Question: How can we discover the Creator in every action that we make? After all, we have personal desires, social desires, desires of the group. How can we focus ourselves anew each time?

Answer: When I begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, this world still dominates me. Car or bus rides, house chores, trips to the bank and post office, seeing different people, places, the news, the radio, TV, the Internet with all its confusion—I am totally filled by this world.

Kabbalah brings along different problems that are meant to build an empty place in us, to make room, to shake me and create a part in me that doesn’t belong to this world. Even when I am still confused in this world and don’t get along in it, I detach myself from it to some extent eventually. It isn’t that I don’t depend on it but that I am not automatically dominated by it. Here this world doesn’t dominate me and doesn’t have the powers that dominate everyone in the world.

In our ordinary life everything is connected: a person who is born and raised in the jungle behaves according to the laws of the jungle. The same applies to the urban jungle, anyway the world dominates a person and formats him from childhood. So to give me the opportunity to look at things more objectively and independently I have to be shaken to make room inside me for another perspective, and this takes a long time.

I can shorten time by connecting to the group. If I am strongly connected to the friends, more blows can be sent to me, more shakings, and then I advance faster. However, these aren’t ordinary blows and troubles but blows in the relationship that I try to make stronger. If instead of tightening my connection with the world, I tighten my connection with the friends in the group and focus on that, I will feel more blows in that respect and this is where I will have more discernments and more experience.

This is how I shorten time: by transforming the external blows and troubles into internal ones, thus making them more qualitative. It is impossible to do so without blows, but here they become purposeful.

I begin to worry about the group and to take care of it in my connection with the friends, in my attitude to the study and dissemination, and this becomes the most important thing for me. Now I begin to look at the world in a more objective manner, or at least from the side, and not according to my previous discernments of the world but with new discernments. Now I begin to see everything that happens through the principle of “there is none else besides Him,” through the discernments of the group, and I see everything in an opposite manner.

But this happens very slowly. First I tip the scale a bit each time in favor of this world, which means that I look at everything—the family, home, the study, friends, my world, the bank and other institutions like the post office, the medical care clinic, social security, the education system, etc.—through different eyes. I feel all that as one whole called my world, which is clarified in my vessels, in my desires, but I still have to see the one upper leadership that demands the same one unique attitude toward everything from me. Thus the whole picture becomes a meeting place with the Creator for me. He fixes everything and I reveal Him in every single detail in this world.

This is a very good discernment and we should reach it as soon as possible so that from now on we will begin to take care of the phase of Ibur (conception).
[127405]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/14, The Book of Zohar

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “In the Absence of the Ability to Establish the Attribute of Truth, They Tried to Establish the Noble Attributes”

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 34

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Torah and Prayer,” Item 180

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World,” “Practical Difficulties in Determining the Truth”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Gatehouse of Intentions,” Item 79

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 22

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

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Question: Yesterday you said that help from the Creator comes in the form of troubles, blows to the ego, yet when they strike my “donkey” it doesn’t seem like help to me….

Answer: There is no greater help than this. After all, I am within the desire to receive, egoism, and what truly works on me are these blows, not a nice attitude.

Basically, the blows that the Creator gives me are a reward, and my work is always “to kiss the stick.” I build a new spiritual Kli by changing my attitude to the blows, identifying with them and leaving my suffering donkey. The donkey, let it suffer; I turn to the side of the rod and am eager to adhere to the hand that holds it.

With the help of the blows I separate and free myself from my egoism. When I have no where to escape them, I cannot help but wonder if it isn’t possible to evade the stick, then I no longer want to identify with the “flesh.” This is a natural reaction: if I feel unbearable suffering, first of all I ask the doctor for a pill to reduce the pain, meaning I want to pull away from the suffering of the body.

That is how the pain helps me to renounce egoism and connect to something that is used for helping me. And suddenly looking at my ego from the outside, I discover that I am suffering specifically because of it. So the pain helps me distance myself from the ego and get closer to the Creator.

