Light and desire are completely opposite to one another in their essence, but through the development of the desire, they have to end up in similarity of form and adhesion. In this process, they manifest themselves as a line and a circle.

The relationship between the Creator and creation, the light and desire, the forces of bestowal and reception, develop in four stages descending from the Creator. This is called the “line” because this arrow is very precise, constricted, and under complete control from above descending toward creation. The creations themselves are like a “circle” because they are in complete slavery of their desire to enjoy and must transform themselves from Pharaoh’s slaves to the Creator’s workers. Their connection with the Creator, with the light, changes from one extreme to another.

The influence of the light on a desire, of the Creator on creation, makes a direct line, like a pipe that Israel must build from itself: a part of the desire created by the Creator that has the ability to make a channel of light out of itself. The other part of the desire possesses no such ability, since it has no properties of becoming like the light. Therefore, all it can do is wait for the light to come.

It follows that the desire has two parts: active and passive. The active part advances toward similarity with the Creator and has the ability to understand the purpose of creation, its role in creation, and the ability to fulfill its role. While the passive part of the general desire is unable to do so.

The upper part of the desire that works for the Creator, meaning Israel, in fact has to be the worst, most egoistic, and opposite to the Creator. It is then most likely to feel its oppositeness and need to change. The other part neither reacts nor strives to become closer to the light, and this spectrum includes the entire “70 nations of the world.”

Israel is at the very top of the desire with the most egoism. Therefore, they are more shrewd, intelligent, corrupt, and more strongly feel their vast difference from the upper force than the other nations. This helps them achieve great success in corporeal life with its money, fame, and knowledge.

It follows, that the people chosen from the whole universe, like the cream of the crop, or as if sifted through a sieve, as the greatest egoists that are aware of their evil, organize themselves into a group that works on coming closer to the Creator. They want to eliminate their oppositeness to the Creator and achieve similarity with Him, thus turning themselves into a channel for transmitting the Creator’s influence to the whole world.

There are two opposites at work here, as it often happens in spiritual laws, and we frequently observe this in our world too. We need to see it as a single whole system of creation, and that we continue moving forward with it as a whole, because we live in the era of the end of correction, in the generation of the Messiah (Mashiach).

The light that goes through Israel to the nations of the world pulls (Moshech) the entire egoistic desire toward correction. Therefore, all of us, the people who have an awakened desire to reveal the Creator, must understand our mission and our role to become the spiritual channel for the world. There are other groups that study Kabbalah, but here we discuss the group, Bnei Baruch, whose mission is to become the spiritual channel capable of accelerating the collective correction, and by doing so, bring contentment to the Creator.¹
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/19, “Bnei Baruch” – Spiritual Pipeline to the World” (Preparation for the Convention in Bulgaria)
1 Minute 0:40

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What Is Bnei Baruch?
Bnei Baruch As A State Of Transition
Making Worldwide Bnei Baruch One Spiritual Vessel—The Spiritual Embryo

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “The Center of The Ten”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 106

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What kind of descent should we expect after the major convention we held in Europe? Descents can be very easy and calm because we are already accustomed to them and do not worry about the fog and confusion in the head. The Creator does not give us descents that knock us out; the descents become more qualitative, more “professional.” It is like a professional artist while assessing a picture can take into account the smallest details and strokes and an average person sees only a simple plot. This is the essence of professionalism, and it is the same with us in relation to descents.

Although sometimes we will receive huge descents that stun and paralyze us, depriving us of sight and hearing, most of the time now there will not be such rough descents as before. Instead, they will be subtle where we will have to notice that we do not have the former yearning and adhesion with the Creator and sensitive attitude toward the friends in the ten. All the senses are slightly dulled.

Thus, we are given the opportunity to increase our sensitivity. It is as if the receptivity were transferred to a new range and we need to tune in to it. An ordinary person will not even notice anything unusual here, but a specialist will distinguish many changes.

We have to be very attentive because it is possible that the current state will seem normal with respect to past descents and hardenings of the heart, as if there is no descent and heaviness. But am I connected with the ten? I do not feel it—that means descent. Do I think about adhering to the Creator or do I think about nothing at all? Such a fog in my mind means descent. My sensitivity was shifted to a new range, increased tenfold. Now I have to recognize big ascents and descents by the very subtle discernments.

It is no longer a decline in mood or complete dullness as before. It seems as if I have a normal mood and the ability to think, unlike before when I saw everything painted black and could not gather my thoughts. Yet now, in this new desire and mind, I must decide that I am not adhered to the Creator; that is, I must increase the threshold of sensitivity of feeling and mind within me in order to work with more subtle discernments. This must be done forcibly through prayer and request.

