Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words“: Question 39: What is the Middle Point (Nekuda Emtzait)? This is the name of Behina Dalet (phase four) in Ein Sof (Infinity). She is named after her unification with Ohr Ein Sof (the Light of Infinity).

We begin to perceive ourselves, our existence, only after having reached the fourth phase. This is because we can only feel our own being in contrast to its opposite: the upper root.

This feeling is revealed at the last, fourth phase of the fourth phase (Behina Dalet de Dalet). This is because the fourth phase is the desire to enjoy starting to get to know herself. All of the previous phases have to be revealed inside of her.

Phases zero, one, two, and three are separated from the root and build themselves inside of the fourth phase. The last, fourth phase gathers up the experience of all of these phases and reveals herself and her relationship toward Him, that is, attains what the upper one is doing with her, relative to them.

This fourth phase of the fourth phase discovers herself as the desire to enjoy. In her upper part, she comes to the understanding and attainment of the root, while at the bottom part, her own relationship, the reaction to the revelation of the Creator’s relationship to her, is already apparent. This reaction is the feeling of shame that makes her perform the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph).

As it is written, this phase is called the middle point (Nekuda Emtzait) “after her unification with Ohr Ein Sof (the Light of Infinity),”  meaning that all of the Light of infinity is revealed in her before she feels the shame and decides to perform the restriction.

All of this is concentrated inside the fourth phase (Dalet) at the borderline where her upper part ends. In this part she senses the Creator’s attitude toward her and thus cleaves to Him, meaning that she is included into Him and annuls herself before this Light, the Creator’s love.

This happens exactly at the border, after which the lower part and a new revelation begin. In the state of her merging with the Creator, where she attains her full unity with the Light and loyalty to Him with all of her heart and soul by virtue of her nature, at the very depth of this unity, she suddenly discovers a quality in the Creator to which she cannot connect.

This is because now sbe is not connected to the Creator Himself, but to the fulfillment that she is receiving from Him. That is why she feels their connection as an imperfect one. There is one more quality in the Creator, the quality of the giving one, and she is not able to connect to this quality. That is why she begins to feel shame. In the very depth of her connection to and dependence on Him, like that of a baby feeding completely from the mother, she discovers that He is opposite to her.

This arouses terrible shame inside of her because she is located right inside the Creator, in the closest connection to Him. This feeling of shame builds the four reverse phases when she decides what to do with this discrepancy and comes from the root of feeling the shame to its fourth phase, to the decision to restrict herself and not receive the Light anymore. Now, she begins to search for how to merge under the conditions of equality and similarity of qualities, and not by restricting herself and becoming one who is fully receiving.

This is the middle point, the one that was completely merged with the Creator before it started to burn with shame and all subsequent actions took place.
[47111]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Shamati #21 “When One Feels Oneself in a State of Ascent″
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” “A Time of Good Will,” Item 545, Lesson 22
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 1 “Table of Answers for Topics” Item 65, Lesson 38
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 24, Lesson 17
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“The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Lesson 1
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Question: Can we present mutual guarantee to people as a guarantee of security?

Answer: Possibly, yes. If you find a direct, understandable connection that equates mutual guarantee to security, you will have an opportunity to turn to the nation with an appeal to unite together as one man with one heart, in mutual love, above all the differences between us.

Go ahead, act, but under an indispensable condition: Your words have to convince people that one can put an equation sign between mutual guarantee and security. Essentially, our promise has to satisfy a certain desire of theirs:

• Mutual guarantee = security;
• Mutual guarantee = cheap goods;
• Mutual guarantee = freedom;
• Mutual guarantee = a good climate.

It’s not important what it is in particular, but the idea of them being identical has to be there. This is the basis of the advertisement, agitation, and approach to people.

Then we should study the needs of different circles we would like to approach and to prepare accordingly. We are not going to sell them yet another product. On the contrary, we will hand a gift to them on a silver platter, a real “work of art.” It will be like a spiritual formula for babies, and they will only have to open their mouths. This is what they need to feel: There is no need for any effort, just receiving a gift.

You start with something small: “Let’s watch a movie, visit an Internet site, or read a book.” It’s not even an action; it’s just passive participation. It’s another thing to press on a button: This is a problem, it’s hard work for a person. By himself, he would keep pressing on it the entire day, but when you are offering it to him, doing it even once becomes a serious challenge.

We should take into account man’s nature and use presentation methods that attract him: films, performances, and songs, everything that can become a nice packaging for our message so that it will be gradually absorbed. But in one way or the other, the message has to be close to man and his desires.

