Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Nature has prepared a wonderful foundation in the mother’s womb so that no stranger may harm the new life. It tends to its every need like a trained nanny who will not forget it even for a moment…. Like a loving mother, it brings it to such loving, loyal people it can trust, called “Mother” and “Father,” to assist it through its days of weakness until it grows and is able to sustain itself….

But those who examine that reality from the perspective of provision and persistence of existence can clearly see great disorder and confusion, as though there were no leader and no guidance. Everyone does that which is right in his own eyes, building himself on the ruin of others….

Bear in mind that this oppositeness, set before the eyes of every sensible, educated person, has preoccupied humanity even in ancient days. And there are many theories to explain these two apparent opposites in Providence, which occupy the same world.

On one hand, we see that nature is wise and assiduous toward every creature. It develops every element successively and carefully. Look at the structure of organisms, their ability to grow, to give birth to offspring, and to interact. Everything is built in an integral form, every person has his own place and is in balance with others. If we could see the balanced world, undisturbed by human despotism, we would reveal a wonderful system, one that is not static, but perfectly balanced for development.

However, we do not see the causes of this development and do not understand why everything has to be precisely this way. Therefore, we do not understand the phases of the path. Besides, we look at it through the prism of our egoism and evaluate it according to our criteria. Therefore, we see the world upside down, as if flipping it over in our perception.

Nevertheless, from scientific research it is clear to us that in order to develop the species, nature has created, produced, and formed all of the necessary systems that take care of the ideal creativity.

But on the other hand, a problem arises with the subsequent existence. Once any part of nature grows up and “stands up on its own feet,” it starts fighting for survival and integrating into the environment without parental help. This happens to all living creatures, but among people it takes on the most difficult forms because a person has to prepare for life in a society that is complex and artificial, built upon a multitude of mechanisms. Envy and lust for power ignite within him, pushing him to oppose others. Others seem successful, while he seems to be lagging behind them because of his nature or due to the circumstances.

Nature, which took such great care of us while we were growing, now places us in conditions that require efforts to survive. So does the Creator exist or not? If everything was all right, then we would say, “Thank God.” But if everything is not all right, then what you can say?

This is the problem that Baal HaSulam describes before he talks about the attempts to solve it.
[49845]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/31/11

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We have to fight indifference because this is the worst possible state. Indifference is called death.

We very much respect the two forms that are opposite to it: love and hate. Pharaoh, Haman, and all the other sinners described in the Torah are very important characters. Without them, we would not be able to rise to holiness. We receive all of our vessels, desires, from them. All of the righteous men stand opposite them because the Creator made one against the other.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter whether a person supports something or protests against it. The most important thing is that he cares about it very much, as opposed to being indifferent to it, feeling that it is “neither here nor there.”

It is possible to awaken a spark in anyone. This spark is concealed in every person because he originates from the broken vessel. Therefore, he definitely has a spiritual spark and it can be awakened. The only question is: How deeply is it concealed?

However, when this spark is awakened, he might react negatively: A person does not want to hear about it and he curses himself, the Creator, Kabbalah, and the whole path to bestowal. He does not agree to it and hates all of it. But Baal HaSulam says that this does not matter. It’s the same as if he agrees to it, the same as if he wants it because he is revealing his desire in this form. Even if the desire is corrupted, he already has it.
[49828]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/31/11, Shamati

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Question: We often say that we have to play in a correct relationship in the group. What is this game?

Answer: The game stimulates our advancement. We attribute games to children because they grow and undergo developmental stages. And therefore those who no longer play, no longer develop.

Every time I define myself in a current state, examine it, and draw a certain picture for myself, this image of the future which I would like to be in, this transition from one state to another, is called a game. I’m playing it to be in this next image, to acquire this form.

In a game, we usually depict how we can benefit, win, and achieve something. There is an external game of reaching some external goals, and there is an internal game, when I make changes inside myself. But each is a game.

Everything that develops always has a desired state and reality, the idea of a ​​future goal, and the aspiration for it. It happens at the vegetative and animate levels, not just with man. For a plant the game is in its cell, for an animal it is with itself or with other animals, and this also occurs at the level of human physiology.

Man is regarded as “Adam” and wants to become similar to the Creator by playing precisely this game: how to become like Him. To do this, he has to think about this form all the time: What it means to be similar to the upper one, to be His equal, to adhere to him, to resemble Him in properties—and to play this game in the group.