So the blows are necessary. But upon whom are they falling? It is not on me, but my egoistic desire. This desire is not me. I want to identify, not with the “body,” not with the desire, but with intentions for bestowal, to the yearning for bestowal, that are above egoism. Now I understand the desire was given to me to so that over it I would adopt the attitude and involvement with bestowal.

Consequently I need the blows. They help me to make the right calculation.

It is said: “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” The entire history of the people of Israel since they left Babylon is the history of overcoming suffering. Even in the period of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) there were numerous wars and problems that accompanied the inner work, the clarification of egoism and its correction. The Torah calls Israel a “stiff-necked people” (Exodus 33:3); after all, their desire was always increasing and this led to stronger confrontations.

What can we say about the last 2,000 years of exile when the people were pursued by troubles and faced brutality; it knew no bounds. How is it possible to compare this to a day of illness after a fever? All of these troubles came from the Creator, the good who does good (Psalms 119:68), and landed on the egoistic desire making to make it possible to detach from it and achieve bestowal.

So the problem is that we identify with the desire to receive. If, contrary to the program, despite the fact that it was imposed upon me, I have not yet renounced egoism and am still connected to it, I need to receive blows.

But in fact this is not so, and when I separate from egoism I will stop getting the stick on account of myself. When my time arrives to separate from the ego, to leave it, to that degree trouble befalls me. But the stick comes down specifically on the desire and not on me. If I am detached from the desire, then I don’t feel the blow; on the contrary, I feel good, more strength, health, and attainment.

This is the entire problem. That is what is called exile.

The Creator will increase the blows on the desire to receive methodically so that we will abandon it. Today all of humanity is entering into this process along with the people of Israel, but nevertheless, the people of Israel still have to repay their debts.
[127980]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/14, The Zohar

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 32

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” “Good and Bad Are Evaluated by the Actions of the Individual Toward Society”

Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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Human growth in the spiritual world is similar to the phases of the moon, the constant renewal of the moon. The moon symbolizes Malchut, which in itself is black and doesn’t shine but reaches correction through the Ohr Hozer (Returning Light). The correction of the moon is called Kiddush (Sanctification), which is Kodesh (Holiness), meaning it rises to the level of Bina through which it is whitened. Through corrections, the black point transforms into a white point every month.

A Hodesh (Month) symbolizes Hidush (Innovation), and this doesn’t necessarily last thirty days. It is even after this when the work with our spiritual Partzuf is divided into Rosh, Toch and Sof, each one with ten Sefirot from which exactly thirty parts result. However, in the meantime, we can go through renewals every moment because we have not yet discovered the details clarifying our contact with the Creator at every point.

So, the main thing now is to try to construct oneself as an Ubar (Fetus) within the group. It is necessary to imagine that the group has the image of the Creator that it is in connection and love, and only I must become integrated with it. Through the group, I will be able to find the strength that will help me to nullify myself.

I must nullify myself regarding all of the events in life, but this doesn’t mean that I don’t need to do anything, as we sometimes mistakenly think and sit without moving in some meditation, canceling ourselves with respect to something higher. Nullifying myself means canceling my egoism, not inaction.

I specifically need to carry out actions, and there are many. I need to contend with all of the disturbances that conceal “There is none else besides Him” and, as it is written, “You are good and You do good” (Psalms 119:68) from me. I need to determine beyond all of the disturbances that everything comes from the Creator, both me and my surroundings.

There is only one black point, from which I make a clarification about myself and the environment, that wants to blacken everything from perspective of my egoism. It is only this black point that I must transform into white, understanding that everything comes by command of the Creator, according to His order, and that is how to advance.

If we make efforts like these and help each other, then very rapidly we will reach a state of Ubar.
[127529]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “What, You Have Given the Strong to the Hands of the Weak, Means in the Work”

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Good and Evil” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” “Rewarded – I Will Hasten It, Not Rewarded – In Its Time”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Gatehouse of Intentions,” Item 78

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 9

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Gatehouse of Intentions,” Item 78

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Rabash, “What Is That The Right Hand Should Be Raised Over The Left Hand In The Work”: We need the drawing force and the delaying force in conception. This means that conception is the first phase when a person enters Holiness.

