Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 64: …with respect to the wisdom of the Torah, it is increasingly revealed in the latter generations. This is so for the reason we have mentioned, that the overall measure is completed specifically by the latter ones. This is why more complete Lights are extended to them, although their own essence is far worse.

This stems from the reverse order of between vessels and Lights. The purer and more refined the vessels are the less Light is in them, even though these vessels are expressed and corrected by the vessels that precede them. And conversely, the greater and deeper the “thickness” of the vessels, the more difficult it is to correct them. In contrast to this, the Lights in them are greater and are revealed by means of their correction.

These lights are specifically clothed in the finest and most refined vessels, being that the Lights are implemented in the order of NRNHY, while the order of the correction of the vessel is KHB ZON. In other words, the vessels are revealed from Keter to Malchut, from the highest to the lowest, whereas with the Lights it’s the opposite, from Nefesh to Yechida, from the smallest to the greatest. They are linked between them in such a sequence.

This principle is not simple and confuses us and it’s very difficult for our understanding of the reciprocal relationships within the system in general, in every world and between the worlds. Sometimes we simply need to accept this as a general rule, as a law, until this gradually “settles” and is integrated with new internal vessels. And only after a person feels the essence does he begin to understand it. In the beginning the feeling comes within the corrected vessels to a particular degree; after that, understanding comes. So intellect always follows feeling.

People who are not linked to the inner essence of the Torah and are guided by their external intellect don’t understand this principle and therefore don’t see the uniqueness of our time and generation. They are familiar with the process of general deterioration; yet together with this, they remove themselves from the responsibility to correct the world. They suppose: “If we have deteriorated so much already, then all that is left for us is only to hope for the coming of the Messiah.”

Yet this is not right. Our generation is the most important for the general goal. And even though we are bent under the heavy burden of our ego, it is intended that we will work on it and will not be rid of it. Through work like this, we attract very great Lights for the highest souls that are beginning to correct humanity, and these souls are Adam, Abraham, and so forth. And we receive a thin and small Light according to our place in the general system, and we advance in this way until we reach the complete ten Sefirot of the entire creation.

Then in fact, we reach attainment and understand what difficult work we have carried out. Even if we were to make a mistake and be confused, even though we don’t succeed in solving and interpreting, even though we have erred and violated, this is unimportant. Otherwise it is impossible. In the end everything will reach the right analysis, the true account, and only then, on the highest level, can we correctly evaluate our state and discern its significance. And in the meantime, it’s up to us to proceed with “faith above reason” and believe in Baal HaSulam who wrote that the first generations were significant because of their refined desires, whereas we are significant because of our “thickness.”
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can I help the group to become a raspberry ball?

Answer: You need to be concerned about this as a person upon whom everything depends. And this is indeed the case. Our problem is that we think: “I am one among many thousands!” This is not true, each one is unique! These are not just words but the property of the integral system.

Therefore we cannot force a person to remain in the group and also cannot expel him from it. Each one chooses this through his actions, through his relationship to the group, for he becomes a foundation for human advancement.

Everyone must have a feeling of responsibility, a feeling of personal destiny; not only does the fate of the world depend on me, but that of the whole creation, of all advancement towards the Creator. And this is truly so. When we attain spirituality, we begin to understand that everyone except for me is in a completely corrected state, and I am the only one who wasn’t corrected, and everything acts in such a manner as to show me this in their reflection.

What we see in the world is our reflection: Someone kills someone, someone steals, abuses someone, this is all our ego that is demonstrating itself to us. How can I be relaxed and remove myself from this state?

To feel responsibility for the whole world, this is our obligation. Each one of us, this is the universe! Today the physicists already speak about multiple universes, and this is truly so: Many universes are included one within the other.

Therefore feeling our task is something very important for we are the main participants in creation. On the other hand, we must not panic. Our work is realized correctly only through the group, and nobody is exempt from this. It’s interesting that even those that we attract among the masses will feel this activity as their great mission.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Workshop 5

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Question: A couple of days ago you said that if we keep the same level of connection that we have attained the Messiah will come. Are we headed in the right direction? How can we provide the mutual support and how do we continue our work correctly?

