The Zohar, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharoah Sent),” Item 441: It is written about that, “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together,” meaning one should not give room to the evil kinds because man’s actions awaken what need not be so. When they mate together, it is impossible to stand up to them. A Klipa called “dog” comes out of their side, and this is the fiercest of all….

The Zohar also says that our every effort and action immediately exposes the Klipa (shell), and a person fails, immerses into the Klipa, and then gradually performs a correction and comes out of it. In this way, he clarifies the Klipa and does not need to be in it any longer.

That is, ascending the spiritual degrees always starts with confusion, the mixing between good and bad. At the beginning, any state is unclear to me. Undoubtedly, there is both good and bad in it.

I have to attract the Light that Reforms to this state. By manifesting in this state, the Light pulls the evil down, and I rise upward using the good. Hence, in any state I reach, I first sense a lack of clarity, and only the Light splits it into two.

At first, the Light helps me reveal the evil, as it is said, “I created the evil inclination,” and I throw it down. Then, there is “…and I created the Torah for its correction because the Light (Ohr Makif) in it reforms.” Then I rise upward to the good desires.

Hence, “There is no righteous man who does good without first having sinned.” We always need to reveal the evil first and “cast it off,” meaning to be immersed in it, imbued with it, realize that it is evil, and only afterward get rid of it and reach good.

This happens with any clarification, with every tiniest detail. So don’t be frightened if it happens with you every second. On the contrary, the more often it occurs, the better.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/10, The Zohar

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Question: What is the inner work in the group between circles (Igulim) and the “straight line” (Yosher)?

Answer: Before I was satisfied with success in the corporeal world, but then I suddenly felt that something was missing in my life, and I began to search for a place where I would feel better. Thanks to this sensation I have come to the science of Kabbalah, but who was it that pushed me to it?

My questions are called “the desire for fulfillment” (Hissaron). I (my “point in the heart”) had existed in some “round” place and suddenly felt bad. In other words, a certain tension had emerged between me and my environment, a difference, a “delta.” I felt this delta (difference) as evil, as I was tormented by the question “What am I living for?” because I do not feel satisfied and balanced.

From this sensation the Surrounding Light had already begun to influence and move me since the preservation of balance is a law of nature. The Surrounding Light is what is pushing me to a state of balance.

I had begun to move and had transitioned into my next state; I began to look for answers in say mysticism, then came to some philosophy, and ultimately arrived at the center of the circle: the science of Kabbalah.

So who was it that has been leading me along this entire path? It is the Surrounding Light! I have always existed in it, only I didn’t always realize it. Thus I pass through the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th states.

In the 2^nd state, I was calmer with respect to the Surrounding Light because I felt less pressure than in the 1^st state. But after spending some time in that state, I was influenced by the Surrounding Light and began to feel that this state is not very good. That is, I increased my sensitivity to the Surrounding Light, which caused me to feel bad again! And again I began to search.

Thus I am pushed by the Light every time. In essence, I don’t do anything myself; it’s the light working on my desire, until I reach the very center.

At the center is a totally unique quality called a “group.” In this point the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) and the Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi) cease to influence me entirely.

I exist in the central point of all the “circles” (Igulim) where they do not function and also at the end of the “line” (Yosher) where it does not function. So what am I to do?

And here is where I need to act independently, for I find myself at a point of free will. Presently Light does not act on me, but waits. To the extent that I can bring myself out of this state of balance, the Light will begin to influence me!

I connect to the group, and all the additional desire that I receive from it elevates me! This desire pertains to the line, for I have received it from the group.

When my desire falls within the line, I find myself once more under the influence of Igulim (after all, I do not yet have a screen [Masach] and do not belong to Yosher), and once more I feel a difference between myself and the circles.

This leads to the Surrounding Light influencing me. It is not the general Light, but one that belongs to the Light for I have received my desire from the group, which is the line. This Surrounding Light in the line wishes to elevate me for the two of us to be in balance.

Herein lies the Segula (remedy), the miraculous power of the Torah, for this light influences me and elevates me in this straight “tube.” I rise on account of the Surrounding Light, but this Light influences me to the extent that I actualize my freedom of will in the group, by connecting to it in collective study.