This means that together we have to imagine a state where in the connection between us, we portray the image of the Creator in our mutual vessel. And to achieve this, there has to be total equality and partnership. The word “friend” (Haver) derives from the word “connection” (Hibur), and the connection is only possible between equals, under the condition of mutual giving and love, a mutual guarantee.

We are nothing like that at all, but if the friends and I try to play as if we are in such a relationship, in our future form, then we are constantly striving for a connection and shared desire to take the form of mutual bestowal. And at the instant when we receive this form of bestowal, we will feel the Light in it, due to the fact that we have finally completed our connection! And then the light will turn on! This is the revelation of the Creator.

And so, we light it more and more every time, above all obstacles. After all, there is no game without obstacles.
[49206]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, Shamati #39

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Shamati #26 “One’s Future Depends and Is Tied to Gratitude for the Past”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation) 2,” “The Stars,” Item 841, Lesson 37
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 2, Item 3, Lesson 4
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 46, Lesson 29
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “The Peace,” Lesson 3
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All of humanity is now facing a choice. We have advanced in our egoism until it closed us off inside one integral system where we are totally interdependent. Therefore, today’s world has become global, meaning the connection between us has become universal and mutual, and we cannot do anything to circumvent it.

That is why we are losing the ability to control this kind of world. After all, it is becoming similar to the upper system, and these two systems exist parallel to one another. One is a system of rigid, mutual connections, like Malchut of the World of Atzilut or the World of Infinity, which is already in the corrected future state. And the second system is our present state where we, egoists, are confronting one another.

If we were just individual egoists, then each of us would experience small misfortunes and problems, but we would know how to fix them. However, today, when our development has brought us to a state where this entire system is being rigidly blocked and closed, we do not know what to do.

Each of us is no longer able to cope with the problems of his life. The crisis is breaking out everywhere: from our private lives in the family, at work, and with ourselves, to the global crisis of society, culture, education, and even ecology, meaning in the nature around us.

The crisis is being revealed everywhere—inside of man and outside of him. And he does not know how to cope with it because he is in a closed, integral system. And now we have no choice left: Under the pressure of suffering, we will have to find a connection between us that will be similar to the upper system so these two worlds, the upper world and this world, would match one another, until they unite completely, into one whole.

Now we are setting our own boundary toward which we want to advance in the direction of this correspondence. But to the extent we do not wish to advance, this “unwillingness” will boomerang back to us in the form of suffering. For example, according to the program of creation, to the timer that shows how the flywheel of development has unraveled, I already have to be on a certain level, for example, I had to have come “10 centimeters” closer to spirituality by now.

And the whole world has to advance in this way even though there are different people in it. Some understand things better, and others—worse, and others yet do not feel anything at all. After all, just as all of nature consists of different levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human, the same division exists inside of man as well.

But the whole world, its whole mass, must now take a step forward. And if we do not do that, then this delta, the lack of our progress, will be felt by us in a negative form, as suffering. But the suffering will still push us to advance.

That means you won’t be able to run away from this work. The engine continues to run, and if you still don’t want to work, then instead of a “-1” you will receive a “-2” and then a “-3,” and so on, until you reach such enormous suffering that you will no longer be able to refuse to budge.

Stubbornness always has a limit. In reality we are very sensitive to pleasure and pain because our matter is the will to enjoy. Therefore, there is no doubt that eventually, the world will advance.
[49751]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/11, Shamati

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Man was created with the desire to enjoy which aspires to be fulfilled, feels deficient if it is not, and sees the whole meaning of its existence in it. Besides this, man has no sensation. All our sensations come solely from pleasures that we see before us—that is from what our world is built. Reality is comprised of the pictures of pleasures that our imagination paints for us.

We see around us the still, vegetative, animate world, and other people because our desire is composed of four levels at which we experience images of all possible pleasures. But if we do not want to live among these illusions and wish to see the real world, we must view it not from the desire to enjoy but from the desire to bestow. In fact, it is there that we find our root and our connection with it, meaning the Thought of ​​Creation, its program and purpose. But egoistic desire separates us from it all, from the true knowledge, sensation, and purpose.