Answer: We are heading in the right direction and I am really pleased with the outcome of the convention and with your conduct after the convention. However, we still lack the inner connection, which it isn’t up to us but up to the world around us since we have to draw it after us. Therefore, we will not receive the force of the Messiah until there are hundreds of thousands and even millions behind us since we need to receive the force of Messiah for them.

We have to build up a “layer of fat,” so that there will be a place around us in which people will understand, hear, and feel to some extent what the solution to the crisis is. Then our prayer will not be egoistic and not in order to receive. We don’t receive anything in spirituality for no reason, but only if we have whom to convey it to on the outside. Otherwise it will be a fall, a terrible shattering!

Only when we connect to millions will we gradually be able to convey the Light that Reforms to them and our spiritual attainment will be a billion times greater than what we convey to them. So we need a quantity of people on the outside to whom we will be connected more or less, which can be the result of a lecture that we give, giving someone a book, or telling someone about our ideas, etc. There is no need for any physical connection since it’s by these actions that they already connect to us to some extent through the virtual spiritual network.

We are on the right track and we try to fulfill everything. The main thing is to participate in the lessons and in dissemination: no matter whether the outcome seems good or not. We have to provide people with the minimal information that this is the only way to correct the world, and that’s enough. If we could attract two million people this way, we would really be rewarded with the Light that would raise us to the next level. It’s called Messiah, or the force that draws us through the Machsom (barrier) from the lowest state to the next higher state.

Question: When does an ordinary person connect to us? Suppose he reads something and says that he agrees, is that it, does he already become part of us?

Answer: He has to participate in the connection between us in some way, at least passively, like reading what is on our site or by reading the material that you send him. No matter how a person responds, as long as you nourish him a little with excerpts or articles or invite him to a meal without asking for anything in return but simply inviting him since we gather together. If he only reads something that we publicize, he is already part of us; don’t underestimate these small weak connections!
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Question: If we are the ones who correct the shortcomings of the wider public, including them in our desires and elevating them, then what is left for the rest of humanity to do?

Answer: Obviously we don’t resolve the work for them.

Question: Is this saying that they will also pass through the same states on the way to connection?

Answer: They must pass through those same states through which we pass, but on the smallest scale.

Suppose that for fifty years I developed and built a computer. Eventually I brought it home and turned it on. But the moment that I turned around, my grandson immediately sat in front of the screen and began to press the keys of the keyboard. I am fundamentally a person who is used to the right approach, carefully learning the instruction manuals, and he throws them up in the air: “Grandpa, everything is very simple here! I will just try a few things and then I will explain everything to you.”

He learns instinctively, interactively, feels within himself, and easily guesses how we get the result. Apparently the computer is built for the way he thinks and not the way I do. For me this computer was produced from suffering and effort and my grandson doesn’t need to make the effort; instead he grasps everything naturally. In other words, I made a great correction so that my grandson would get everything ready-made. And now he can work more efficiently than I can on the device that I built.

Lurking here are two opposites, two levels. We carry out greater and more difficult work, and apparently others only reap the fruit and rise more easily to the level of their generation.

For them everything will be much simpler, natural. We invest years in order to attain some kind of result, in order to find the form of the workshops that will raise new questions, and they will immediately get it and understand that certainly this is what should be done. Following the trouble that we take now, sweating and being in doubt, with them the complete picture will be immediately managed in their heads.

Question: If this is the case, is it necessary for the whole world to participate in at least one workshop and then everything will begin to be arranged by itself, or must we direct people again and again?

Answer: They will get feelings and intelligence “automatically”, regardless of the forms that this process will take.

In general, in the way of spiritual advancement, every level is the opposite of its predecessor; therefore, it is impossible to speculate, to assess a particular state based on another state. In my estimation people feeling that connection in the form of the workshops makes it possible for them to solve all problems in life. And so they will themselves seek and adopt the method through the Internet, television, and so forth without much talk, like children who don’t need instructions to operate a computer. And the current fashion is transient.

