Question: What should we do if we understand the greatness of the teacher, the greatness of the group, the greatness of the friends, and the greatness of the goal and still cannot overcome our inner resistance?

Answer: No one can overcome his own resistance by himself. It is a natural state and it cannot be otherwise. None of us has the strength; all the power is only in the group. There are a thousand zeros and if they don’t see the greatness of the teacher and the Creator as one whole, if they don’t place them above themselves, if they don’t connect to the idea that comes from Above, they will never change from zeros into one.

Everything depends on where you place your zero:, before or after the one, which means to what extent you value the group and the teacher. It is impossible to advance otherwise because it is all part of the method of connection.

You have been brought to the group and have been told, “Take!” This is your only free choice. If you want to, you can use it and realize yourself. If you don’t want to use it, you will not succeed. If you complain that you cannot overcome, it means that you already understand that you cannot achieve the goal by yourself. No one can do it by himself.

On the American dollar bill, for example, there is a picture of an eagle holding 13 arrows. This is the symbol of the power found in connection. Once the Indians showed the American president how easily a single arrow can be broken, but when they took several arrows and tried to break them they didn’t succeed. This symbol has remained on the dollar bill ever since.

One person cannot fulfill the attribute of bestowal. He doesn’t have the necessary power to do so. We speak about bestowal, but whom do you bestow unto, whom will you help and who will help you? You need at least one more person since the minimum of many is two.

You have received a group and all the necessary conditions that no one ever had in the past. There have never been better conditions than those we have today. The whole world is shattered and there is no goal or ideology as there was fifty or a hundred years ago when ideas of capitalism, socialism, and communism flourished. Humanity has run out of ideas and everyone worries about himself. The separatists want to divide the world into hundreds of states and each one escapes to his corner. This is what the modern world looks like. We, on the other hand, claim the opposite: that the cure, the remedy, the correction is only in connection.

I don’t see any obstacle that can stand in our way of advancing forward. We are surrounded by unprecedented care that comes from Above. Those who have engaged in the wisdom of Kabbalah throughout history never had such good conditions as we have today: you have friends; you have a method according to which everything is clear and straight forward.

If you remain idle and cannot commit yourself to work, it is a sign that you are disconnected from the group. We have to examine the place of the work between us together and fill it with our efforts. You have to exert yourself!

You have been given every possible opportunity: a new building [in Israel], dissemination via television and the Internet; so what else is missing for you to make your effort in the connection between us? Why don’t you join us?

Comment: I always had lots of strength and suddenly it is gone…

Answer: If you have no strength, ask for power! There is a prayer before a prayer, but we have to start from something. We have to act even though we have no strength and no desire. We are being treated mercifully from Above; in fact, we could have been afflicted by some Dinim (judgments). Then we would all come to study out of fear looking for advice to escape from the impending trouble.

But we are allowed to develop mercifully, like a spoiled child whose parents allow him to drive them mad and continue to love him and give him everything. What more help do you need? You cannot be given anything from Above if you don’t have a desire and don’t make even the slightest effort.
[130936]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/26/14

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “Love of Friends”

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “BeLaila De Kala (Night of the Bride),” Item 138

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Mutual Guarantee” 

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I understand where the inner resistance to dissemination stems from. Our ego prefers to sit in its place and simply read and listen to the teacher telling it something interesting instead of going out to disseminate.

This is all very clear. You don’t want to disseminate and you don’t even want to connect with the group. You would rather sit, study, and live peacefully and not run about anywhere. You think that this is much more suitable for your soul.

But the teacher who tells you very wise and interesting things also has some strange ideas, since he is asking you to go out, give lectures, speak to people and perform certain actions with them. You think that all this isn’t for you and that it has nothing to do with the wisdom of Kabbalah, which has always been concealed and studied quietly and secretly.

This is where the wisdom of the crowd comes in. The wisdom of the crowd means that you don’t want to do something according your mind and heart and cannot do it, even if you understand that you have to since it makes sense, even if Baal HaSulam and Rabash write that you don’t want to do this and every cell in your body resists it!

This is where you have to clarify things: Do you recognize that this is the advice of Kabbalists, despite your reluctance and endless excuses? Kabbalists say that it is an essential condition in our days: Baal HaSulam, Rabash, and your teacher say it is so. Your faith in the wise is determined when you annul yourself and perform the actions that they direct.

You will never agree with them on one thing or another. There is no way you will agree with your teacher as to the spiritual work because he always tells you about actions that you have to perform against your ego, which naturally seem to you unreasonable and undesirable.

This will happen over and over again and even if you agree to it theoretically, you will not accept it in practice and will try to evade it anyway you can, as long as you won’t have to do it. Your body will refuse to obey you.

The spiritual teacher is a person who is one level higher than you and who shows you where to put your hand, where to put your foot, and how to move your body so that you can ascend to the next level. This is because you don’t know how to get there or where to place your hand or your foot in order to reach a higher level.