Herein lies our entire work! Baal HaSulam explains it in the book, Beit Shaar HaKavanot, which is the foundation of all our intentions to reach bestowal. Therefore, I can only ascend “in the line” with the help of an additional force, which I receive from the group. According to the desire received from the group, the impression of the goal’s importance, the Creator’s greatness and the paltriness of my own ego, the Surrounding Light begins to influence me.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/10, Rav Yehuda Ashlag “Beit Shaar HaKavanot”

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From Baal HaSulam’s article “The Last Generation”: If all the nations of the world agree to that, then wars will no longer be in the world, for no person will be concerned with his own good whatsoever, but only with the good of others.

This teaching of equivalence of form is the teaching of the Messiah…It is then said “and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.”

The Messiah is the biggest Light of Yechida that corrects everything when it descends. When we obtain a strong desire to reach the final correction (Gmar Tikkun), this Light will appear with all its might and will correct all desires.

Even much lesser Lights that we receive now create a connection between us and allowed us to organize a huge Convention which is the result of help from Above rather than our own achievement.

All that we see around us, our friends and the whole world, is the image of the Creator who stands in front of us and shows Himself through this picture. Even now, the power that we call “Messiah” is already here; it pulls the whole human race from its current state to the end of correction. These processes are called “the labor pains of the Messiah;” they represent the revelation of the power of the Messiah in the world, the very first state in the process of “birth.”

One way or another, by going through stronger affliction and wars or because of the growth of our understanding and desire to become corrected, this correction must be completed by the year 6000 according to this world’s calendar. This term is defined by six Sefirot of Zeir Anpin (VAK) and is divided into three periods, which are two-thousand years each, reflecting the influence of ZA (Zeir Anpin) onto the three worlds: Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. Thus, we are obligated to achieve the state of correction.

From now and further on, we enter the era of the Messiah, and therefore the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed. This gives us a chance to become corrected right now rather than continuing to wait for the end of the given term.

Egyptian exile continued for only 210 years instead of the “determined” 400 years; similarly, we shouldn’t wait until the calendar indicates 6000. In spirituality, we can accelerate time and bring the final state closer so that we can implement it right now. It means that “Isra-el” (someone who strives directly to the Creator) “accelerates” time and moves it forward. This is why we can already (as we speak) be present in the time of liberation, at the arrival of the Messiah; it all depends on us!

The preparation period has ended and the informational genes (Reshimot) of the final stage have begun to emerge, revealing the method of their use: the science of Kabbalah and The Book of Zohar; now everything is in our hands.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/10, Baal HaSulam “The Last Generation”

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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride),” Item 2
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The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent),” Item 463
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Lesson 17
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” Lesson 2
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In order to acquire a new perception, we need a big desire that will allow replacing the tendency to consume with the aspiration to bestow. This transition towards an inverted perception of the world with an aspiration to bestow is extremely difficult. It is similar to birth, and birth is always an extraordinary phenomenon, even during the age of modern medicine.

The infant breaks away from a special place that he was attached to. Here he used to receive special nutrition and protection; here he was subject to special laws of development. The environment did not reject him; rather, it nurtured him. Now he enters a hostile world, a new environment, where he must struggle to live and grow. This is an unparalleled revolution in his life.

The same happens during the spiritual birth. A new universal sense becomes revealed, a sense of external sensations (outside of the womb or this world) based on bestowal, and thus, we begin to perceive a new world in it.

At the Convention we took a big step ahead in this direction. We really wanted to be born, we slightly experienced contraction and saw that we are unable to do it. We felt something stopping us and throwing us back right away. In combination with the good force that draws us forward, we felt a bad force that pushes us back into the mother’s womb, does not let us leave its boundaries, this world, and does not let us feel the new world.

We need to feel several contractions like this before we are born. The quantity and the frequency depend on us. Anyway, the birthing process will not end without them, and we will not make it outside.

Two forces collide during birth: our pressure from within and the opposite snatching from the outside. Their confrontations beget a new strong desire in us to end up in the spiritual world. We cannot do it without this desire.

Birthing contractions in the Torah are referred to as the “plagues of Egypt.” Our egoism must experience ten (the full dosage of) afflictions, which become imprinted on the desire and turn it into the shape of a vessel, a Kli. This way a shapeless “piece of clay” becomes a vessel ready to receive the Upper Light, the spiritual world.

