Dana writes:

I began studying quite recently. And today I listened to the morning lesson for the first time. I was very impressed. I have the following question. During the lesson, I heard the following quote from the treatise Brachot: “Even if a sharp sword is put to a person’s neck, he should not despair of mercy.”

I often felt like I was empty, that I had no future, that there was no point in living. It says not to despair. How not to despair? How do you stay in hope even when there is no hope?

Answer: Everything comes from the Creator. This is the first thing. Secondly, everything is for the better. This is absolutely accurate. And in the end, we will all know, understand, and be grateful.

Question: Be grateful for whatever has happened? For something so scary, for even the worst? Even wars, tragedies, everything?

Answer: Yes, for everything. I understand you, and I understand people who are going through suffering and terrible problems, but in general this is how it is.

Question: So a person needs to somehow absorb this?

Answer: Yes. People must attune themselves to the fact that this is how the Creator’s program operates, and hold on. This is called that mercy comes to him little by little.

Question: Another question: why do such states come to us?

Answer: So that we can detect the good attitude of the Creator toward us in any condition. In any condition!

Question: Do you understand how nervous people are listening to you now?

Answer: I understand all this, but there is nothing you can do. This is simply unbelievable. However, I have spoken many times in my life with special people who have experienced great losses, who have wandered through the icy desert. My relative was a pilot and he perished. And they all said only one thing: a person must agree, bow his head, and move forward.

Question: What do you mean by “move forward”?

Answer: Do what needs to be done. We must do what our heart orders, that is, not our living heart, but the heart as a torch that should illuminate our path.

Comment: But the path, you keep saying, is the path, one way or another, to the conclusion that everything comes from the Creator.

My Response: Yes.

Question: Is this really the way? Even though we are always led astray from this path?

Answer: No one pushes us aside from the right path; it is we who want to escape somewhere.

Question: Look what is going on! All the time you think, “How can this come from the Creator? How?! What is this? Mercy?!”

Answer: Who else can it come from?

Question: It is confusing when such questions arise. Should we hold on?

Answer: Hold on to each other, and to the Creator, all together.

Question: When you say “for each other” do you mean for those who are looking for the same thing as we do?

Answer: Of course. And for whom else?

Question: In the article that we read in class, it was said: “Even if a sharp sword is put to a man’s neck, he should not despair of mercy.” It was said that a sharp knife that is pressed to a person’s neck is the selfishness that a person feels; it simply cuts him.

You must not despair of mercy, that is, you must believe that the Creator will give the property of bestowal and love, and one way or another you will come out of this state.

Will every person feel this or is it only given to Kabbalists to feel that egoism is just…?

Answer: I think not everyone feels it.

A person experiences such questions, such problems, such tests in accordance with his or her readiness for these kinds of things. Moreover, the person does not know. He may feel like a weakling, but when problems come, he straightens up.

Question: How do you find the strength to suddenly straighten up?

Answer: You won’t find it in advance. It only comes at that moment.

The Creator does not lead all people to this, but only those whom He wants to bring closer by giving them trials, so that they build a little more understanding of the world.

Question: Understanding that human nature is evil, and that I want to get out of it, and the understanding of the Creator who gives me the strength to get out?

Answer: I ask for nothing more than one thing: to overcome your weakness in whatever form it may be, to move on.

Question: And He gives strength?

Answer: Yes. He will.
[320456]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/26/23

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Question: The primary sources say that you need to work from the impression that the work you are doing is great and holy. And if I don’t find such impressions in myself, can I impress others? Or do I have to put myself in a certain state first and impress others from it?

Answer: No, you can try to impress others, and this will give you a clearer sense of what you yourself lack in your heart. Then you will demand with great zeal from the Creator that He explain your condition to you.

Comment: But it feels like a snowball, because you’re not in a good state anyway, and then you go out into the environment, feel the difference, and dive even deeper into your condition.

My Response: So what if it makes you even more immersed? He who has not submerged cannot come up.

Comment: It’s just very difficult to interact with the environment because it turns out to be a complete separation, and you’re afraid to move because every movement seems to confuse you even more.

My Response: Well, let it be confusing. Then you will feel that you really need help. The main thing is to feel an urgent need for help. So don’t worry that you feel lost, abandoned, and weak; it is all good. It is all right.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “One’s Future Depends and Is Tied to Gratitude for the Past”

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Question: Is the plan of creation some kind of goal toward which the entire creation is moving, or is it a thought that is in every part of creation at every moment of time?

Answer: Both. The purpose of creation is the creation of creatures in order to ultimately delight them, fill them with the highest light, and help them reach the level of the Creator. In this way their perfection is achieved.

Question: In every state of creation is there a piece of the plan of creation? For example, in every human thought, in every human desire?

Answer: Yes, in everything. Because all this comes from the Creator’s decision to create a single creature.
[320327]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)”

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A person who was very ugly came by his way. He told him, “Hello rabbi,” but he did not reply. He told him, “Vain, how ugly is that man, are all your townspeople as ugly as you?” He replied, “I do not know, but go and tell the craftsman who made me, ‘How ugly is this vessel that you have made’” (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 56 “Torah Is Called Indication“).

We are not talking about any external manifestations of a person but about his internal qualities. Ugliness is one of the expressions of human egoism. The Torah never talks about external ugliness, only about internal ugliness, which needs to be corrected.

