The wisdom of Kabbalah respects both forces acting in reality: the force of attraction and the force of rejection. Both come from the Creator and both are equally important in His eyes. We also need to treat them the same way.

The rejecting force is no less important than the attracting one. Of course, we would prefer the attracting force, but that is how it appears in our desire to receive, which is not spiritual. However, it is said that a person should bless for the bad even more than for the good and to relate to good and bad equally. One will then be under restriction, at the middle point, independent of anything, and thus will be able to rise above one’s nature and become free.

Therefore, it is very important that we undergo both bad and good states equally because it is only from this point that can we make correct decisions.

The entrance to the spiritual world is very special. It is as if you are allowed to enter, reject it, and so on, again and again. Therefore, we study our inner psychology, to what extent we want or do not want the spiritual. There are such moments in the study when the entrance is open for us, but we do not want to enter. The Creator has to draw us in.

We must be prepared for such polar states in order to exist in the spiritual world, and first of all, we should pay attention to the middle point that lets us maintain balance, independence, when we are not drawn either to the good or to the bad side, but only to the greatness of the Creator, who determines our correct direction of development.

The greatness of the Creator is revealed only in the middle point, in the middle line. That is, it is most important not to lean either to the left or to the right, but to stay in the middle, above knowledge and reason, so that I do not care whether I feel good or bad. It is important only to stay in this central point and strive for the Creator. If I aspire for the middle line and imagine it, then I can imagine the forces acting on me: left, right, and middle.¹

A person should be completely despaired of one’s own forces. But this despair is in oneself, not in the path and the goal. If you suddenly becomes despaired in the goal, then you must do everything to return to balance; otherwise, you are not in the right reality. The right state is when I do not lean either left or right, but strive only for the greatness of the Creator so that I draw myself to Him.

And if I am at this correct point, I will find that I have no strength there, no mind, no means to take even one step forward. It is as if I am suspended in the air, and this is a very important condition in our development. After all, when I understand that I have nothing and nothing will help me, then there is only one thing left for me: prayer. From this state, a true prayer will arise because I have no support, no chance to take even one step myself, and the true prayer is what will help. It is a cry in the desert, in despair from my own forces.

But this is not a sign of weakness as it seems to us today. Right now, we are still relying on our strength. But the closer we get to the spiritual entrance, the more we rejoice, revealing the lack of our own strength, which means that we become more dependent on the Creator.

And at the very entrance, a person sees that only the Creator can save you, help you, and the question is whether you are able to ask for help or not. Prayer is possible only with the support of the ten—this is the first necessary condition in order to turn to the Creator with a prayer.

You can perform a spiritual action, turn to the Creator, praise Him, ask, and associate with Him only in a minyan, in the ten, and no less than that. Without this, a person cannot rise above his egoism in an appeal to the Creator and will not know what to ask for. Therefore, it is obvious that entering spirituality is possible only through the ten.²
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/20, Despair from his own Forces
¹ Minute 0:20
² Minute 7:45

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “Purim” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace” 

Selected Highlights

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Lesson Preparation

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati, 37 “An Article for Purim” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace” 

Selected Highlights

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The time has come to begin to advance toward the holy goal, that is, to the revelation of the Creator to the creations in this world. Everything is in our hands; nothing prevents it from us. All the events taking place in the world that supposedly delay us actually help us advance toward the goal of creation, to a better understanding of life’s purpose. They help us realize how much our world needs a spiritual ascent: not to be corrected in the same place but to rise to a spiritual level.

It will become increasingly clearer to every person in the world that there is no way out and that cardinal changes in our existence must begin here. Existing in the present form, we will run into a dead end time after time. We have no chance to continue living like this.

The time has come to use all our strength and open the path to a spiritual, perfect life, to open it to humanity as quickly as possible. In fact, all people subconsciously wait for this, but have no idea what it depends on.

Our Bnei Baruch group is made up of people who the Creator has invited to enter the spiritual world and draw close to Him. We must understand our responsibility and realize this opportunity. We have two weeks of very intense spiritual work before us, and we will try to make every effort, to the utmost extent, and will certainly achieve life’s lofty goal.

There are times that are determined from above, and there are times when we trigger ourselves from below. We have set aside this special time for our gathering, the World Kabbalah Convention, and we approach it through great and long efforts. At the same time, we see extraordinarily fearful events unfolding in the world. Yet, it is amazing how nothing stands in the way of our friends traveling to Tel Aviv for the convention. We await everyone with even greater impatience than usual, ready to welcome them with open arms.