The drawing force is the force that shows the truth, the drawing of the world, which means whether one has a good picture of the state he is in, which shines on him in the world, which means the form he has when he looks at his work, whether he is in a state of wholeness or not, meaning whether he works for in order to bestow or whether he wants to work for in order to bestow no matter what.

The delaying force is called by that name since when the drawing force shows a person the truth, which during conception is called the beginning of the world, he surely sees the deficiencies which may be grip for the Sitra Achra (the other side) and therefore there must be a delaying force, so that the embryo will not fall, which means fall into the Sitra Achra, and in order to delay and prevent the fall although there is a deficiency, as the drawing force shows, a certain form that this work has, the delaying force is called the right line.

It is because it moves on to the phase of wholeness, which means that he believes in the faith of sages who said that a person should be happy with what he has, which means with his attainment of the Torah and the Mitzvot (commandments), which is a great reward for him since he sees that there are people to whom the Creator has not given a thought or a desire even for the fact that I do have a certain attainment, which is called the delaying force, that one should not fall from the world and that he will also be born later, meaning from this world of keeping himself in conception, meaning at the beginning of the work, that there should be two lines, meaning the right and the left lines, and he will be rewarded to be born and to be in the phase of suckling of Holiness, which by the drawing force and the delaying force a whole embryo will come out of this work in Holiness.

Our development involves drawing and delaying. The drawing force develops the embryo and the delaying force delays and guards the embryo so that that drawing force would not destroy the embryo and so that it will develop into the correct body. The drawing force develops the embryo from the inside and the delaying force limits it on the outside and so together they build the future newborn.

It is just like a statue that can be sculptured out of clay and can be made from a block of marble by removing unnecessary parts, which means that it is possible to add or to remove, to add a form or to remove matter, and thus eventually turn the block of marble into a statue.

This is how our embryo is formed, because we need two forces, the force of bestowal and the force of receiving, which should be balanced, in harmony, supporting each other; the Light keeps the darkness and the darkness keeps the Light. This is the reason that we must constantly yearn for connection, mutual support, love, and corrections because this is the correction of the shattering. We build the embryo in the connection between us, the states of Ibur (conception), Yenika (suckling) and Mochin (mind), meaning our increasingly more advanced forms, until the end of correction. This development is achieved by the increasingly greater connections between the parts of the desire, attributes, and inclinations that are in the connection; the drawing force is revealed in the feeling of connection between us.

I undergo ascents and descents in the same connection, feeling it as good or bad, justifying it or not. I see the depicting force that draws the picture of the Lord’s work for me in a different way and so I must constantly work on keeping my state of an embryo so that despite the pictures that are depicted to me I will accept them thankfully and be impressed by them because I keep advancing in bestowal toward the true form of the Creator, toward absolute love and bestowal.

It turns out that I need the delaying force, which guards and doesn’t allow me to break through and to criticize but constantly keeps me impressed by the forms that I attain. These forms are not pleasant, of course, if we weigh them by our egoistic mind and feelings, and so I constantly need the delaying force that brings me back to the right conclusions.

If these new forms are forms of in order to bestow, I weigh them in my desire to bestow in faith above reason and accept them as good and right forms, and although at the moment I cannot accept them in my heart and soul, I accept them in faith above reason, in my overcoming power, and agree to be in them without any egoistic sweetening. I don’t think about my personal benefit but only about the well being of the group, of the environment.

I am required to scrutinize things carefully and sharply in order to weigh my situation soberly and without mistakes in the spiritual fog. But I actually weigh things simply and see whether it is for the sake of my ego or for the sake for the environment. If I weigh it from the perspective of the environment, I ensure that my embryo adheres increasing more tightly to the wall of the womb. The group is the womb. Thus I advance and adapt myself more and more to the upper, to the spiritual womb, and this is how I will be able to receive from the upper increasingly more of the Light that Reforms, like a corporeal embryo who receives his vitality from his mother.
[127446]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14

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