Question: So it could be that it is up to us to bring into public awareness an expansion of the information touching upon the new method as quickly as possible?

Answer: No. If we ourselves don’t make more of an effort, other people will also remain “outside of the business.” The grandson is smart because his grandfather and father took the trouble throughout their lives, they “gained” his new mind, new understanding.

It is up to us to make an effort to a particular level and then suddenly there will be a breakthrough, and a buyer will be found for our “merchandise.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: During the congress, we learned to feel each other better, to sense the desires of the friends. At the same time, our sensitivity to all other people that we come across in everyday life became sharper too.

Answer: It is simply becoming clear who they are. After all, when we look at small children, we understand them. Likewise, right now, when we look at the masses, we understand what they actually are: nothing—essentially children.

Question: What should be happening inside of us at the moment we go among them to disseminate?

Answer: Nothing. Love, forgive, and understand them. They are ordinary people with all their weaknesses, thoughts, and desires—everything that is instilled into them through the program of nature. How else could you relate to them? Nature is operating in them and they, like wind-up dolls, are executing their program.

Thus, your work is to treat them calmly and steadfastly, the same way that they treat each other, except in a benevolent way.

Question: All the while maintaining a connection with the group and the Creator?

Answer: The group and the Creator, this is something completely different. It pertains to the upper world, whereas 99% of the population belong to the animal world. So, interact with them on that level.

Question: However, when you see that the majority of the people are suffering, it creates a feeling of guilt and responsibility for them.

Answer: The feeling of responsibility arises because we, through our spiritual degree, can improve their condition, and if there is a feeling of guilt, it means that we are blaming the Creator.
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Question: You said we are lacking a few million people to connect with us. But what exactly are we missing: their shortcomings or our own efforts to create a spiritual womb and fetus?

Answer: The question is why do we want to be born and become mature in the spiritual world? Why do we want to resemble the Creator? The Creator is the bestower, the lover, the bringer of life! In what way could we be like Him? Where and to whom can we express our bestowal?

In what way do we prove that we want to be like Him? It’s only in our relationship with the external community. This is because we don’t have a deficiency that we can raise to the Creator if we don’t work with the external community. Through work with the friends, we can only attain a state of Bina, Hafetz Hesed. We have seemingly created some kind of engine, but it’s not clear what else to do with it, to what kind of use do we put it?

There is no work for this engine and so we remain without movement on the still level. We corrected our group, we silenced the engine, and with this everything is done. It’s even impossible to finish the correction of our group if from the start we don’t prepare for whom we are going to use it. Likewise, we must also be in dissemination because otherwise it’s impossible to be like the Creator. We must be like the Creator towards the wider public.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: We always try to understand that everything comes from Above, and this begs the question: To what extent do you need to accept the conditions that are given to you, and to what extent do you need to try to rise above them and adhere to the group regardless of the circumstances? In other words, when do you need to accept the conditions that you have, and when do you rise above them in connection to the group?

Answer: First and foremost, one should cling to the Source of all of these conditions. As for whether any effort needs to be exerted in this or not, it depends on the circumstances. What difference does it make? The important thing is to constantly be glued to the Source.

I might like it or I might not, this varies, although it is not important. I grab Him and shout, “You are mine!” and that is it. And then you need to separate from yourself whatever your egoism is feeling at the time, whatever I feel by addressing Him, that is, to go in faith above reason. But the most important thing is to seize Him and not let go.

Often, we are given circumstances where even if we do not wish to, we are still required to accept them with our minds. How do we act in such cases?

If my friends or certain life circumstances are telling me that everything that is happening to me right now comes from the Creator, then however unpleasant this may be for me, since I am unable to agree with it right now because it completely churns me, I nevertheless need to accept Him as the source of all that is happening. Moreover, as a good and kind source, one that is necessary for me so that I would work with it and bring myself to a state when all the time, to whatever extent possible, I remain with Him.

Do I perceive it as an obstacle? – Yes.