I will then really rise to a new level. After all, I want to take into account details that I never noticed before when I thought everything was in order. But it is not the case if I have no adhesion with, no thoughts about, the Creator and the ten, no proper sharpness of feeling. My senses were dulled and I feel okay about it, when the bad thing in this state is my non-adherence to the Creator in feeling and thoughts.

This is what I must demand and ask, then I will begin to distinguish darkness and descent through more subtle discernments. The Creator will be saying, “Take it, do not worry, everything is in order!” But I disagree to take it and leave; I demand from Him to be closer to Him; therefore, I feel much greater darkness than before.

The hardening of the heart does not mean that I feel heaviness, darkness, and total lack of understanding in the mind and heart. It can be expressed in the most imperceptible things, I simply do not receive the yearning from above and must sharpen my mind and feelings by myself and find the point of connection to the Creator. The fact that I am not given such a connection and have to ask for it, demand it, and win it by force is already considered the hardening of the heart.

Previously, I used to be in such darkness when I could not get out of bed or did not hear what I was told and did not understand the words. Today, I do not have that, I understand what it is about and I can feel. Yet, I do not have a strong yearning for adhesion with the Creator, the former aspiration, and this is darkness for me. The feelings and the mind work, but the yearning, the desire, disappeared and that is the darkness.

I begin to define the concept of darkness in higher parameters. I measure darkness not by how much I have not received from the Creator, but to what extent I do not yearn for Him. I only care about that and not about how much I receive from Him. That is unimportant to me because I do not want to receive, I want to bestow, to yearn. This means a new threshold of sensitivity in the work of the Creator, in the attitude toward Him.

I want my mind and heart to work only for the sake of bringing contentment to the Creator. I do not care what I have in my Kelim (Vessels), but only about what I can give to Him from them.

Previously, I considered the loss of desire or understanding to be a hardening of the heart. Now this isn’t there, everything seems to be in order. So, do I have the hardening of the heart or not? It is said that every moment there is a descent if we are able to see it because new Kelim are constantly revealed. Now I can feel good, but do I have yearning for the Creator, a desire to bestow to Him through the group, to love Him? If not, then it is called hardening of the heart.

This is a new type of hardening of the heart, which was not there previously. I did not even pay attention to such little things before, but now I am required to do just that. That is, the ascents and descents are now evaluated in relation to the longing desire, yearning, and bestowal to the Creator. With regard to that, I now have to examine myself whether I am in an ascent or descent, not by what I feel in my Kelim, but by my feelings toward the Creator.

I suddenly discover that I have none of the former desire and motivation. Previously, I was pushed by the fact that I lacked fulfillment and now my motivation should be that the Creator lacks. How can I find such desires and needs to reach out to Him within myself, to yearn to bestow and love at a time when I feel no need for it? The solution is to connect with the ten and through it raise a prayer to the Creator.

The Creator used to awaken the darkness and now I must awaken the predawn darkness myself. It is much harder. I myself must take care of my Kli, my desire, for the Creator. I used to turn to Him because I felt bad, and now that I do not feel bad at all, how am I going to turn to Him? Here is the place for yearning, prayer, and action. This is a more complicated situation, a qualitatively new degree.¹
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/19, “Hardening of the heart – Invitation to ascend”
¹ Minute 25:00

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“The Hardening Of The Heart—Opportunity For Ascent”
My Ten Is My Passport In The Spiritual World
Descents As Means Of Advancement

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “The Center of The Ten”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]” 

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Imagine that you are unemployed and there is no work, you have nothing to eat. Suddenly, somebody offers you a job and it is as if he gave you food, clothes, everything you need and more. Therefore, we must be grateful to the Creator for giving us the opportunity to work.

There are those to whom He did not give such an opportunity: billions of people received no invitation to work for the Creator, which means to receive the reward, the light of Hassadim, the ability to become a bestower like the Creator and to see that through the force of bestowal they receive a great reward.

Therefore, a person must be glad that he received the hardening of the heart—the place for work. This is the place where the Creator draws him closer, invites him to Himself. If the Creator fulfills a person in the place where he is, He pushes him away from Himself. We must understand this attitude and treat the descent purposefully.

Therefore, when it seems to me that the light does not shine upon me, I must take this as an invitation to seek how to emanate the light myself into the darkness. By revealing the darkness to me, the Creator reveals the shattered desire to me. I must bring to it the light of Hassadim in order to illuminate this desire.

