Question: How can I check myself in order to be sure that I am moving in accordance with the instructions of the original sources, and not submitting to my own egoism?

Answer: For this purpose, there is the month of Elul, the last month of the year. The world was created five days before the creation of man, and the day on which man was created is called the first day of the new year. Those previous five days represent the five levels before the level of human, the five phases. And you need to check your world, meaning your environment.

After all, you live and perceive yourself relative to your environment, you check yourself in relation to it. You live together, you and your environment. So, before you are are “born” as human, check the environment that will be surrounding you. Accordingly, you will be able to see what kind of person you will be.

What environment do you choose? In other words, what do you want from your life, the entire world, the group, and the books, and what do you hear from your teacher? Check how you relate to all of this and what you want to achieve.

This is not easy. A person is faced with a very difficult calculation here. The opinion of the outer society exerts a great influence on us, forcing us to keep asking: “Where am I, and where is everyone else? There are millions, billions of them, while I am only one person.” It is not easy to remain on the path if this is a personal path, and not a commonly accepted path among the masses.

You need to keep clear of confusion here. According to which criteria do you check this path? It is not evaluated according to the standards of regular people. And you don’t need to believe anyone, everything can be checked and analyzed. So perform this analysis and build your own relationship toward the environment, the teacher, the books, and the Creator. This is what is called the “repentance” of the month of Elul.

These are very delicate clarifications, and they become ever more delicate over time. It is as if they are hung up in emptiness, not supported by solid ground, but by faith above reason. This is because having checked everything in your ego, you need to separate completely from it and build your spiritual relationship above it.

Without egoism, without checking inside of it, you cannot check yourself. That is why you have to be grateful for all of the egoistic thoughts and desires such as jealousy, hate, lust, ambition, and arrogance relative to the world, enemies and friends, criticism of friends, the teacher, and the Creator. Everything can be checked, and based on this foundation, your new level can be built, which is called a new beginning.

After you check your entire world and your current condition, you will begin to see, above all of this, the image of the goal toward which you are aiming. After you have admitted to all of the possible transgressions of your egoism (the words of repentance from the prayer of Rosh Hashanah) and checked and understood your true essence, then you can imagine what its opposite means. Otherwise, there is no way.

That is why the Creator created the evil inclination and in addition, the Torah, the means for its correction because the Light that Reforms is contained in it. However, if you do not have the evil inclination, if you have not discovered and seen your egoism, you do not need any correction. If you do not intend to be corrected, the Torah is not for you.

First of all, you need to feel that there is nothing worse than you, that you want to swallow everyone else, prevail above them, you are jealous of everyone, and hate everyone. Do you see yourself as the worst person in the world? Can you justify your bad relationship to someone after you have thoroughly checked it?

If you see that every sinner is truly revealed inside of you, and you have no choice remaining, then you arrive at the repentance prayer of Rosh Hashanah. You exalt the quality of bestowal, love of the other, meaning the Creator, and you want it to start ruling inside of you.

“I created the evil inclination” means the repentance of the month of Elul, the five days before the beginning of the new year, the time period that it took to create man. During these days, the world of man is being created, his terrible world. He is the one who sees it as terrible, instead of seeing the world full of Light and goodness where only the Creator rules, only love and bestowal.

However, thanks to this, one arrives at the beginning of the new year, the new level. He has the Torah, the means for correction, the Light that Reforms. Now, he knows how to use the force contained in nature, how to extract it for the sake of his correction, and with the help of this upper force, to return to the good. For me, the upper force is the higher quality of bestowal, as compared to my egoistic forces.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Shamati #42 “What Is the Acronym Elul [1] in the Work,” To: “This is the meaning of ‘righteous at once to life'”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Pekudei (Accounts)” “These Are the Accounts of the Tabernacle,” Item 48, Lesson 3
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 6, Chapter 15, Question 137, Lesson 6
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 139, Lesson 60
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World,” “The Four Attributes: Mercy, Truth, Justice and Peace in the Individual and the Collective”
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Question: What are spiritual efforts?

Answer: 30 years ago I wrote in my very first book that our world rests upon a force field that controls it. The difference between our world and the spiritual world is: to whom do the kingdoms (Malchut) submit? In this world Malchut acts for the sake of egoism, while in the spiritual world it acts for the sake of bestowal.

We have to draw the connections we feel from this world to love for the neighbor, to common mutual bestowal, meaning to a state in which the upper world becomes revealed. And that can only be done in the group and under the proper guidance.

As we come closer to spirituality, we gradually begin to reveal this net of connections and to feel that our entire world is superimposed on this net of forces. A person imagines that he is constantly in this world, which is entirely permeated by a net of forces that controls him. This net is called the upper governance. And a person’s effort lies in how much he desires to become included in this net and awaken in it as an independently acting participant.