Circulation is a fine matter, and we must become experts in it.
[47927]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: What can a person do when he is unable to overcome himself when there is gossip and insinuations in the group?

Answer: This is a problem. If we are connected at least with one letter of the wisdom of Kabbalah, then everything that happens with us from now on is only connected to the friends and the attainment of the Creator in the group. There is no other cause for the events in our life. No matter what happens to you, all the good and the bad goes in line with the goal. You have entered a spiritual highway.

People around the world are still at the stage when their egoistic desire is growing. This will continue until they reach a point where the problem will become revealed to them: either a worldwide crisis of the integrated interconnection or the point in the heart.

However, our failures only come from careless work in the environment. And once again, you can correct all the problems only in the environment, only in a mutual connection with the friends. Why is it so? It’s because this way you awaken the Light which does all the work. It is the Light that organizes and determines everything in your life from physical health to spiritual well-being. Everything depends on its presence or lack thereof.

This way, the work in the group is a universal method that allows you to attain success in everything.

Question: How do we make sure that the group is the only territory of our work? How do we stay on this track?

Answer: For every person to remember it and feel its importance, we need a common opinion and mutual guarantee. I must make sure I do not forget that my life on all its levels and in all details depends only on the well-being of the group, its perfection.
[47703]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: Why do I reveal hatred toward the friend within myself? Is it so that I would not receive personal, individual pleasure from the Creator?

Answer: What you feel toward the friend is not so much hatred, but rather rejection or antagonism for various reasons. You certainly reject, hate, and refuse to accept the Creator to the same extent. And this presents you with an opportunity for correction. After all, you reveal a space for work, your own “construction zone.” This is the only way we advance; we have no other area for work.

This is what differentiates the science of Kabbalah from all other methods. One would think that it tells us about some lofty matters, some empyreal spheres, while in truth there is nothing in Kabbalah except work in the group with friends, a very simple and real work.

Humanity as a whole is also approaching this need. All nations will need to become one “group”; otherwise, they will have no right to exist. The upper Light constantly affected us and led us to this point, and today it illuminates the desire to such depth that we must understand: We will not survive without unity. From now on our life does not depend on the economy and trade, like during the past 50 years. We depend more and more on human interconnection; we need to unite our souls.

In this manner, Lights affect the vessels, penetrating them deeper and deeper and illuminating this need. Whether we want it or not is irrelevant. The engine of the generator picks up speed, the illuminator amplifies the brightness of the projectors, and their glow protrudes into the depths of our desires.
[47707]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: What should I do if “I made efforts and did not find”?

Answer: It’s impossible for someone to “make efforts and not find.” If you have made efforts and have not found to this day, that means there are not enough efforts yet. It’s impossible otherwise.

But everything is in front of you! It’s as if your eyes have been blindfolded and you have been placed in a room that has a table with different exquisite dishes. And you are hungry and have to look for it!

But this table is here! You can walk around this room anyway you like, there’s no one getting in your way, and no one will take away the table with the food. Meaning, everything depends on your efforts!

Therefore, it is impossible for you to “make efforts and not find it”! This means that there are still places left in the room that you did not reach. And it’s possible that you are spinning round and round in the same place until you finally get smarter and understand that you have to look systematically and check every direction.

Then you try finding the solution to this problem in every which way. But there’s no doubt that everything is already in front of you.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/11, Shamati

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 422: But I am perplexed about the sages of the generation—how they let even one moment be without standing before Rabbi Shimon and studying Torah while Rabbi Shimon is in the world. But in this generation the wisdom will not be forgotten from the world. Woe unto the world when he departs, the sages grow fewer, and the wisdom is forgotten from the world.

This is not a reference to history. The generation of Rabbi Shimon is an exalted spiritual degree that one can connect to and consequently can receive from this great degree called “Rabbi Shimon.” “Rabbi Shimon” is not the name of an individual, but that of the source of Light of a particular degree (Arich Anpin of the world of Atzilut).

Therefore, one must take care not to lose one’s internal, constant aspiration to be connected to The Zohar—the very Light that exists at the degree called “Rabbi Shimon.” Then, to the extent of one’s approaching or distancing from this degree, one can gauge one’s advancement in or distancing from the spiritual work.
[47605]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/2011, The Zohar

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When the Creator sends us suffering, it is His way of giving us clues that we will be unable to receive pleasure directly. After all, the purpose of creation was to make man equal to the Creator, as perfect as Him, and not just be a simple receiver!

