Question: What does it mean to “bring contentment to the creator”?  The Creator is the attribute of bestowal, so to whom am I bringing contentment?

Answer: This is how you imagine your world: in the form of images that you can do something to and get a response from. You don’t feel that the Creator is behind all these figures, and that they are all just figures that He keeps alive and through them presents Himself to you in billions of ways.

The attribute of bestowal is the one who bestows. After all, you are building your attitude towards someone not according to his externality, but rather according to his essence. It seems that he is made of many discernments, but where are they? In the flesh or in some figure? Try to imagine a figure of a person “in the air” without a body. Take all of the spirituality out of him and all of his desires, his passions, and his thoughts, which are actually outside the beastly body. Undress the body and turn to the essence of the person.

Then turn in the same way to the essence of the Creator. The difference between the two is that the essence of the Creator is whole and it includes everything. It manages everyone. This is the general force of nature, the general law of nature, its general mind that is all good and benevolent. The general mind is good and the executing force is benevolent.

We shouldn’t be confused by what we see. It is time to consider the essences. The body does not exist. A person’s essence is truly eternal and I want to connect with it. It may be depicted to me as some “ghost,” but it is actually infinite and limitless. All our essences are the different facets of Malchut of Ein Sof. When we connect, it is as if they all “spread” on it and eventually make it up and create the corrected vessel.

Don’t forget that you should look at the group with internal eyes.
[69767]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
Look Into The Root
Behind The Faces Hides The Creator
Every Face Conceals The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →

Question: How do I recognize the Light’s response to my request?

Answer: First of all, any change is for the good, even if it does not feel very pleasant. Secondly, there are constant changes, only we aren’t able to count them.

The level of our sensitivity is too crude to perceive the changes that happen in me. The counter is on, but only after it reaches 1,000 RPM do I begin to feel this jump into the 1,000-plus interval. And the counter keeps rolling; it reaches 2,000 RPM and I feel another change. I can’t recognize each small, subtle RPM.

But as I ascend the spiritual degrees, I increase my sensitivity, and begin to better distinguish the changes. This means that “the Creator is demanding of the righteous to the hair’s breath.” I distinguish this thin hair, but before I would not even see a big rock.
[69753]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, The Zohar

Related Material:
If You Only Listen
Soul Tuner
An Invisible Alarm Clock

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

When a person comes to Kabbalah he does not understand why he needs humanity. Kabbalah tells us that there are forces that operate above our world that depict this world in our perception. This is why we want to fly away somewhere into the unknown, to the Creator, His spiritual system.

Accordingly, man also perceives the study materials personally, on his account, without feeling the urge to unite with others. This is the initial, very limited perception with which we, being egoists, all begin our journey.

Only after several years, as the result of the influence of the surrounding Light, I understand that I really must unite with my friends and reveal the Light in their inner interconnection. But when you think about yourself, the Light has an opposite affect: It shows me how mistaken I am, and then I see that I need to unite with the group. I will find the upper World there, in the depth of it.

This is a very big revolution in consciousness. Man begins to understand that the spiritual world actually exists; it exists in the connection between people, a place with completely anti-egoistic coordinates.

Then a problem arises: How do you prove this to yourself, how do you bring yourself closer to having a proper attitude. This must become so important that everything else will appear extraneous. From now on I focus only on the group, on uniting with it. It is my only aim and nothing else because I depend on it. This is the second stage.

And then the third stage appears, an even more complicated one, when you figure out that you also need to do mass dissemination. “Since when? We are going towards the Creator, after all. At first I wanted to get there alone, then I understood that I need a group. But since when do I need to take care of everyone else? A billion Chinese, a billion Hindus, half a billion South Americans, half a billion Europeans, Africans, what do they have to do with this? Who cares for whom and why do I have to do it?”

Here we explain to the person that he, the group, and all of humanity must unite in order to become like the Creator. Another obstacle he disagrees with: “My friends and the world groups have one goal, but the others do not.”

And this also is true. After all it is written: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” I am “Israel.” The group is the “Torah,” the reforming Light. And together we go to the Creator.

On the other hand, the remaining 99% are below and they aspire towards their corporeal pleasures. So why do we need them?

