Envy is a very powerful and important tool in spiritual advancement. It is obvious that in our world it is impossible to advance without envy.

A person looks at others and envies not only people, but even animals. One wants to fly like a bird and swim like a fish in the sea. We must first see an example from the outside, and then our egoism will also light up to acquire the same abilities.

The more developed the egoism is in a person or in a nation, the more it is envious and capable of development.

Envy is a special quality that forces us to desire not what we really lack, but what we see in others. It helps us imagine how nice it would be if we got the same thing that our neighbor has. I’m jealous of what the other person has, and I start to miss it too. And so there is no advancement without envy.

It is very important to use envy now before the big congress because in order to increase our desire, to ignite the desire to achieve a high goal, we need to adopt each other’s desires and combine them together. This requires envy, which is peculiar only to man. Animals are almost not familiar with envy, and even more so with plants or inanimate nature. Only at a certain stage of development does the desire to enjoy begin to feel what the neighbor has. And even if I personally have no need to have the same thing that the other has, if I see how he enjoys, my egoism also lights up to get it and enjoy it.

Usually, the higher the development, the greater the ability to envy, which helps to faster development. Therefore, if we see that we do not have enough desire to advance to the goal of creation and realize our purpose in life, to correct our soul, then we need to turn to society, as it is said: “They helped every one his friend.” Everyone can show others an example to be envied and increase one’s limited desire.

Envy in Kabbalah is a good quality, not an evil one. Therefore, everyone should give others a reason for envy, due to which the desire to enjoy will grow and allow us to achieve a high goal faster. Being jealous of my friend, I do not want to belittle him in any way so that he also would not have what I do not have. I am happy to adopt from him additional desires and actions.

Envy used to lead to wars. But we need to learn how to use envy properly so that instead of fighting with each other, we can fight to rise above envy and move toward a common goal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/21, “Envy”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “Prayer” 

Selected Highlights

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Without faith in the sages, it is impossible to reach faith above reason and connect with the Creator. After all, there is no direct connection between our egoistic desire and the desire to bestow.

Since we are inside egoism, we are not able to jump into the desire to bestow, and we do not even understand what it is or how to approach it. Therefore, we need a guide who can take us from the sensation of this world to sensing the upper world.

We are in this world, that is, in the desire to receive, and we feel the world only through it. Egoism determines all our qualities, controls our heart and mind. At the same time, we want to feel reality in the desire to bestow.

However, we do not know what the desire to bestow is and how to develop it in order to feel another reality, as it is said: “I shall see an opposite world.” We need to undergo a special transition, which can take a long time and include many intermediate states between this world and the next one, the dominion of the desire to receive and the desire to bestow.

Such a transition cannot happen at once but according to what has been said: “Only goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

Therefore, we need a sage who lives in both worlds at once and can teach us how to make such a transition. Not everyone who is in attainment of the spiritual world is able to be such a guide. This requires consistency in feelings and understanding, in understanding both worlds, and knowledge of how to make the transition from one world to the other step by step.

The property of this conductor is called Moses. On one hand, he is in the qualities of the Creator, and on the other hand, as a “loyal shepherd,” he can take on this mission to guide people, disciples, from this world to the spiritual world and fulfill the Creator’s instructions.

Faith in the sages, meaning the teacher on the spiritual path, is the same as believing in the path itself, believing in the Creator and in all the actions we perform. Success depends on how much I adhere to the teacher and follow him. As if on a serious hike when you go through an unknown area fraught with danger, on untrodden paths, you need to have suitable clothes and shoes, a proper staff in your hand, follow the one who is going in front of you, and follow the trail of the one in front of you. Then you can move forward with confidence.

This is the first rule that a beginner must learn when entering the spiritual path, an untrodden road, unknown and perplexing to him. Therefore, the first to walk is a person who has a lot of experience and has already walked this path himself. But those who follow him do not know the way.

It is customary to do so in a corporeal hike and even more so in a spiritual one because there we do not know at all what we should do in order to make a single right step forward. Moreover, egoism always confuses us and leads us astray. Therefore, we need to have as many clear indicators as possible to help us move forward without stumbling and falling.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/21, “Faith In The Sages as The Means for Faith Above Reason”

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What is the characteristic of a Kabbalistic prayer that distinguishes it from the prayers of ordinary people? A prayer of an ordinary person emanates from his egoism without any intention to unite with others and ascend to the Creator.

Therefore, this prayer has a purely psychological effect, calming the person but not changing anything in reality. It has no effect on spiritual forces.

It is possible to influence the forces governing creation only by uniting. If the ten unites, then the whole ten acts as one in relation to the upper force.

And if we do not unite in the ten above our egoism, then we do not have any impact on the upper force. It can be influenced only to the extent of the equivalence of properties, and for a minimum equivalence we need to unite our attitudes in the ten.