Comment: When I see ugliness from the outside, wanting to correct it, I catch myself thinking that I justify myself more than I strive for my own correction.

My Response: This is how our egoism manifests itself. Therefore, keep learning, and gradually you will put up less and less with the fact that you see the world as bad. On the contrary, you will see yourself as bad, and the world more or less corrected, normal, good, and kind.

Invest in the ten, get closer to it, and you will quickly get completely different answers from the Creator.

The true correction is that you feel more and more attached to the group and are ready to work and live for the sake of your friends.
[320382]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Torah Is Called Indication“

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The externality are the nations of the world. The branch that extends from the externality is the rest of the nations. They have not been imparted the qualities that make them worthy of receiving the conducts of development of the purpose one at a time. Rather, they are fit to receive the correction at once and to the fullest, according to their upper root (Baal HaSulam “A Handmaid Who Is Heir to Her Mistress“).

Question: What does it mean that Israel, unlike the nations of the world, can receive the conducts of development of the purpose one at a time?

Answer: It depends on how we define Israel. Israel is Yashar El, straight to the Creator, that is, those who are directed at the Creator, no matter whether they are white or black.

When there is no difference between them, then Israel is everyone who has a desire to come closer to the Creator either from birth or after some event in life. Accordingly, a person decides to develop.

The nations of the world are those who have not received or do not want to receive the desire for development in the direction of the Creator.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Handmaid Who Is Heir to Her Mistress“

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Question: When thoughts about myself begin to overwhelm me, how can I not plunge into this baseness?

Answer: We must always hold on to the Creator and get closer to Him together with our friends. Only with the help of your friends can you hold on to Him. But this does not give any guarantee since only from descents do you approach a real ascent.

Therefore, you need to constantly strengthen the connection between each other. If there is a ten in which everyone thinks about everyone, nothing can lead you astray. Nothing. Even if you get ups and downs from above, no matter what, everything will be only for your benefit.

In the ten, every person is important, and if everyone succeeds in uniting with the rest, then this will be able to raise all friends higher and higher.
[320330]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/23, Writings of Rabash “How to Recognize One Who Serves God from One Who Does Not Serve Him”

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Question: What are the practical actions aimed at making an individual descent become the ascent of the whole ten?

Answer: It is necessary to combine personal descents with global descents and ascents. If I am able to turn to the Creator and ask Him to raise me from my personal descent to a higher degree, and He does this, then I am strengthened at this higher degree and begin to receive for the sake of the Creator.

Question: And if there is no sense of the Creator, but only a sense of friends?

Answer: Then, you have to continue working until you begin to feel the Creator. Start bestowing to your friends, influencing them, and then you will see that the Creator is hiding behind them.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/23, Writings of Rabash “How to Recognize One Who Serves God from One Who Does Not Serve Him”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What Is the ‘Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man’ in the Work?”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for Completion of The Zohar“

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Selected Highlights

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By this we have succeeded in understanding the answer of our sages that this world was created because “One who eats that which is not one’s own is afraid to look upon one’s face” (Baal HaSulam, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Chapter 4, Inner Observation, Item 20).

Question: How does shame awaken that you eat something that doesn’t belong to you, since we don’t have such a feeling?

Answer: Shame arises from the fact that we are only in reception and cannot change in any way. We are ashamed of our friends, we are ashamed of the Creator, we are ashamed of ourselves.

But we don’t have that in us yet. And then, when we gradually begin to feel that we are unable to do anything for the sake of bestowal, we will have a feeling that we cannot tolerate ourselves. And then we will have the opportunity to correct ourselves.

Question: It turns out that the desire to connect with the Creator gives you the feeling of someone else’s food, which you eat every time you receive?

Answer: No. The fact that you absorb the energy of the Creator, the qualities of the Creator, does not bother you yet. At the first stage, you feel ashamed that you are not changing. It seems to you that all the friends have changed, but you haven’t.

You look at your friends in the group and see that you are worse than them. You don’t understand what we study, you don’t understand the questions, you don’t understand the texts, you don’t understand the answers, you are not with your friends. You cannot interact with them because you think the others have been united for a long time. This is a problem.

Question: But every time it is unclear how to get to this degree. It appears that you are not putting enough effort because you don’t feel that way?

Answer: Firstly, there is not enough effort. Secondly, you may be hiding it too much from yourself so that you do not feel unpleasant.

Question: How can you reveal this in yourself? How can you notice the merits of friends?

Answer: Look at how they are connected, how they help each other, how you lag behind them, and how they participate in everything, understand texts, and ask questions. Look how much they are ahead of you in everything.

Question: But how can you see this in the friends in the ten who are currently absent? You want to see that they participate more in all events, and in the end you participate more. How can you distinguish this quality of advantage in them and put it above yourself?

Answer: It will come. First you think you are the best, and then you will see that it is the opposite. They will unite and show that they are above you.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)”

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Question: How do we pray for what we lack?

Answer: In your own words. Tell me in your own words what you think you lack in order to be fully connected with your friends and with the Creator.

On the other hand, what in your egoism would you like to get rid of in order to adhere to your friends and to the Creator?

Comment: I literally hate my egoism.

My Response: Great! So you have something to ask for.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/23, Writings of Rabash “What Is, ‘A Ladder Is Set on the Earth, and Its Top Reaches Heaven,’ in the Work?“

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