Only those who pertain to the still, vegetative, and the animate levels simply receive from Him nothing more than what they need “for life.” But man, Adam, means “similar to the Creator” (Dome). Hence, the still, vegetative, and animal levels simply live their lives, and all the suffering they sometimes experience is the fault of man who does not carry out his purpose.

As to man, he always suffers…. He is unable to fulfill himself, and his entire development is the constant growth of the desire to receive pleasure, which keeps becoming bigger and clearer, forcing man to constantly pursue new types of fulfillment.

He constantly hopes that he is about to receive fulfillment, but every time he is left with nothing. And at the end he becomes completely disappointed and suddenly understands that he is no longer able to continue the same way! He stops believing that he is able to achieve anything in this life with its egoistic approach and constant pursuit of pleasure.

All of this was arranged ahead of time, with the intention to have man turn around and, instead of searching for a way to fulfill his desire, to start looking for a way to acquire the form of the Light, the form of the Host, that is, instead of wanting to receive Light itself, for him to want to acquire its qualities—the qualities of the Creator.

But the form of the Host, the form of the giver, must clothe in the desire of the creature. And for this reason, the aspiration to bestow, this bestowing form which dresses itself in the desire to receive pleasure, is called the “screen” and the “Reflected Light.” This is the new, non-egoistic approach man must come to once he completely becomes disappointed in his ability to fulfill himself egoistically.

For this he needs to change his entire approach to life, and instead of pursuing pleasure, to start pursuing the Creator’s image, which would dress into him. In this case, the desire to receive pleasure, which has restricted its egoism and armed itself with a screen and the Reflected Light, will acquire the same form as the Creator, the desire to bestow. And then the upper Light will robe itself in the egoistic desire in the form of bestowal on man’s part, directed back to the Creator.

There, inside this desire to receive pleasure, inside man himself, their encounter will take place—the encounter of man and the Creator. And this is why the Creator is named “Boreh” (“come and see”). After all, you reveal Him within you and nowhere else.
[47545]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Shamati #117 “You Labored and Did Not Find, Do Not Believe″
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” “You Shall Make A Table,” Item 519, Lesson 21
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 1 “Table of Answers for Topics,” Item 59, Lesson 37
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“Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 17, Lesson 12
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Suffering brings us to the question: What are we living for? I do not want to live in order to suffer while serving my egoism. It is better to die than live like this. Many people in the world are ready to die, and many actually commit suicide.

So how can I change the situation so that instead of me serving my desire, my desire would serve me? This is only possible if the Light that Reforms acts upon me. I need this hidden force, even though I do not know where it comes from. Only it will change the order of priorities in me, raising the importance of spiritual life, bestowal, exiting myself, and rising above egoistic concerns about my existence here and now.

At a certain stage, man realizes his enslavement and understands the meaning of the words: “I have created the evil inclination.” The ego takes you towards death—this is why you refer to it as “evil.” Life seems to be death to you because you work for a cruel master who does not pay you anything and leaves you without pleasure, until eventually you die. There is no harder slavery.

But for the time being, I do not yet see my evil inclination; it blinds me, appears to be me. But in reality it is as if someone has hypnotized me, programmed me, and I do what he wants. His power is so strong that he controls me in an unnoticeable and tyrannical manner.

We are born hypnotized, and we do not even understand that we are under someone else’s influence. It happens in life that we fall under someone’s influence, and only afterward are surprised to discover this. It is the same story regarding the evil inclination. The problem here is with the means: What will help us break free from its oppression?

The answer is suffering. Suffering is like Pharaoh who has brought the sons of Israel closer to the Creator. This angel of death constantly forces you to strain yourself for him, and finally you discover that you are suffering through his commands and your servitude. Then you begin to search for the cause of your suffering, and you discover that they actually help you reject evil. This way Pharaoh, who strained the sons of Israel with heavy work, brought them closer to their redemption.

So are we, together with the entire world, standing in the beginning of the same process. Purer souls awaken first, asking themselves about the meaning of what is happening: “Where is the villain who orders me around? I do not want to suffer.”

At first one tries to figure out his suffering egoistically. Then he raises his eyes and begins to examine the situation as a whole: “What is actually happening here?” This way we direct ourselves towards a different goal—essentially, a different authority. We go from one angel to another: from Pharaoh to the Creator. There are only two options, and no one else between them. Ultimately, you choose who will rule over you.

Purer souls are going through this now, and others will come after them.
[47551]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/2011, “The Freedom”

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