Lesson Preparation
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Lesson on the Topic “From Love for the Created Beings to The Love for the Creator”
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 6, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 15
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”
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The three weeks preceding the 9th of Av have begun. These days are called Bein ha Metzarim (“between the straights”). Everything happening in this world is the effect of the upper system. Actions and states in our world spread from the upper root to the material branch and materialize in this world as branches, in the inanimate material, vegetative, animate, and people, in time and space. We must study the roots by analyzing their branches.
As of today, the upper branches have already materialized in our world, all except the final correction (Gmar Tikkun). Everything that had to be revealed has been revealed; all that is left is the final correction. That is why Baal HaSulam says that we are living in the times of the last generation that will have to correct the shattering, which has already been completely revealed. We now only need to apply effort in order to rise above it.
But the ascent upward is impossible without a clear understanding of the malfunction that exists in the system and a correct relationship to it, as being a necessary initial condition. Essentially, it is not a sin. The creation of the evil inclination was necessary. Both the “sky” and the “earth” are necessary because “He created them one against the other,” as if the evil force has been created against the good force.
In reality, it only emphasizes the positive. It is because, as is later revealed, there is no evil. There is only a lack of the good. Also, the good will be revealed in multifaceted ways as a result of the role the evil played against it. There is no evil, there is only the revelation of the good in its opposite form.
We need to learn that there is a connection between the root and the branch. This means that in our time, as was during the course of our entire history, the root appears through the branches on particular dates, repeating in the same points in time; for example, the 17th of Tammuz, the 9th of Av. These dates always brought suffering to the nation of Israel, while the time around Purim was usually joyful and happy.
That is why during these days we need to be especially careful, even in our material concerns, and avoid risky actions until the end of day of the 9th of Av. Right after it, we already begin to feel that we are exiting from a mourning period and can rejoice and aspire toward the final correction.
The 17th of Tammuz is the beginning of the days “between the straights,” associated with the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple wall, and the destruction of the Temple itself, symbolizing the existing connection in the nation of Israel after entering the land of Israel. This connection becomes possible thanks to the reception of the Torah, the preparation for which was the 40 years of wandering in the desert and the correction of Malchut with the help of Bina. Bina is the letter “mem – מ” (forty).
After that, as soon as they built the First Temple, they immediately began to fall. They built the Second Temple, already lower than the First, but it was also destroyed. That was already the final destruction. All of this destruction occurred on the day of the 9th of Av.
For us, today, the immediate goal is to re-establish the Shechina (divinity). In other words, the correction must occur specifically on the same dates. Where hatred and shattering were revealed, unity and the love must also be revealed.1
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/18, Lesson on the Topic: “The Period of ‘Between the Straits’”
1 Minute 0:20
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Lesson Preparation
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Lesson on the Topic “From Love for the Created Beings to The Love for the Creator,” Part 1
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Lesson on the Topic “From Love for the Created Beings to The Love for the Creator,” Part 2
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Only through awakening the friends do I awaken my soul. The realization of correction moves from the individual outward. We have nothing to correct within ourselves.1
I must be in a group with friends all the time and constantly think how to bring them closer to the goal of creation. My correction is contained in this. I begin with the intention that I do not wish them any harm. If I restrict myself, stop my egoism and do not use it, then it is already an entrance into the process of correction because I do not wish evil for others.
From this point onward, I look at each person from a different perspective than before. I don’t see faces or bodies. If I move through a restriction with respect to them and establish that I do not see anything negative in them, then I begin to see the spiritual world, as if I step over the threshold and enter spirituality. From this moment on, I look at the world without a backward glance at my egoism and only look at how I can bring all of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature to adhesion with the Creator. I was created only for this and I received an awakening. My goal is not to raise myself up along the spiritual levels, but to bring the friends to the Creator.2
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/18, Baal HaSulam, “The Love for the Creator & Love for the Created Beings”
1 Minute 18:10
2 Minute 20:30
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Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Rabash, Vol. 2, Article 15 “And Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall” (1985)
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Lesson on the Topic “The Period of “Between the Straits”
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 6, Item 31
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Writings of Rabash, Vol. 3, Article 566 “Cast Their Seed Among the Nations”
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We intentionally take ourselves out of balance so that we can feel how much we need the Creator. It is written, “Israel hastens time.” That’s why we cannot sit and wait for something to happen by itself. We must act ourselves.
If the same state keeps repeating over and over, it is called death. I must try to change it. It is in my power to change day and night. All of this is only to create a need for the Creator. We want to forcefully place ourselves into states where we will not be able to cope without the help of the Creator.
This is not about bringing suffering upon ourselves. These are not bad states. Evil is that which comes without our prior preparation, that which comes from the path of suffering. But I go by the path of hastening the Light—Achishena—and awaken myself: “I awaken the dawn.” I, myself, want to feel the darkness and the dusk because I develop a taste for them. And without this, I have no flavor, like tasteless food without salt and pepper.
This is a positive state, not a negative one, where it feels like the ground under your feet is disappearing, fear grips you, your head is cloudy, and all foundation is gone. Along with this, somewhere in a far distant corner of the mind, I understand that this comes only in order to advance me, and that is why I rejoice. This is not the path of suffering— together we awaken the dawn. We need to clear the space that the Creator will fill. And in the next moment, fear again engulfs me.
If fear of the future awakens within me and, along with it, I understand that all of this is done by the Creator to bring me closer to Him, and I hold on to Him, then I justify my state and my fear for however short an instant. The main thing is that I achieved adhesion with the Creator, and I see that the point of everything that occurred was in Him.