It is like being on one side of a swamp trying to get to the other side. There are stepping stones in the swamp that are hidden under the water that you can use to advance and step to the other side. But, you cannot see these stepping stones. If you take a wrong step, you are lost and the swamp will immediately swallow and drown you in your ego in this life.

The teacher tells you where you should step each time and you must believe him. Otherwise, you will not be able to cross and will drown in this swamp. This is called faith in the sages. A person who tries to advance in this manner can cross the swamp. Of course, a person has endless doubts and it’s true that he acquires faith in the sages gradually, then exits himself and operates according to a higher mind.

This is how you can cross the swamp, and whoever follows this path can cross it. You need more luck than brains here.
[130845]
From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/14

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “The Prayer of Many”

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “BeLaila De Kala (Night of the Bride),” Item 138

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 7

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 17

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “A Prayer of Many”

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 6

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 16

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Question: Why is it so important for a person understand that he is not above nature but within it?

Answer: Because that is how he will agree to change himself and not nature, his environment. Until now, we have forced upon nature whatever comes to us.

Now, comes the response from nature, from human society, and we discover that we are cannot control anything, that we are weak, and the main thing, that we don’t understand what is happening.

We discover that we are not wiser than nature and are not above it. It is a paradox, on what basis do people, who is a product of nature, developing from the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate like some monkey, suddenly leap over his head and announce that he controls nature.

Who is a person to determine that he is above all of nature? He simply doesn’t see that he is managed by nature. We are intentionally made to think this way. It turns out that, for thousands of years, we lived innocently in an illusion. We thought that we managed nature. We evolved, hoping that we could develop without limits. We supposed that we were allowed to take and exploit everything that there is in nature, rebuilding nature.

For the first time, in our thousands-years history, we are beginning to understand that this was a serious mistake. We are discovering that we are managed and that there is a program for the development of humanity called the program of evolution, which is above us. We are within the program and are developing in accordance with it.

Now, our development has reached a state in which we are linked inextricably to all parts of nature, all parts of humanity, the world of the still, vegetative, and animate. The system is locked, and we are discovering that we are under the control of the program of nature. We are within a computer that is processing us, and we don’t know what to do. If we want to feel good (after all, we were created to feel good and bad), we need to accommodate ourselves to that computer program all the time. We need to accommodate ourselves to it in all areas: in family life, in the education of children, in social life, in education, in the economy, and in industry.

This is a completely new perception that didn’t exist in the world before, and it requires us to learn the higher program and how we can accommodate ourselves to it. IN addition, if we don’t do this, then we simply will cease to exist.

Some of the people already are beginning to understand that we are within a system of laws that we do not know. We receive such an illumination as a result of blows. There is no ruler who is ready to rule today. It makes no difference if this is a president or a prince; all control is slipping away between their fingers. They still are trying to control with force like before, but they are not succeeding.

Today, there is no power in this kind of control. Its time has passed! Control no longer comes from above to be carried out below. Rather, the success of society depends on every person, in the relationships among the common people.
[131191]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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There are no changes in the Light. It always shines abundantly and unlimitedly from Infinity. Everything depends on the vessel and to the extent to which it can prepare itself to be able to receive the Light and change. Therefore everything depends on the preparation, the intention, and on our environment.

We must prepare these conditions. The closer they are to the true request and demand, the more the Light will affect us. Our development is gradual, and we should understand what we must ask for at the moment. It is impossible to ask for something that is several levels above us that we don’t even have a desire for. This would be a useless, artificial request.

I must ask for what really can help my correction. The more I try to discover different deficiencies and goals, the more I gradually discover that they are wrong. This is how the right and true desire is shaped in me for what really suits me. I don’t ask for something that is unrealistic, like a small child who asks for a real plane while he needs a small plastic car. He will not get anything unless he asks for what is right for his age because he wouldn’t know how to play with it anyway.

We also must clarify what it is that we want exactly, what is correct for and useful to us, what the meaning of our correction is. Then, we arrive at one desire only: that the Creator should dominate our desire to receive, Pharaoh.

When we receive an illumination from above, it raises us and brings us out of the domination of our ego. We get a chance to think in a non-egoistic manner, to do good deeds, and to begin to see our friends as parts of our soul. This is how we prepare for the exodus from Egypt.

The escape takes place when the Light of redemption comes on condition that we have shaped the right desire, that we realize that it is our salvation, and that we don’t need anything but that. This means that our desire is strong and right. Then, we see that faith is actually a great power and that only the power of faith can take us out of the ego in order to be drawn constantly to bestowal whether we feel good or bad. No great achievements that we may discover will confuse us anymore. We must protect ourselves from them and from the different eruptions of the ego.