Only the forces of bestowal operate there: ZON and Aba ve Ima. Some ascend while others descend. There are also permanent states, as well as special days called the beginning of the month, the beginning of the new year, holidays, and weekdays. These are all parameters of changes occurring in this system.

If we wish to reveal this net through our world, through the connection between us, so it would openly be revealed above us and between us and we would see that we are inside of it and activate it with our desires, that means we make efforts.

At first a person reveals this net individually, as if seeing it in front of him. It’s similar to how in our world, every person thinks that he is the main protagonist while others are just secondary characters that depend on him. He does not think they have a big influence on him, either good or bad.

But the more included I become in this system, the more I feel the world and the more clearly I see how it influences me in either the good direction or the bad, and how I can influence it: where my influence is possible and where it is not. Just like our material capabilities of changing the system are limited, so I am limited in spirituality. I can influence others only by causing them to advance, by bringing more vital force and health to this entire system.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/1/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Today we are entering a system that shows that we must act on bestowal, on the connection between us, on the connection with the group, and on some new transformations. We are in crisis: Not us personally, those who study Kabbalah, but the world feels this way. Where does it come from? What is a crisis in general? It is the feeling of world egoism relative to the system that begins to be manifested in us, like a picture on photographic paper in the developing tray. Gradually, like from the fog, a new picture appears, and this picture does not match us.

Suddenly, the properties of the Light, bestowal, and the connection between us, emerge in us, while the egoistic, individual properties (rejection, the use of each other) exist in humanity. The juxtaposition of these two systems and their impact on each other form an immense, multifaceted, new construction: on one side, the egoistic system, and on the other side, the altruistic one.

We never had this before. We have always had only an egoistic system, and we worked within it. Desires emerged in us, and we realized them. We thought that it was all us: We want to evolve, we want to act, we want to work, and we want to do everything.

Why? It’s because we identified the egoism that arose in us, our desires, with ourselves. We had no questions about their origin because we felt them as ours: I want this now, and then that and that. I didn’t have a question as to why I suddenly want. I want. I don’t feel as if someone gives me these questions, “inserts” them into me, and I start to work. No! I totally merge with these desires; I feel as one integral whole with them. These are my desires that arise in me: I want.

How does this suddenly happen? I am an average animal with natural, instinctive, petty desires, necessary for my existence. And all of a sudden, we have new egoistic desires that are related to the development of technology, society, family, education, upbringing, culture, science, banking, financial and economic connections between us, trade and exchange, discoveries of new lands, development, and communication. From where did this develop in humans as compared with the animal world that does not evolve in this way?

The fact is that our egoism develops all the time and urges us to realize our new desires more and more. I don’t feel that the desires that emerge in me from somewhere come from outside. I feel that they arise from within me, and that is why I rush to realize these so-called “my” desires.

In reality, they are not my desires. I just don’t feel that they are not mine. And thus, I run forward and act. I don’t feel that I am like a small, wind-up toy bunny, which is wound with a key and it jumps. I don’t feel this until the right time, until our time now.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 9/25/2011

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When we study The Study of the Ten Sefirot or “Pticha” (“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”), we should first learn the diagrams mechanically. Then, when you have the whole system before your eyes, you can ask: “Why is it so?”

First, we have to accept everything that is written there “as is,” meaning as reality, and then you will start distinguishing the reason why everything is arranged this way. We cannot swallow the whole wisdom at once because our vessels grow, become clearer, and connect in a certain order.

Hence, there is no point in building new theories; rather, we have to learn everything from nature. In nature, we are moving from externality to internality. So, first we perceive the picture (the sketch), and then we penetrate further in, deeper and deeper, until we come to the essence.

Otherwise, we corrupt the entire approach for the revelation of reality. Ninety nine percent of the people who quit studying are those who fail to arrange for themselves the right approach to revelation. We all are here to reveal the upper world. However, he who does not understand that “there is none else besides Him,” that all there is comes from the Creator, that we need to justify Him, that we need to see all negative things as “help against me” and arrange them in such way that specifically thanks to these obstacles we would rise and clarify more exalted, inner, and subtle concepts, such a person will not succeed.

If a person fails to arrange those things one after the other so as to reach the right perception, it turns out that “a thousand enter a room, but only one exits towards the Light.” We have to follow the example of children and learn from Nature. A child doesn’t know much; he doesn’t know what his father does, but he wants to do the same. He copies adults’ actions without getting their internal sense and plays with a plastic hammer without thinking too much. This is what we need: Without too much deliberation, we need to draw a sketch of Keter, Aba ve Ima, Arich Anpin.… For now, it’s sufficient for me.