In response to this, again and again, we need to explain that we are a transitional link and that we must become “a kingdom of priests”; in other words, we must educate all of mankind about mutual guarantee and integral unity. Then we will connect the masses to us, like AHP to Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), and we will unite all the people with the Creator into the ten Sefirot.

It is very difficult to explain this to friends in the group. In the group is our field of our action, the source of everything, and where we reveal everything. The circle manifest there: AHP, us, the Creator—all inside, everything ends in the group in a single vessel, woven from the unity of the points in our hearts. A part of it comes from below and a part comes from above.

Our groups do not understand and do not wish to switch to being the messengers of mutual guarantee to the masses. It is very difficult for a person to allow himself something so opposite, to see how different things connect into one. But gradually everything will work out.
[69764]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/12, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
The Spiritual World, As Is, Without Any Miracles
Working In Circles
Correction Isn’t For Us, But For The World

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education, Inner Work, Kabbalah Dissemination, Mutual Guarantee, Society, Unity, World - 1 Comment →

Question: The famous scientist, Stephen Hawking, together with a group of other scientists believe that our three dimensional world is “under water,” the fourth dimension is “above water,” and we must learn to “swim” together. They call it the “Theory of Everything.”

On the whole, they speak about eleven dimensions that can be described as eleven walls. The clash between these walls is what caused the big bang. Among the scientists who hold this perspective are those who took part in the particle accelerator project. What can we say about that?

Answer: I certainly don’t underestimate the results of scientific research. On the contrary, I follow and consider them seriously.

Where do all these theories come from? The point is that our egoistic desire constantly changes its form under the influence of the Light that Reforms. When it changes, it discovers different theories, concepts, and perceptions within it. We are not so interested in this, except for the chance to check if humanity is advancing toward the truth. Is it feeling its way toward it in the dark?

As of today, scientists are facing a wall, one wall, not eleven walls. If they wish to continue studying nature, they must change. The accelerator should be inside a person. We call it “hastening time,” “accelerating time,” and “shortening the way.” This accelerator is formed with the help of the group when the friends receive the power of the Light and when they can really use it.

Scientists don’t have the means, although they already have tried everything. The diameter of the ring of the accelerator is more than 26 km. Yet, even if it were 26 million km, what of it? They will find more particles and new data, and what then?

In order to understand nature, we need the second force that is in it, but scientists don’t have that force. They are constantly trying to come to conclusions and learn one part from another, which is impossible. I’ve heard of String Theory, the Theory of Everything, and similar things when I began studying science. These theories stem from the constant growth of our ego that constantly invents new things. It gradually approaches the truth, but at the same time, remains egoistic and doesn’t change internally, qualitatively.

Therefore, science in general and physics in particular have reached a dead end. There is no real progress anymore. There are a few areas that we haven’t cracked yet, such as genetics for example. However, there, too, it is more about technologies than about attaining the essence of different phenomena.

Humanity is facing a comprehensive crisis. Therefore, if we don’t reveal the second force, the force of the Light, and don’t learn how to work together, nothing will help us. After all, scientists perform experiments on a very low level. Suppose they cause a collision of elementary particles, but don’t study the other part of the general system that is the much larger part, the part that manages everything.

I also like to watch science programs on TV, but generally speaking, science has reached its end.
[68594]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/2012, “Preface to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
Building Our Home
Dead End Or A Gateway To A New Reality?
The Light In The Vessel: Not Only Fulfillment But Permeation

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Science - 2 Comments →

Question: What can we do to prepare for the Arava convention?

Answer: Try to imagine that this is your last chance. It isn’t about the corporeal life that many are ready to give up. Half of the world’s population would happily push a button that would enable them to die painlessly if they could. People are not afraid of dying, but of the process of dying.

Therefore, we have to oblige ourselves to think about the conditions we are given today. After our conventions, after the preparation and the connection, there is simply no way back. The entire world worries about its future and doesn’t know what to expect. It is helpless in the face of the developing crisis. If we don’t find the power to connect, we will not be able to help ourselves or the world. If we fail, we will not end corporeal life, but spiritual life.

