nations of the world suffer on their level from material, earthly, problems, but this suffering is irremediable since these problems do not have a solution. The form of suffering is material, but its essence is spiritual because one has no other means for healing besides the movement to unite with the Creator.

That is why we need to organize a general system of new education and care for everyone. Only thanks to this will we become worthy of adhesion.

We need to understand that the goal of creation was originally directed at all of humanity. Hence, while aspiring to unite with one another, we must always remember for whose sake we are doing this. It is in order to bring the method of correction to the entire world that, day by day, is discovering its ever more desperate state. The world sees that it needs the method of correction, but it is not there. That is why we need to reveal it for ourselves and then pass it on to the world.
[70523] 
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/2012, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”  

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