Then I start penetrating deeper and deeper. This is the only way to advance; it is a science, and it is supposed to be learned this way. It is not The Zohar that we study as a “miraculous remedy” (Segula). The Study of the Ten Sefirot and “Pticha” are all about diagrams and drawings; otherwise, you’ll be detached and will simply wait for the Light that Reforms. But it won’t happen this way. We still need to get inspired from this wisdom since we want to find within ourselves all the elements that are being described in the books in the language of Kabbalah.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/2011, “Pticha”

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Our desire to receive pleasure is in a constant process of development. From the moment this desire was created by the Light “from absence,” this “absence” began developing under the Light’s influence, and it continues to do so—from the beginning of creation to its end.

There are stages in this development where the desire to receive isn’t yet considered the creature and is still building its still, vegetative, and animate levels: the system of spiritual nature. Later, within this spiritual nature the soul is created, called Adam, “man,” the speaking level. This soul also develops on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, in the worlds of BYA (Assiya, the still level, Yetzira, the vegetative level, and Beria, the animate level).

However, man himself has to build the human level within. If man doesn’t build himself as a human, he exists like an animal and uses all that surrounds him on the still, vegetative, and animate levels (all the worlds of BYA) egoistically, by taking the most he can get out of it. That’s how we develop, by sucking out from the surrounding nature all sorts of fulfillment that help us grow in our egoism.

However, when we reach the level where we’ve drained almost everything from nature, we begin to feel that our egoistic desire is opposite to the level of “human,” the world of Atzilut. Our lives become bitter, and we don’t know who to blame. After all, the world of Atzilut is concealed from us, and we exist below the Parsa (the border that separates Atzilut from the worlds of BYA).

This is why a person doesn’t understand why he’s so unhappy. It seems that he has his whole life laid out before him to enjoy. However, we don’t receive the additional Light, which can’t cross the Parsa from the world of Atzilut and descend to us through the worlds of BYA, and we—the human part within us—feel bad. This human within us is opposite to the real human level, to Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut. This is how we begin to aspire to reveal the source of our life, as well as its meaning and purpose.

Our entire work is to write “black on white.” The world of Atzilut is called “white.” And “black” is our lowest level and the color of the world of Assiya. Red is the color of the world of Beria, green is Yetzira, and black is Assiya. Everything is written on white background, on the “upper whiteness” (Loven Elyon) of the world of Atzilut.

A person that writes is one who examines and measures himself in relation to the world of Atzilut. He wishes to become like the human of the world of Atzilut, but upon examining himself sees the extent to which he doesn’t correspond to this image. This is how he advances.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: The world already sees the collapse waiting for it in the near future. However, except for us, no one is doing anything, and nothing good is happening.

Answer: If we had worked correctly, the world would have woken up from the dream. They won’t awaken, if we won’t wake them up. It is only us who are guilty of what’s happening. People are unable to come to their senses themselves; they awaken only if you shake them up.

This concerns everyone without an exception, including the world leaders and the experts. Some of them already have a spark of understanding. They see the real situation at least a little bit, but still do not change their way of thinking, still don’t grasp that they are the ones who must change, and not the world. We used to change the world egoistically, while now it is man who needs to change.There are scientists who are already writing about this, but their words are still very external, as they themselves don’t understand what stands behind them.

Thus our work is needed until these scientists decide to come and sit together with us at a lesson.

Only we can “shake-up” the substance of humanity. That’s why I make no claims to anyone. The creation of mass media that influences the environment correctly is also up to us. Everything is placed upon our shoulders and not somebody’s else.

Hence, looking at the world, I only learn how to approach this “baby” and bring a spoonful of nourishment to his mouth. Here everything depends on us.

Question: So what is it that we are not doing?

Answer: We do not disseminate. How do you influence the world? How do you convey to it what you receive during the lesson? We are not doing enough. After all, we are entrusted with the work of correction: to organize ourselves, to organize the connection network between us, and to stretch it over all our worldwide groups. We have a hundred groups, and millions of people listening to us without establishing contact with us.

But for some reason we lack the strength and wisdom in order to build the structure correctly. We still cannot present the message so that it will attract people and introduce the new program into them. They are not guilty of anything. In fact, they are ready to absorb more than we give them.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/23/2011, “One Commandment”

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We need to clarify why the Creator has created everything exactly the way He has. Everything was in His hands and He could have done it differently, couldn’t He? He is not an inhabitant of our world who needs to accept everything as given.

Yet why did He establish a reverse order of desires and Lights, due to which the desires that attract the Light and reveal it through great effort receive only a tiny illumination, while the biggest Light, which they do not know or feel, becomes revealed at a completely different place? Why does it need to be this way?