Therefore, all the prayers of mankind to the Creator have no effect on Him. They are a natural reaction of the desire to receive pleasure, which the Creator Himself provided to each person. Therefore, it makes no sense for Him to listen to the requests of this desire to receive pleasure, which He Himself created.

But if we combine our desires in the ten and, despite our egoism, want to achieve something higher, that is, the power of bestowal instead of the power of reception awakened in us by the Creator, then we really turn to the Creator as the very source of bestowal. And then He gives us the power of bestowal with which we become like Him.

Our prayer is aimed at becoming like the Creator and gaining the power of bestowal, like Him. And this is possible only if we unite in corporeality.

All other prayers, no matter what religion they belong to, are requests for egoistic fulfillment. Therefore, they are of no use except to gradually lead a person to the need to ask for connection between all and adhesion with the Creator on the basis of the power of bestowal and not the power of reception.

Here lies the huge, cardinal difference from the prayer of a Kabbalist in which we ask to gain the power of bestowal, which is above us, outside of everyone’s personal interests, for the sake of other people, for the sake of humanity, and for the sake of the Creator. Everyone asks to have the power to give to everyone except himself because in this he resembles the Creator, who bestows to everyone except Himself. Therefore, such a prayer is significantly different from all other prayers.
[278249]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/21, “My Sons Defeated Me” (Preparation for the Convention 2021)

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “Prayer” 

Selected Highlights

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “Envy” 

Selected Highlights

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “Envy” 

Selected Highlights

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The ascents and descents give us a sense of life. If there were no change in life, then it would not be life but death. The pandemic has driven us into paralysis and we are forced to lead a sleepy life, locked inside our homes.

Apparently, this will help us find out new forms of life, these ups and downs, not on the stock exchange and in the everyday squabbles that fill our lives, but ups and downs of a different type.

And so we find ourselves in quarantine so that we feel that changes in life can be of a different degree, and they are called life. We will begin to appreciate the descents without which ascents are impossible.

From the very beginning of creation the Creator arranged one big fall for us through the shattering of the common soul. And we must raise this vessel by our own efforts and restore it to its former state. But by adding our participation, our search, our emptiness, our prayer, our request, our difficulty to unite, we increase the initial ascent by 620 times.

Before the shattering of the soul of Adam HaRishon, our existence was unconscious. Only now, due to all the preparation, we begin to feel the ascents and descents, and we ourselves try to rise after each fall: from the inanimate level to the vegetative, animate, and human. Finally, we began to feel what it means to be human, what I live for, how far or close my state is to human life.

So, in the descents and ascents we gradually discover the essence of life, its purpose, the meaning of our existence, we develop sensory organs, find out what it means to be dead and alive, in a descent or an ascent.

One cannot be without the other. Everything begins with the fall. The Creator shatters the vessel to make preparations for all our future states. He established that everything begins with night, with separation, with a sense of detachment from the Creator, the goal, the friends. Only from this state can we begin to pick up our pieces to come to a big, final ascent.

The ascent is not possible if there has not been a descent before it. The ascent is about figuring out the descent and wanting to rise above it. That is why the Creator arranges for us to fall, so that we have something to rise above, to turn separation into unity, hatred into love.

From this, we can understand what the rise and fall really are, not according to our egoism, but in relation to conditions of complete connection that we need to achieve.

The number of descents and ascents, their frequency, depth, maximum speed, and amplitude determine our progress toward the end of correction. Everyone is assigned a finite number of ascents and descents in his particular Kli for him to join the common soul, as well as for each ten and for all of us together.

The power of the ascents and descents and the speed at which they change is taken into account. Don’t stretch the ascents and descents out for a long time. There is no time in spirituality; one moment is enough for each state. As soon as it is revealed, it should immediately be replaced by the next state.

Let us increase the intensity of the work on our connection so that there is no room for downtime between descents and ascents and even between ascents and descents. The main thing is to quickly clarify the state and its benefits for the next step.

We must try to treat both the ups and downs constructively, as data from above. They are already prepared by the upper force, and we are obliged to go through them all. Only their frequency depends on us.

It all depends on our preparation. If we associate the ups and downs, not with our own feelings, but with the general process of correcting humanity and the Creator as our goal, then every moment becomes a good and correct step on this path. And all I have to do is push forward even more to get closer to the final goal. Then all ascents and descents will come together, and I will feel these two states as one whole: “The darkness will shine as light.”
[278135]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/21, “Ascents and Descents” (Preparation for the Convention 2021)

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “Faith in the Sages as the Means for Faith Above Reason” 

Selected Highlights

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “My Sons Defeated Me” (Preparation for the Convention 2021)

Selected Highlights

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