Let us hope that for the time remaining before the convention, we will better prepare ourselves for connection so that in the depths of this unity, we will begin to reveal new qualities in which the Creator calls for His revelation. From our efforts to unite together as much as possible and even more, we will see how the Creator shows us the conditions for His revelation. We must feel it.

We need only reveal the need to achieve equivalence with the Creator, to want to feel Him precisely in His very quality of bestowal. May He give us the quality of bestowal, and we will be happy to work with Him. We await that quality, although we do not even know exactly what it is. We ask the Creator to work on us, we are ready for this operation. Let Him make this change in us, implant the quality of bestowal in us, develop and teach us. We want to be clay in the hands of the master, let Him model His likeness from us.

What is required of us is only an initial desire and no more. We have no real need for bestowal, and are unable to understand what it is; we just accept that the Creator will make of us what He wants. This is enough for the Creator to begin to correct us.

It is difficult to realize how connection between friends, between people, can be connected with the attainment of the Creator. Why does the revelation of the Creator suddenly depend on unity of egoists above their egoism? If they hate and repel each other, but nevertheless make efforts to unite, these efforts, penny by penny, accumulate to a large amount, and they build a connection network.

Inside, this entire network is filled with hatred, forces of rejection, and stretched over it are our timid attempts to connect with each other. The system of hatred is as solid as iron. Atop it, we try to sew these iron blocks with thin threads, but as we try, we manage to knit them more and more. We begin to discover that in these very thin threads connecting us with each other, there is a special quality: the upper force of the light, which is much more powerful than the iron rods of egoism. We thus begin to feel each other.

It is a very long process, and it repeatedly leads us to despair, but time does its job and ultimately saves us.

We must believe that the Creator will organize the group and the friends for us so that we have the opportunity to reveal Him, to become like Him, and thereby give Him contentment. Everything has already been arranged from above, and all we need is readiness, a little effort, and it will happen. The Creator arranges all the conditions for us above and we need only give our quota of effort that is in our ability to give. Everything is already calculated above. The upper one is ready to help us and as soon as we complete what we need, we will immediately find the correct result. The Creator will open up and ask: “Well, where were you? I have been waiting so long, but you were not there!”

We will reveal all this as soon as we will provide our desire, the Kli, which is in our power to reveal.

We are ready for revelation; we need only combine our despair, efforts, and aspirations, and it will be sufficient. The power of prayer depends on two factors: on the awareness of one’s powerlessness and one’s lowliness. On one hand, we feel that we have insufficient strength to reveal the Creator, but desperation from the insignificance of our condition is even more necessary. And if we combine these two feelings together, then this becomes enough for the right appeal. The Creator sees that we have realized our worthlessness and is revealed to us.

If the Creator does not help us, then we are lost. You have to feel it with all your gut. We really want to achieve merging with the Creator due to the equivalence of our qualities, to become bestowers, and we ask only for this. Otherwise, this is not life.

There is nothing more to do, we have reached the limit: if the Creator does not give me the quality of bestowal, then I disappear. If He does not connect me with the group, I am lost. I pray to let me cleave to my friends in order to support them with all my might, to serve them, to give and to help them achieve their goal. What will happen to me is unimportant, I want only their good. In order to do so, I come to the convention in order to help my friends achieve their goal, and completely annul myself.

We go through many different states. Sometimes such apathy attacks that a person is incapable of any movement in feeling, thought, and words; one is completely disconnected. And sometimes a person burns with desire, ready to turn mountains. The rest of the time, one is somewhere in the middle between the two, in different states in mind and heart.

The question is how to awaken ourselves in every state for the sake of the ten. We should not wait for the Creator to awaken us, and we should not awaken ourselves individually, but we should wake up with the help of ten, awakening the ten by ourselves. That is the whole point. Everything is only through our connection with the ten: to awaken them with our own efforts and then be inspired by them and act.

Even if there is no feeling and thought for the Creator, but we perform material actions in relation to the group, then this all adds to my account.