The Light of Infinity shines on us and builds the power of faith in us, the ability to rise and not to be dependent on our desire to receive, and even to perform certain actions in the direction of bestowal. Thus, we ascend higher and higher above our ego and eventually come out of Egypt.

As is written in Baal HaSulam’s article, “What is Greatness and Smallness in Faith”:

…Hence, the one who seeks the truth is the one who needs the Light of faith. If such a person hears or sees some way to obtain the Light of faith, then one is happy as though he had found a great fortune.

Hence, those people who seek the truth, on the holiday of Pesach, which is capable of the Light of faith, we read in the Parasha (Torah portion), “and they believed in the Lord, and in His servant Moses,” because then is a time that can impart that.

We must receive the power that will enable us to ascend above our ego so that nothing will stand in our way anymore—to connect to the level of Moses and to the level of the Creator, to the first level that is above our level. If we all make an effort to do so, we will be rewarded with the ability to reach this state.
[131183]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/14, Shamati #41

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot U Masbirot,” Item 11: …On the other end, when we regard the order of existence and sustenance in the modes of existence of the whole of reality, large and small, we find confused orders, as if an army is fleeing the campaign sick, beaten, and afflicted by the Creator. Their whole life is as death, having no sustenance unless by tormenting first, risking their lives for their bread.

Question: What is the meaning of “sick, beaten, and afflicted by the Creator?”

Answer: On the one hand, we see that nature has prepared and arranged everything for us, all the laws that govern the life of the created beings. But on the other hand, everyone devours each other and everyone benefits from the troubles of others. Each animal thinks only about how to devour another to fill itself, for its entire life, it spends its time looking for food.

A person worries about food even more than other animals. Prehistoric man lived like the animals and ate whatever he could find. He had no way of keeping food and preserving it and therefore had to look for food and collect roots and fruit. This was his daily worry. He had no spare time to do anything else but that. Man lived like an animal and was constantly busy looking for food.

Then man learned to domesticate animals, and so he began to cultivate domestic animals like cows, dogs, chickens, and so forth. He developed agriculture and didn’t need to hunt for food anymore since he had a farm with animals living by his side. There was no need to look for plants to eat since he could harvest his crops in his field. People ceased to wander from place to place and began to settle on their lands.

But this didn’t make their lives easier. It seemed that they could live in peace, but wars and disputes over territory broke out and people began to enslave other people. Life became worse than a dog’s life. On the one hand, everything seemed to be ready on nature’s part, but the management of the still, vegetative, animate, and especially man seemed to be very confused.

Why is there no peace among all parts of nature, and why can’t the prophecy, “And a wolf shall live with a lamb, … and a small child shall lead them” be fulfilled? Instead, everyone devours everyone else. We don’t understand why nature is this way. We have gotten used to this kind of life, but it is wrong. Why is life so? This is where people begin to doubt godliness. Everyone thinks that he can manage the world better than the Creator because he sees the great disorder in nature.

However, we must change ourselves and then we will see that nature and the Creator’s attitude toward us is correct. We must only connect to the upper force, and it will fix us and make us equal to it, which means that it will make us human beings.

The moment we change, we will perceive a different world. This will be a world that is totally good. Suddenly the wolf will dwell with the lamb and will lick it as its own cub. The little child will come to play with them. Everyone will help one another. Then, I will see that life always has been that way, and only I saw that everything was the opposite because my perception of reality was corrupted. I looked at the world through glasses that were totally shattered and therefore thought that the world also was shattered. Now, I have been given new lenses and I see that the world is wonderful, round, beautiful, and pure. It seemed totally shattered before because of my perception of reality.

Therefore, our goal is to correct ourselves to such an extent that we will see the whole upper providence as good and benevolent—the only force that operates in reality, the attribute of love and bestowal.
[130859]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/14

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Question: I don’t understand how I can connect with others if I don’t understand what this is. I can’t find any means for this within me.

Answer: You don’t have any means, but you have a teacher who tells you what you should pay attention to, and it is up to you to carry this out because the teacher knows that now it is time.

If it were not for the teacher, you would never reach this. So two levels exist, and there must always be a higher level that directs you upward. From your level, you cannot know where “north” is.

It is time for us to speak more about connection, and from day to day this is discovered more clearly. Some kind of thought about correction cannot appear in your mind unless you are a special soul, like the Ari or Moses, with a special role.

Question: So what depends on me?

Answer: How you make the efforts regarding connection depends on you. You don’t understand what this is, but you don’t need to understand. You need to carry it out, and the heart will be drawn after the deed.

Question: But I have carried out all kinds of actions and I thought that they were directed toward connection.

Answer: You didn’t think that you were carrying them out for the sake of connection with the group, to discover the Creator within this connection and to give Him satisfaction. You need to think about this more now.