We must experience the contractions in order to take the correct shape, without which it is impossible to perceive anything spiritual. We entered this process at the Convention. With regard to the Light, it is around us and is waiting for a place to enter.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/10, “Come unto Pharaoh – 1″

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The purpose of our entire work is to reveal the Creator. We lack Him. Beside Him, there is nothing else in reality.

The Creator is the all-inclusive force that we are part of, even though we do not perceive it. Our egoistic desire does not distinguish the Creator, it is not tuned into the same wave, does not possess the property that He does. This is why we work specifically on our desire that needs to be changed, redirected in order to reveal the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form.

Right now we see, hear, touch, and smell in our desire. By changing it, we will expand the range of sensations. But this does not mean that we will increase the sensitivity of our senses through additional tools, such as radars, radios, telescopes, or microscopes. We do not increase the sensitivity of the egoistic desire. Rather, we are changing its essence, we switch it over from the internal perception onto the external one and add an ability to detect things that are on the outside instead of those that come inside.

When the desire becomes transformed this way, it expands from the five physical (corporal) senses (sensations) of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch into the five spiritual senses or Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. Now it operates in the opposite manner: It bestows instead of receiving, and we perceive the higher reality in it through the aspiration to bestow.

Even though we are not yet familiar with it, things can change. This is what the people who have already done it and acquired a completely new life tell us.

Right now we live in a reality of five senses, a picture of a world painted by an egoistic desire. But once we switch the intention of perception, we come out from within us and start perceiving the external reality in the property of bestowal, which we acquire in addition to the property of reception that we already have.

This is a new world that becomes revealed to us in the five new senses. It has its own colors and sounds, mind and movements of the soul, that is, it has everything that we have here and much more than that, much more clear and perfect. These are our earthly roots.

This is what we need to reach, what we want to come to. After all, our egoistic desire that operates according to the principle of consumption has already exhausted itself. Our egoism becomes increasingly desperate, and we are losing interest for “the film” that we have already seen and reviewed. We no longer care for this life’s film, and it no longer fulfills us.

The entire mankind is coming to this. Perception turned inwards no longer pleases us. We have exhausted its reserve and now begin to strive towards external perception. Only once we change our desire and switch to the outside from the inside will we see an inverted world, the world of bestowal, as it is said, "I saw a reverse world" (“Olam Afuch Raiti”).
[26396]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/10, "Come unto Pharaoh – 1"

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No matter how tired we are from the efforts of reading The Book of Zohar, no matter how tasteless it may seem, during the reading we must all be united in one intention, one desire. This is our shared work in mutual guarantee against the inner disturbances of every person in our thoughts about unity.

We want to sleep and tune out, losing the thread of the narration. We wander around in a fog, and the text does not attract us or elicit any feelings. Yet this is the place that contains the Light, which has to make the correction inside us, bringing us to unity, to the spiritual form.

We have to yearn for unity from our side and wait for an action from the side of the Light so it will turn us exactly into what is necessary. We want to unite and focus on the single desire to be together when every person bows down his head. I make this effort and desire for the Light to perform its action from Above in response.

This is called “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” By means of the Torah we are trying to reveal the Creator. The Torah is the Light that Reforms and unites us, and the Creator will become revealed inside our unity. Let the anchorman keep reading. To me every word is a new drop of Light uniting us into one whole.

I am turning to all of our friends from all over the world: We lack this joint effort.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/10, The Zohar

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We exist in the system of precise laws. Everything we discover we build independently. In the descent from above downward, everything exists in the form of Reshimot (reminiscences), the primordial foundation, and while ascending from below upward, we uncover all the characteristics of these Reshimot, and through our desire, attainment, and aspiration, we create the picture of the world from these parameters and form spiritual rungs.

This is why we cannot leap through the stages of development and jump onto a complete rung. There is nothing complete. The rungs are not ready; they exist in concept, in the form of Reshimot, and are not filled with life.

When all the necessary data are entered into our system, when all of us mutually connect and desire to revive Malchut (Kingdom), the Reshimot come alive and reveal the picture of the world to us. Malchut is the world.

Question: What does “to revive Malchut” mean?

Answer: I reach Malchut, the place where the Reshimot are stored, and revive these Reshimot with my effort, desire, and life force. In Malchut, all Reshimot mutually link and the spirit of life flows in them, all because of me.

I raise my spiritual desire and in accordance with this desire, Malchut attracts the Light from Above, and I see the picture of the world in it. I always see my own picture of the world, all the 125 rungs, in Malchut of the world of Atzilut (Nobility).