We have a unique opportunity to get closer to the true picture, to put a veil on the picture painted for us by our egoism. And it isn’t that we should stop seeing it all together, but rather stop giving it as much importance as we do today. Instead, we must search for the picture of roots that lie behind it, which emerges in the very same desires if they change direction from receiving to bestowal.

Desire is one, but all of its parts (the still, vegetative, animate, and human) must be transformed into bestowal. And then we will see the roots of that very picture which is seen in our desire to receive pleasure for ourselves.

This is done by “the shadow of holiness.” After all, when a person strives for this kind of shadow, he tries to make it himself. But soon he finds that he is incapable of it. He finds that his flight from the desire to enjoy and trying to put a “shadow” on it, meaning make the screen, restriction, and work above it, is impossible without outside help. It requires a miracle!

A miracle is something out of the person’s hands and not available to him directly as an obvious means. And gradually he comes to the conclusion that the very root, the upper force he wants to disclose, should help him and deliver the concealment.

But since a person asks for it on his own volition, it is counted as if he created this shadow. And so he conceals his desire to enjoy more and more, which is regarded as, “do not do to someone what is hateful to you,” and he acquires the property of Bina, bestowal in order to bestow (Hafetz Hesed).

And when he finishes the job and rises above all of his egoistic desires to Mount Sinai, he starts to work, even receiving in order to bestow, in “loving his neighbor as himself.” Gradually, all desire turns into bestowal, and so on until the end of correction.

All of this is accomplished by way of concealment or so-called “modesty.” It is the work when a person is looking how to hide from his desire to enjoy, to not use it directly, selfishly, and certainly not to use it instinctively without thinking, but only after rigorous analysis and testing. This is the very first stage of our work.

If the human in us learns to hide from the desire to enjoy within us, he separates himself from this desire and rises above the screen. And at that moment, he is connected with the root and makes calculations above reason. Thus he keeps walking the path and advances.
[49209]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, Shamati #39

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Question: How can we explain the integrality of a new world to the masses so that they become fully convinced of it?

Answer: To experience it, the world will have to go through a lot of troubles. It is not difficult to agree intellectually with total interconnectedness. “Indeed, I’ve read and heard something about this. There is an earthquake in Japan, and we have problems with spare parts. There is a war in Libya, and Denmark is closing the border. I agree: The world is integral.”

However, this integrality must be felt to the marrow of the bones so that there is not a single thought, a single desire to consider ourselves separate from everyone else, from all of humanity. It should sit in us relentlessly, and we should tremble at the thought of it, not just perceive it by the mind.

I have to feel it physically, “in the guts.” Let hunger torture me, I cannot take a bite into my mouth if I am not sure that the same bite is available to everyone. That is what the integral world is: Eating what others do not have is like swallowing poison.

It is difficult to imagine something like that. We are not living it, we simply heard of some sort of connections. It is still a long way from here to an individual meal turned poison and to the blessing from everyone being provided with everything. Imagine the suffering we have to experience on this path.

Question: But we want to prevent sufferings. This means that we have to provide a person with tangible evidence that he should be imbued with this integrality; otherwise, it will be painful. We have to touch his feelings to convey this message.

Answer: Correct, but on the other hand, if we do not resort to the help of the Light, it is impossible to convey this deep knowledge even through the method of social influence. You have to accelerate progress; otherwise, the “press of development,” approaching from behind, will do this for you.

And that is why education is required. We do not talk about the facts taken from advertising; a person must “delve” into these facts so that they surround, “mold,” and “format” him. An objective, abstract presentation will not help here; we have to reach man’s essence. And you are not capable of this.

Reading about the neighbor whose house burned down, a person clicks one’s tongue: “Poor thing. Perhaps the government might help him now.” And he will not move further. The barrier of our egoism could be breached only with the Light. No evidence will help without the Light; even great sufferings do not change people.

It is virtually impossible to advance from sufferings. They can just lead us to the need for spirituality, but not to correction. Only the Light performs correction itself.
[49568]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/2011, “The Peace”

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The only thing that is required of us is to cleave to the Creator. That is why everything that happens to us is arranged so as to oblige us to turn to Him, to feel the need in Him now, while we are not in the property of bestowal.

A person lives completely tied and entangled by this life. And all this confusion, problems in life, its order, and disorder gradually push him to a state when he sees that he is unable to cope with this life. He cannot understand it, feel its purpose and reason, and come to its root. And then he feels that he must find the root of life, the One who holds this life, and to reveal and know Him.