Therefore, we do not have to await the Creator’s mercy. The Creator’s worker is the one who works: where the Creator does not awaken him, does not give any incentives, one seeks how to add effort oneself, like an old man looking for something lost even before losing it.
From the Tish 2/14/20, “Preparation for Convention”

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “Connecting to the Source” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 3. Part 8, Item 5

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace” 

Selected Highlights

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “Continuing the Congress With an Ascent” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 3. Part 8, Item 1

Selected Highlights

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “Continuing the Congress With an Ascent” 

Lesson on the Topic “Serve the Creator With Joy” 

Selected Highlights

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Questions from World Kli

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Spiritual attainment absolutely does not depend on the person himself but only on how much he contributed to the advancement of others. Otherwise, what is this spirituality? After all, one realizes actions for the sake of bestowal, that is, actions of the Creator, helping others, receiving permission to enter spirituality for them. One made efforts to make oneself a channel for awakening the friend.¹

To pray for the friend means to want the Creator to help him. There is no need to go into details conveying to the Creator exactly how to help. I pray for the friend if I am ready to give him my Kelim so that he will simply rise and correct himself on their account. That is, I turn into a connecting channel for him.²

How can I convince the Creator to help me? In the time of Terah, the father of Abraham, it was possible to pay a priest and buy patronage above. This is the technique of Terah adopted in all religions and beliefs. But the method of Abraham is different and claims: “Only love!” Only if I want to achieve spirituality, bestowal, and I ask for a friend, then the Creator helps.³

We do not seek to despair from the work, but when the despair comes, we perceive it as a good sign. Indeed, it is known that despair is a genuine Kli. If there is disappointment in one’s own abilities, then a desire over which I have absolutely no power has been revealed. And then I can ask the Creator from this desire.

Despair is a sign that I have no power over my desire in any form. The Creator illuminates this desire in such a way that I see that I am incapable of correction. And then I can turn to Him. Maybe I cannot cope with disappointments and I fall—it does not matter. It is said: “A righteous falls a thousand times and rises.” Let’s say I fall, but I will receive experience on how to fall and rise. It is known that while an infant learns to walk, he falls and rises many times.

We are approaching the exodus from Egypt, and therefore, each next step becomes more joyful and harder. And salvation is only in our unity.

For me, the main thing is to act in such a way as to at least bring contentment to the Creator. Even by the fact that I do not give up this path, I already delight Him. The Creator, as it were, pushes me away and forces me to quit, but I remain despite of all my disappointments. And by doing so, I certainly bring Him contentment.⁴
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/20, A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar
¹ Minute16:20
² Minute 20:30
³ Minute 34:45
⁴ Minute 44:00

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According to the correct process of advancement, the further we advance, the more we feel helplessness, misunderstanding, insensibility, and disappointment in ourselves. We already have some kind of clue about the spiritual force that is in front of us, but we are not yet able to work with it. So, we find ourselves in a completely desperate state about which it is written: “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God from the work.” And this is exactly the sign that we are approaching the entrance to the spiritual world.

Here, the whole question is who will pass this test and who will not. He who holds on to his friends makes it through. And the wise and the proud who keep their distance from the environment and the group fall out. Nature’s forces allow entry to spirituality only to those who are ready to unite. Those who are not yet in such unity are those who let the forces of nature operate them. Uniting means wanting these forces, both negative and positive, to act on us and arrange everything so that we can fill our empty cells in the common Kli (vessel), in the soul of Adam HaRishon.

One who agrees to this enters the upper world. Lowering one’s pride is of utmost importance here. The main obstacle is when a person imagines oneself as an independent individual who understands and makes decisions instead of being a small cell of Adam HaRishon. Such an approach greatly weakens a person.

Everything is achieved only by the power of prayer, that is, by agreeing that all corrections are made on you and you give yourself to the group and to the Creator. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 57: “It follows from the above that everything, small or great, is obtained only by the power of prayer. All the labor and work to which we are obliged are only to discover our lack of strength and our lowliness—that we are unfit for anything by our own strength—for then we can pour out a wholehearted prayer before Him.”

I might be unable to yet perceive spirituality with either my heart or my mind, but I know one thing: I have a shield—my ten. I cling onto this ten as a baby clings to its mother, hanging onto her like a monkey. If it were not for the group, I would fall into this corporeal life and, having fallen out of the spiritual path, turn into an ordinary person.

This shield will expand and turn into my connection with the entire soul of Adam HaRishon, where I must fulfill my role regarding all souls: to receive from them and bestow to them. This is the law for the existence of a healthy cell in a healthy body in the material world. One must also behave similarly in spirituality.

Whether you want it or not, you will come to it anyway. But if we are on the spiritual path, then we use the Kabbalists’ advice to precede the blow with medicine, to advance with acceleration by the path of light even before embarking on the path of suffering. And the Kabbalists advise us to strengthen our connection with the group, otherwise we will have to advance by blows, which will take hundreds of years and many lives. If we apply our own effort, we will achieve the goal in a few years.¹
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/20, Common Outcry to the Creator (Preparation for the Convention in Desert)
¹ Minute 19:00

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