The women must understand this. They should worry about us and put pressure on us. The men, too, must understand this. We must rise above everything that separates us, above all the arguments and the misunderstandings, above the quarrels and the conflicts. In fact, they can stay the same—this will enable us to rise above them even more. A person grows only in resisting the growing egoism. So, as far as we are concerned, let the ego grow even more. All we need is endurance, and then we will succeed time after time.

I am optimistic. We have power in Israel and throughout the world. Even if several groups experience hardships, eventually everything will work out. This is our way. It is the same as with the childhood diseases that we cannot escape. What is more, they strengthen us and make us immune for life.
[68599]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/2012, “Preface to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
The Desire That Will Turn The Desert Green
When Will It Be Meaningful To Go To The Desert?
Women’s Support

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Women - 1 Comment →

The Creator treats the created being with absolute goodness and full bestowal, but if the created being felt this attitude, he would have no chance to do anything by himself; he would have nothing to add to that. This would beat him and calm him down.

Therefore, there is the system of concealment that hides the good and benevolent Light and weakens it so that a person can have free will. Then the absolute love, the good attitude, doesn’t paralyze the created being, but rather gives him a chance to add his attitude and his work.

If the Light were revealed in its full intensity carrying the goodness and the delight, a person wouldn’t have a single desire left, and he wouldn’t be able to move or to change in any way. So he wouldn’t feel himself and his existence at all.

This is why we act within the concealment; this is the Creator’s first concern in His attitude towards the created being: to hide Himself in order to give the created being the entire world of Infinity. It’s thanks to the fact that the Light is concealed that a person can acquire the world of Infinity and become the master in it, the manager, its filler and its creator. Thus, a person attains the same level of wholeness, which he calls the “good and the benevolent” towards the Creator.

All this is possible because of the concealment of the absolute love that comes to the created being from the Creator. To the extent that a person can bear this absolute love, when he prepares himself in advance to not be paralyzed by the revelation of the love, to this extent this love is revealed.

All this is only the revelation of the love:  Although there are many spiritual levels and very different states, the principle here is only the revelation of the darkness and the Light, and all this is the revelation of absolute love, from which the creation begins and ends. All the other states exist only for its revelation.

On every step of the ladder, a person should reveal this absolute love to a certain extent, according to his vessels (desires), because there is no measure of the world of Infinity or of any other world, level, or state. Everything is measured only according to the desires of the created being.

If a person attains even the smallest filling, if this filling is whole, it seems like the world of Infinity to him because it becomes his world. When he rises to the next level, he sees that the previous state was small, and again the present state seems like a whole world to him. When he comes to its end, it seems that he is in the world of Infinity and that there is nothing to add because he has attained absolute love on that level. But he should see in what way this love isn’t whole yet.

Here there is the concept of the three lines, and the division to the head, the inside, and the end (Rosh–Toch–Sof) of the spiritual Partzuf because of which not all the desires are incorporated in the connection between the Creator and the created being, and there are still real desires to receive left (AHP de Yerida), “the stony heart (Lev Ha Even).” So clearly, absolute love has not yet been attained. Still, part of it is felt at the end of every level.

Essentially, the created being should constantly work according to “keep away from evil and do good.” To do good means to try to do the hardest work: to see where one can add more love. This is the hardest thing because it’s where you have to work directly with the desires.

Every level has its problems, its world, and its results. But we should always remember that all the states we go through in our corporeal and spiritual life stem from the Creator’s absolute love and the need to fully reveal it to us.
[69646]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2012, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Love That Opens The Heart
An Echo Of Love
How Can You Resist Love?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: Before the upcoming Arava convention, should the group outline the desire, the feeling of deficiency, that is closer to the higher degree?

Answer: We don’t need the feeling of deficiency. We have to yearn for perfection, and from that we will arrive at the right deficiency. We are going with songs and joy; we are drawn to connection and to mutual guarantee, and to everything that is concealed in this higher degree.