We must understand that the spiritual world is revealed in the mutual connection between us called Arvut (Mutual Guarantee). This connection must move through all the stages: bestowing in order to bestow so at least that which you hate you do not do to your friend, and after that to receiving in order to bestow, that is, loving your neighbor as yourself, until the completion of correction.

All the commandments strengthen the connection between us, and the Torah is the Light that Reforms that illuminates our efforts and implements this connection. It is up to us only to ask that the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) will influence and correct us.

But first we need to make joint efforts to feel what to ask for in order to discover the deficiency and a request for Light that will correct the characteristics that disturb us from connecting. To the degree that we yearn for connection, playing and speaking about this in front of everyone,  and making efforts, then the Ohr Makif will begin to influence us.

This doesn’t depend upon the merit of our intentions. Even if our intentions are the most egoistic, like those of Pharaoh, the Light will illuminate us from a distance. According to the nature of the Light, it illuminates through the center of the group. If you don’t make an effort to connect with others, you will not receive the Ohr Makif.

After all, the Ohr Makif is the Ohr Pnimi (Inner Light) that is supposed to be discovered; it is the Creator. The difference between them is only the degree of revelation. The Light of Infinity is concealed behind each and every level until it is absolutely hidden. We are in a state where it is absolutely concealed from us. But actually we are in the world of Infinity; its is concealed from our senses.
[131070]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/14

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The goal of creation is to do good to the created beings, which means to enable the created beings to reach the level of the Creator. There cannot be a greater or a smaller gift than this—the desire to receive must be equal to the Light, to the desire to bestow.

The whole process of the evolution of the desire takes place in the desire itself, in its understanding, in its attainment and in its impressions. There are no physical changes; all the changes are in the inner impressions of the desire to receive compared to the Light. But the created being feels these changes as moving from place to place or in time and discerns the changes inside and around him.

Although the created being can see a totally opposite picture at any given moment and think that he is moving from one world to another, from one level to the next, all that takes place only in his internal attributes. It is hard to understand at the moment because we have not undergone any changes that take us from one world to another or from one level to the next yet. The process that the desire to receive undergoes is a process of clarification and correction that is fulfilled by the efforts that the desire makes. Thus the created being builds his vessel. If the process continues naturally without an effort, it is called the level of still, vegetative, and animate nature that are managed by the Light.

But if the created being makes an effort before the Light affects him, it is as if he manages the Light himself and thus expresses his freewill, his independence. Therefore, of everything we go through, it is only what we have done by our efforts according to our decision in the short spans of freewill that we were given that is taken into account.

This is all we are required to do. But wherever we can grow stronger in order to reach an equivalence of form with the Light, we can fulfill our freewill. We are in a special state, surrounded by lots of people, and we have a chance to perform corporeal actions instead of spiritual actions for the time being.

These actions are not in order to bestow for the time being but are actually egoistic, but through them we express our desire to reach bestowal, mutual guarantee, mutual help, support, and connection. Thus, we show that we want to reach an equivalence of form with the Creator and reach the level of a human being.

The connection between us is called Shechina, the place for the revelation of the Creator. We wish to build a network of connections between us, of mutual help, support, and unity until eventually the network will be so tight and full that it will become a vessel, a volume in which the attribute of mutual love and bestowal can be revealed. Our vessel will contain the Light to the extent that we make an effort to resemble true bestowal.

If our efforts are not true yet and not aimed at true bestowal but for our own benefit, the Light cannot be revealed in the vessel and it illuminates above us in the form of the Surrounding Light. It is actually inside us, but we see its illumination from a distance since we cannot use it correctly yet.

Thanks to the Light that surrounds us, we gradually correct our desires to such an extent that they can already have true intentions to bestow on a certain level of the 613 desires, which means to connect for the general sake and not for our private benefit as each one thought previously. Then the Light is gradually revealed to the extent that we are equivalent in form to the Light. Then the general vessel is called Shechina, the Light inside it that is called the Shochen (the dweller) and the revelation of the Light is called “redemption.” The Light is revealed inside the vessel.

In the meantime, our vessel cannot receive the Light, which means that its components (the friends) are not connected in bestowal and mutual guarantee but yearn to reach that, a state that is called “exile.” Exile can be on different levels in different states. Increasing the yearning and the desire for the Light determines the sorrow we feel about being in exile. If our sorrow isn’t egoistic but because we cannot reach connection in order to delight the Creator, the source of Light, it invokes the action of the Surrounding Light, which corrects us and gives us the power to connect and raises us to the level of the Shechina. Thus we leave the exile and connect with the Creator.

These states change: exile-redemption and then again exile-redemption. Today we are at the end of the last exile, on the verge of the last redemption. The laws of correlation between the Lights and the vessels have brought us to the end of this process, to the last action. Let’s hope that we will feel that the Shechina is in exile and as a result reach redemption!
[131028]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/14

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