If we relate to our states correctly, we will see that in each of them, supposedly bright or supposedly dark in the heart and the mind, there is always something we can add toward adhesion with the Creator in order to become ever greater partners of His in the work. The Creator takes a step and I accordingly take the second step complementing Him. This is how it is all the time: He does something and so do I.

As a result, I begin to better understand the Creator’s actions and I can divide them into stages and steps, and track the causes and effects. Thus, I find the causal dependence and increase the quality of my actions. It turns out that I already perceive this not as hardening of the heart, but as a language in which the Creator speaks to me. In all the ascents and descents, I begin to feel the construction of the vessels and their fulfillment, our conversation with the Creator, me and Him.

I begin to feel the ten as a musical instrument that gives me all the possibilities to express myself, and to hear and feel the Creator in the ten as if within a melody played on ten keys.

My mutual work with the Creator is in trying every moment to complete the state I find myself in. I realize that I have received this moment from the Creator, that all the feelings and understanding came from Him, and I must add this to “There is none else besides Him, the good who does good.” I do not act primitively, one on one, directly from me to the Creator, but through the ten. I begin to feel how my friends and I must connect with each other in order to provide a correct response to the Creator.

The entire ten connects in Arvut (mutual guarantee) in order to complete our common response to the Creator. The Creator changes our states and each of us must complete himself so that he balances the ten, brings everyone to one thought, to one intention together to bring contentment to the Creator.

Therefore, everyone wants to feel each other together in order to feel that the Creator is content. This is how we will start becoming closer to the Creator and talk to Him more and more. This is the language of communication with Him: in all the ten Kelim (vessels) we will feel a connection, a mechanism letting us talk to each other. If we are together with the friends, we hear the Creator and talk to Him.

“They helped everyone his friend”: through the connection with the friends we come to the ability to pass our thoughts and desires to the Creator and to hear His voice in our common Kli (vessel).

It is a special feeling when we feel ourselves not only together, but as one. With such a connection a resonance effect occurs: all the particular harmonics are connected together and give not just more power, but change into a new quality because of our unity.¹
[255631]

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/19, Hardening of the Heart – Invitation to Ascend
¹ Minute: 11:58 – 25:06

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Secret Language Of The Creator
Understanding The Language Of The Creator
The Whole World Is The Language Of The Creator

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “The Center of The Ten”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 105

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “The Center of The Ten”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 102

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First of all, you need to be integrated in your personal ten and only then in the entire world Kli. My ten is my personal Kli that I cannot exit, with whom I am connected, and in whom must invest myself. It is like a pacifier for a baby; in grabbing it, he instantly calms down and becomes himself.

This is how we should feel our ten, as if without it we do not exist and cannot do anything. This is my shield, the umbilical cord connecting me with Adam HaRishon, with the general system of all worlds. By integrating in my ten, through it, like that umbilical cord, I connect to the common soul of Adam HaRishon, and the Creator is revealed through it.

During the congress, I received a great desire from the big Kli, feeling the whole world. I must now bring all this intensity to my personal ten. Every friend in my ten is obliged to bring his or her impressions of the big Kli that was at the European congress. From all these impressions, our ten seemed to swell and become larger, and also feel a great connection with the world Kli.

This will happen every time after congresses: expansion and contraction, expansion and contraction, thanks to which we will grow.¹

With all the impressions I received from the world Kli, I am now in my ten confused and I must again find unity and connection in it. But this will already be a different connection because each of us comes with the impression of the big Kli, as if inflated, and therefore we must re-work on our connection.

The expansion has occurred, and now it must be converted into contraction so that our new connection is much more powerful than the previous one, with deeper internal qualities. It was as if ten children had joined before, and now it is already ten teenagers, and then there will be ten adults. Each time a new quality of connection is achieved due to the fact that from the expansion we return to contraction. With contraction, we seem to return to the same state, but at a higher level.

The permanent ten is my shield, my beloved pacifier for the baby, without which I do not exist. In the spiritual world, my ten is my passport.²
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/19, “Hardening of the Heart – An Invitation to Build a Yearning for the Creator”

1 Minute 58:15
2 Minute 1:07:20

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“The Hardening Of The Heart—Opportunity For Ascent”
The Essence of The Spiritual Work
A Long Way To Connection

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Lesson Preparation

Writings of Rabash, “Concerning Above Reason”  21 (1986)

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “The Center of The Ten”

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