No one intends to sit and cry, having covered his head with ashes.
[69668] 
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” 

Related Material:
The Lesson Is A Chance To Connect With Eternity
Attack With A Song
Happiness Multiplied

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Writings of Rabash “Concerning Above Reason,″ (Starting with: “Baal HaSulam said that when a person is rewarded”)
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Creates Worlds and Destroys Them,” Item 214, Lesson 63
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, “Histaklut Pnimit,” (Starting with: “We have yet to explain”), Item 5, Lesson 24
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 97, Lesson 43
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Next Saturday, more than 250 people from our groups throughout Israel are going to assemble in Rehovot. What should our attitude be in order to acquire the right deficiency?

Answer: First, you should rest before the gathering. I recommend that you go to sleep early, without any unnecessary talking, at 8:00 p.m. at the latest, or even earlier, so that you will be full of energy and lively the next day.

When you get up, you should spend at least 45 minutes preparing yourself and the classroom. You shouldn’t speak much with one another. It is better to sit and read inspiring passages, and perhaps sing a little.

We must be in a calm atmosphere, in spiritual upliftment, in a delicate feeling. This is the preparation for the lesson. Then we will connect, all the groups around the world.

Question: Should we evoke the joy toward the Arava convention at the same time?

Answer: A morning lesson is a serious matter. We should be happy internally because we are coming in contact with something that is eternal and unique, where we go through serious states. The joy during the lesson is a general feeling that doesn’t burst forth.

Our general preparation, the general thought during the lesson, is aimed at mutual incorporation. However, everyone does his own work, personally, when he corrects himself in order to incorporate with the others.

Then we will take songs and preparation passages with us to the Arava so that, with them, we will go happily to connect among us. There, the atmosphere will be a bit different: self-annulment reinforced with general activity.
[69665]
From 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
Joy In The Desert
The Difficulty Of Conveying Through Words
Preparation For The Encounter With The Light

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” Item 195: It is so because upper AVI—Yod de HaVaYaH, GAR de Bina—are fear. YESHSUT—Hey de HaVaYaH, ZAT de Bina—are love. Therefore, when the Mochin de ZON come only from YESHSUT, Hey de HaVaYaH, it is considered that love preceded fear. And when they also come from upper AVI, Yod de HaVaYaH, it is considered that the fear preceded love, since Yod is fear and Hey is love. Thus, fear preceded love.

Fear preceded love. This is said about the created beings because this is the order in which they should correct themselves in relation to the Creator. While only love comes from the Creator, the created beings need fear, too, in order to evoke them to reach love.

This can be explained differently. The relationship between a father and a son should not be based on absolute love between them. This is so that they will always be careful that one wouldn’t stop loving the other.

After all, if one person loves the light without limit, he evokes hate by that. This is because the other person doesn’t feel the limits, and without them, he doesn’t feel love. It is very hard for him to get along with someone who has no limits.

We are built in such a way that we have to feel everything within a certain framework. Then, we can feel. However, without a framework, we lose the feeling. So, on one hand, I feel that the other loves me, but, on the other hand, I have nothing to hold onto when this love is limitless.

Therefore, I demand that he lets me feel his love. I begin to hate him because by his limitless love, he deprives me of the vessel in which I can feel this love. Without a vessel, I don’t feel it.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam says that, if parents love their children with absolute love, the children begin to hate them or at least to disrespect them. So, when we speak about education, we speak about limits, punishments, and pressures that parents have to put on their children so as not to deprive them of their vessels, the vessel of perception.

This is related to the upper system of Aba and Ima (fear) and Ishsut (Love) that must connect in influencing the lower. In other words, the upper part and the lower part of Bina (thought) must connect in order to influence the lower.

This means that fear and love must be connected. When these two systems connect, they influence the lower correctly. This will build the vessel and then fill it.

Thus, the deficiency that comes from the upper and demands correction will receive the light. This is so that it builds the lower in a way that will enable them to feel fear and then love, not in the opposite order, not love first, because this cannot be.

So, first of all, we must create our collective vessel and worry about the connection among us. Then, if the connection is fulfilled, love will flow in it.
[69188]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson2/8/12, The Zohar

Related Material:
The Long Path To Fear
Fear Begets A Plea, Love Begets Gratitude
An Echo Of Love

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Love, Zohar - No Comments →