The biggest benefit from concealing the enormous work that we carry out is that it does not confuse us. It’s terrific that the great Light that we summon is concealed from us.

I perform a small action within myself, revealing my connection with everyone else and pushing them toward being connected, and thereby awaken a huge Light in the upper worlds. However, I do not reveal it. And this is good because if it were to be revealed, I would close myself off. I would become so proud that my spiritual path would be over. That is why I must be grateful that the Light is concealed, protecting my desire.

On the other hand, I must develop the desire for bestowal. Although I see that I do not receive any benefit from my work, I nevertheless want to continue. There is no reward and so be it, but I connect to the group, to the environment, and I do not demand anything for myself besides the ability to give.

Such an opportunity always exists in front of me. If I really want it, all paths are open to me. Don’t say that the skies are closed in front of you; everything is open! There is no restriction on bestowal, and you have nothing to cry about. If you do, it means that you are crying about egoistic receiving. You can do anything you want, but you won’t be able to grab anything for yourself.

At the time of bestowal, the desires and the Lights filling them are hidden from us. This serves us well in every sense, and we need to be grateful for it. First of all, it allows us to not block ourselves due to the huge Light, and secondly, it allows us to develop the quality of bestowal in a place of complete darkness.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/2011, TES

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In the past, Kabbalists who wished to reveal the spiritual world had to start in our world and work through it, through various sciences, with enormous efforts and suffering, meaning they had to pull themselves directly from matter itself to the revelation of the spiritual world and reveal the correct system of connections between people.

But then the compositions of the Ari were revealed, in which he explains about the inner connections that unite us through various special systems of relationships: ZON, YESHSUT, Aba ve Ima, Arich Anpin, and so on. By that he explains to us what forms of connection we can be in, how their different connections influence us, and how we can influence them ourselves and awaken these forms of connection. What happens there is the same thing as in our world, but in the quality of bestowal.

Just like in our world where we are able to activate certain types of connections so they would in turn begin influencing us, the same net of relationships connects us in the spiritual world as well, except that it is more internal. Thus, we go from materialistic psychology to the spiritual one, and then we reveal the true connection between the souls, the people living now and the people who lived before. It does not matter whether a person exists in this world right now or not. What’s important is to tune into this net. Then it’s as if our world evaporates, loses its importance because it is just an external imprint through which we have to enter inside.

The Ari described all of this, and the Baal Shem Tov taught how to work with all of the soul’s loyalty (Mesirut Nefesh), saying, “The Creator is your shadow.” And now, after all of this, by working in the group (which was restored by Baal Shem Tov anew, after Rashbi) we can draw the Light that reforms from this net. We do not simply attain it with our desires and forces, but attract an illumination called the Light that reforms, the Light of the Torah, the Surrounding Light, to ourselves from above, from this net.

After all, if we study the structure of this system and aspire to it all together, wishing to organize the same forms of connection among us, then it doesn’t even matter whether we understand it or not—our effort will awaken the influence of this force upon us.

It’s just like in our world: If we want to attain any system, then we become part of it, study it in various forms, and gradually begin to feel it. Suddenly, a picture of this system comes together inside of us and we understand what this is and how it is possible to connect and work with it. The same thing happens in the spiritual world: Only a person’s intention changes. When he becomes included in the upper system, he does it for the sake of bestowing himself to this system. The more he becomes included in it, the further he advances toward revealing it.

This requires great work with the teacher, the friends, the whole world, and the studies. All of this connects together.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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I always have to look for ways to go against my ego. If I address the group properly, I feel rejection. It is not coming from the group itself, it’s inside me. I feel that I don’t want to connect with them or participate in the gatherings of friends; I don’t want to embrace them or see them at all. I do it because everyone else is doing it, and I feel uncomfortable.

In reality, I’m fed up with this. I want to quit studying and leave the group. I see that this doesn’t yield any result. But it doesn’t yield any result for my ego, that’s true! When the truth starts unfolding, I see that I will not get any profit for my ego.

And after this revelation many people run away because they can’t perceive this correctly or understand that they are weighing this on the egoistic scale. This is the place in which they have to make up for this lack with faith above reason, connect with the environment no matter what, and open themselves up to it, demanding a spiritual awakening.

This is the exact point at which our spiritual work begins, and those destined to run away do it here. Those who stay are those who either have a special role in the general system, or those who can truly exert themselves. A person doesn’t know what’s happening to him yet, but will later reach a correct spiritual calculation.

That’s why it is said that in the place where sinners will stumble, fall, and disappear from the horizon, the righteous will rise and go on.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/2011, Shamati #240

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