I again quickly lose the connection with the Creator, and again I am a newborn who lost his mother, who glances around and doesn’t see her anywhere. This is an egoistic approach, but it is already the right demand for the Creator.1
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 6/24/18, Preparation for the Convention in Italy 2018
1 Minute 20:30
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Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Rabash, Vol. 2, Article 42 “What Is, “An Ox Knows Its Owner, etc., Israel Does Not Know,” in the Work?” (1991)
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 6, Item 27
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Lesson on the Topic “The Period of “Between the Straits”
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Writings of Rabash, Vol. 3, Letter 76
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If we exert effort toward unity in order to fulfill the thought of the Creator and bring creation to correction, then we will see that we cannot do this alone. That is why we turn to the upper force with a prayer, we raise MAN, and then as an answer to MAN, we receive the power for unity.
In this unity, which is achieved with the help of the reforming Light called the Torah, we begin to reveal the spiritual life, the higher degree, the Creator; that is, the upper force of bestowal and love becomes revealed within the correct connection between the parts of the collective soul. And we reveal a power of unity and Light that is 620 times greater; in other words, the Creator is revealed to us 620 times more powerfully than before and that is why we can finally notice, feel, and connect to Him.
If we have no great need for correction and our closeness to one another does not reach the necessary strength to draw the Light that reforms, then we will not receive the Torah. The Torah is a special power of Light, which acts on our efforts toward unity when we desire it greatly but still discover that we cannot achieve it.
The difference between the desire and reality that triggers pain and a tremendous need for correction in us is called MAN (female waters). In other words, the great difference between Malchut (the female property) and Bina (water) is revealed. We greatly want to unite, to rise to the level of Bina, but we find ourselves on the level of Malchut. And this chasm triggers a reaction from the Creator, the upper force, the Light that reforms, which acts on the chasm that we discovered between Malchut and Bina, between our natural desire to receive and our aspiration to be in bestowal.
If we discover this chasm between us, then we can reveal the upper Light, which will act on it. Light corrects the chasm and fills it with the Light of unity. Our desires unite together and the Creator is revealed within them.
If we cannot discover this chasm with enough strength, then it means we are on the level of the “patriarchs,” to whom the Torah had not yet been given, that is, in the state prior to correction. We continue to exist only thanks to the support of the upper force, which awaits the time when we will be able to progress under our own power. This is a short stage on the path toward correction, which needs to be completed as quickly as possible.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/18, Lesson on the topic “The Love of God and the Love of Man”
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There are several exercises for reaching a prayer to the Creator. First of all, it is necessary to acknowledge that we already, in truth, have a connection with the upper force and we exist in the field of its action.
Otherwise, we are like children who in their naiveté do not suspect that the mother constantly watches them and think that they are on their own. The group must constantly give us the sensation that we exist in the force field of the Creator.
In reality, the Creator fills the entire world, but this experience is hidden from us. However, the friends, the group, are able to give us such a sensation. And even though I myself do not feel my dependence on the Creator, do not feel His moment-by-moment influence by which He insures my existence, corrects and guides me, the group can awaken these sensations within me.
We must show our friend that he has a connection with the Creator, and this is the main thing—everything else is just supporting means. This brings us to the sensation of our dependence on the upper force, at first egoistically, for ourselves, to make it better for us. However, then I begin to think about making it better for us, because it is impossible to awaken the Creator alone but only in a ten.
The more tens start to work like this, the greater our strength and our chance to awaken the upper force becomes. We will feel how the Creator draws closer to us. This is how we gradually develop our senses; this is our entire life’s work, all our spiritual development.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/18, Lesson on the topic “From Helplessness to Crying Out to the Creator”
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We must seek out such changes that will bring us to the awareness of evil, the darkness between us. What does it mean that “we awaken the dawn” (the darkness before the dawn)? I reveal the blackness, the darkness, the deficiency in our relationships, which I had not seen earlier because of the strength of old habits.
But I became uncomfortable as a result of the changes that were made. This does not mean, however, that I quit, that I no longer come. In awakening the dawn, we create the place for the prayer, we learn to turn to the Creator. It is the only thing we need: to clarify the deficiency related to the path, then we ask, we demand the correction from the Creator, for Him to advance us.
We will find ourselves in such states that we cannot change or correct by ourselves. But we will discover exactly what needs to be corrected, what is happening to us. On the path of “hastening time” (Achishena), we must look for the darkness ourselves, like the hunched over old man who walks and searches as if he lost something. We must awaken the dawn ourselves, learn to walk by ourselves, like a toddler learns to take his first steps.
The goal is to come to a prayer for the Creator for help. We can accelerate it if we draw the dawn closer ourselves, revealing the darkness before the Light, the deficiency. The feeling of the deficiency is already a prayer and it may become so strong that we receive an answer from the Creator and enter into dialog with Him, as it is written: “I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me.”
This is a new and a very important stage: to teach us the correct relationship to destiny and the correct use of the upper force. This is the path by which we enter the work in Achishena, when we are no longer just pulled forward or pushed from behind, but we ourselves initiate and formulate our steps.
Changes reveal the problem that was hidden inside. The usual shortcomings become invisible and that is why they have no chance of correction. But when these disturbances are suddenly revealed, they trigger a prayer to the Creator for help, to which there is a reaction from above. We raise MAN to the Creator and receive MAD from Him. These are already actions connecting us with the Creator, revealing contact with Him.1
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/18, Preparation for the Lesson
1 Minute 5:55
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