If I demand, beseech, and desire to revive the entire system that is contained within Malchut in its primordial, broken condition, I will see this picture filled with life. This is what is called my spiritual life.
[26006]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah lesson 10/31/10, Rabash “The Need for Love of Friends”

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The Book of Zohar requires a special preparation on our part. It is the most powerful source of Light and the force that will change our nature if we correctly prepare ourselves for working with it.

First of all, in our current state we have to maximally correspond to the Upper Light that The Zohar brings us. This is why, as much as we can, we are trying to become similar to the authors of The Zohar, Rabbi Shimon and his nine students. They explain that in the beginning of the spiritual work, the revelation of The Zohar, the Light of Hochma of the World of Atzilut, they are suddenly overtaken by mutual hatred. The Light they attract shines into their desires, and despite their yearning for unity, what arises among them is repulsion. Standing before the illumination of The Zohar, they see that they are opposite to it.

The path begins with the revelation of evil; a person has to feel this every time. Otherwise his first step will be incorrect. It is written, “I created the evil inclination and I created the Torah as a spice because the Light concealed in it returns us to the Source.” This is talking about three lines. The evil inclination is the left line, the Torah or spice is the right line (the Light that Reforms), and the middle line is our corrected soul, the desire of the left line that has been corrected by the intention of the right line.

The evil inclination, egoism, does not come by itself, but under the influence of Light. Then we turn to the right line, the Torah, and the Light that comes from Above returns us to the Source, the Creator, the middle line. The revelation of evil is the beginning of every phase on the path to coming closer to the Creator from zero until the End of Correction. Even the group of Rabbi Shimon, which was on very high levels, went through the same phases.

Without revealing our enemy, we cannot study Kabbalah and attract the Light. We are trying our best to unite, but then we feel that our heart is deaf and that a stale taste lingers in our mouth.

Yet the goal is great and it evokes the need for the Light, the Creator who will come and correct us. We will no longer leave Him alone until He appears and establishes a connection between the friends so we will become a common Kli in mutual guarantee, as one man with one heart in one desire. This is what I demand. Even if I don’t know exactly what this means, even if I don’t have the smallest inclination to unite, I am still shouting together with everyone.

That is how we are approaching the reading of The Zohar, from the desire to unite. Unity will enable us to attract the Upper Light. At first every person is by himself, and then by way of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), we will come to unity.

In this unity we acquire the Upper World. The spiritual degree surfaces inside our interconnection. At first we reveal the evil inclination between us and then we demand the Light that will unite us. Then the Light does its work and unites us in the middle line, in the common desire.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/10, The Zohar

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We are disappointed from being unable to break through our egoistic shell (Klipa) and unite into one Kli. We have revealed that there is something lying between us that does not allow our hearts to merge into one desire and leave aside the bodies and this world.

In the end, this shell must show us that we are powerless before it. The huge desire to attain the goal, together with the inability to attain it ourselves, leaves us no other choice but to turn to the Creator.

Until we become totally disillusioned in our own powers and passionately wish to attain the goal, we forget about Him. Even if we would post notices all around us saying that it is necessary to ask the Creator for help, we still wouldn’t have a need for Him. This need comes when: 1. We desire it with everything we have, and 2. We are unable to enter the spiritual world. That is when we begin to attain and realize the fact that only the Creator can help us.

We received the first, wonderful disappointment at the Convention, and that is a great possession. Now we must only understand what we received, and while constantly thinking about it, strengthen our sensation.

Thought increases the desire, bringing out all of its components, and this enables us to keep advancing without new troubles by simply trying to clarify the state we were in more and more. This is enough. That is how we will form our demand to the Creator since there is none else besides Him and only He can help us oppose Pharaoh.

Besides, we will understand that the Creator acts in both directions. Pharaoh is also the Creator, but from the other side. It says in the Torah, “Let us go to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart.” The Creator warns us about this ahead of time, “I am standing on your path. Do you want to break through? Then turn to Me with a request because I am the one who arranged this obstacle for you, and with My help you will break through.”

It is written concerning this, “My sons have defeated Me.” There is none else besides the Creator, but in order to realize this and demand His help, we need joint efforts, aimed at one goal: How to repel Pharaoh and be born to the Light.

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