Sufferings, curiosity, even the point in the heart hiding inside a person suffering due to a lack of adhesion with the upper one, or something else gradually leads a person to an understanding that he can no longer claim that he runs his life himself, like sovereign Pharaoh who says: “Who is the Creator that I should listened to Him? I am the only ruler here!”

This is how our ego thinks, until it gets the blows that make me see that the Creator is the righteous one and I am the wicked one. And then a person understands that he must reveal the Creator.

Even when a person embarks on this path and makes the first steps, finding himself in a group and beginning to study Kabbalah, much time passes before he starts to realize that he is in a completely deterministic, closed system where everything is already predetermined. This system accepts no free movements or chances in any of its parts: still, vegetative, animate, or human. All of them exist according to the perfect law that advances the entire creation to a state where all of its elements reach adhesion with the upper root.

This adhesion is realized by the human level, the highest element of this system, which includes all the previous steps. But it does not happen due to his own efforts. He needs to ask the Creator to perform all the actions.
[49430]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/2011, Shamati #50

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The game is the most important chore for us. Therefore, when we are reading The Zohar, we have to play at being great Kabbalists and imagine that we reside in the same state as the authors of The Book of Zohar, those who first revealed how much they resented each other, but joined together afterwards.

In the beginning, they hated each other, and consequently, did not feel anything beyond their animate state, the state of this world. From such a deep descent, they started rising to the spiritual level of mutual bestowal and guarantee, and that is when their bond grew so strong that they revealed what is described in The Zohar.

Therefore, from our lack of connection, we too have to try to achieve a bond as strong as theirs, and then we’ll uncover what The Zohar narrates; we will reach the level of the authors of the book. If they started with hatred, literally wanting to kill each other, although we don’t reach such a deep awareness of evil, as much as we are able to do so and correct it, we’ll reach at least some degree of understanding of what they wrote about, and then we’ll climb up on the same degree that they revealed.

Question: How is the game connected with drawing the Surrounding Light?

Answer: The game is everything. It is the only action we perform. The game signifies that I strive for what I desire to achieve. What is the difference between this game and some other creative action in our world if while doing it, we also desire to get something out of it? Good question, but in this game we don’t really know what to do. It has an element of fortune, free will; it has something I cannot know in advance. And that’s why it is called a game.

In this game, I depend on the others as if we are in a true state playing in some imaginary action. But in reality, this imaginary action turns out to be true when we come to it. Therefore, the game is regarded as a serious business.
[49187]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, The Zohar

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The entire group and all of humanity in general construct “straight forms” (Yashar) first. I restrict my desire to enjoy, build a screen, and with part of this desire I continue to work further by faith above reason, in bestowal, connected with others.

But in certain desires, I am unable to work in bestowal towards others and I use them only for my own benefit. Thus, I simply restrict these desires. I want to collect myself in a “line,” to aim in one direction, toward bestowal.

Therefore, I build the “lines of connection” between myself and the others—the correct communication system. If after all my work, I manage to turn my desire to enjoy into bestowal, completely transfer it outside of myself, and use it to give to the others, it indicates that I have constructed the image of the giver out of myself. And I myself turn into a “circle.”

I am not stuck in the line anymore. Rather, in all of my desires, in all directions and possibilities, I aim to benefit the others without differentiating, choosing to give more or less to any of them.

Indeed, there are many differences and tests, but I do not test my abilities because I am a “circle,” not limited anymore. But in relation to me, they are not a circle yet; thus I can give to them more and more in various ways. And so it is until the end of the collective correction, when everything unifies in adhesion regarded as “Zivug Rav Paalim UMekabtziel” and turns in circles (Igulim).

In other words, a “circle” is a state of being an infant who isn’t developed yet and stays in its mother’s arms. And hence, he has no responsibilities but to cancel himself. This is how Malchut of the world of Infinity used to cancel itself before the upper force, the upper Light that filled it, and thus it had a “circular” form. It even stayed in adhesion but only by the grace of the upper one.

But in the very end, in State 3, when we return to Infinity once again, we build this “circle” on our own. Hence, we make a restriction on the initial state, create a working place for ourselves, and in it we build the perfect state—ourselves, instead of the Creator. This is described as “My sons have defeated Me.”
[49220]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, Talmud Eser Serifot

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