Is this obstacle for my own benefit? – Yes.

Is it pleasant or unpleasant? – Unpleasant.

Still, I have to gradually come to a state where this obstacle will fade away. This requires a lot of patience and a lot of work, and then everything will turn into sweetness.
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From a lesson in Russian, 2/10/2014

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The Book of Zohar is a guide for us, and that is why it was hidden for two thousand years, waiting for all of humanity to reach a crisis that requires a mandatory correction.

We are already in this period, which is described by Rabbi Kook, AGRA, and Baal HaSulam. In fact, it began with the holy Ari five hundred years ago already.

The great Kabbalist Abraham Azulai wrote that “I have found it written that all that has been decreed Above forbidding open involvement in the wisdom of truth [Kabbalah] was [only meant for] the limited time period until the year 5,250 (1490 C.E.). From then on is called the “Last Generation,” and what was forbidden is [now] allowed. And permission is granted to occupy ourselves in the [study of] Zohar. And from the year 5,300 (1540 C.E.) it is most desirable that the masses both those great and small [in Torah], should occupy themselves [in the study of Kabbalah], as it says in the Raya M’hemna [a section of the Zohar]. And because in this merit the Messiah King welwill come in the future—and not in any other merit—it is not proper to be discouraged [from the study of Kabbalah].”

Correction happens due to our study of The Book of Zohar even without understanding what is written there. But we realize that we need to unite, and the spiritual world will be revealed because of our unity. Indeed, there was a fall, that is, from the property of bestowal, mutual love, into hatred and mutual rejection. Now, we have to make the return journey from the bottom up, correction, unity; that is what is required from all of humankind.

In our time, we are already beginning to feel that the crisis is not economic and not even environmental, not in education and family. These are just small individual crises that naturally affect everyone and even extend to all of humanity in various forms. But the real crisis is integral and happens in relationships between people.

In other words, we must be united in one interconnected system, but we are not able to achieve this. In our world there is no force that can unite us. We will find this in relation to ourselves and all of humanity.

Studying The Book of Zohar is the means of revealing this force of unity and correction that allow getting rid of all the problems and starting to feel a completely new reality, to get a new perception. So, many years ago we began to work on the adaptation of this book, to make it accessible to everyone.

It is clear that we could not touch the text of The Zohar, written from a height of GAR of the world of Atzilut, the end of correction. But we have translated into Hebrew all the insertions made in Aramaic, deciphered abbreviations so that it is easy to read. That is, we made this book closer to the general reader as much as possible. Now, it is necessary just to know Hebrew to read it.

The more we study this book, the more we realize that it contains everything! All the thousands of generations that changed since the time of the writing of The Book of Zohar to the present day were nourished from this book like from a source with living water, each time drawing new strengths for correction, knowledge, clarification of all the degrees, the entire upper world.

Much is written about The Book of Zohar, and all of Kabbalah is based on this book. It does not matter when and who wrote a Kabbalistic book, the author’s basis has always been The Book of Zohar. As Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Eichenstein of Zidichov said, “The one who never saw the light of The Book of Zohar, never saw a light in his life.”

We must understand that this is not just a “book.” Kabbalists do not write words in a book but create between themselves an interconnected spiritual system and express it in writing. But the main work is spiritual, created from the connections that they built. All the parts were cut off from each by the breaking and scattered, and Kabbalists connect them together into a single integral system and describe their work, the types of connections, the whole process that occurred, and they got results.

First, they reveal the breaking, which is quite unpleasant because they are ready to burn each other; they feel hatred, darkness, fog, confusion, helplessness, hopelessness. Everyone sometimes experiences this feeling; it not possible without this, as it is said, “And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” The advantage of the light is always revealed from the darkness. Then, they reveal a connection, that is, how it is possible to connect these things and join them together.

Kabbalists do these spiritual actions in practice and then describe them in books. A book is only the result, a written statement of the changes made in the spiritual system that was first revealed to them in a broken form, as well as the final result, that is, how they managed to connect it.

That is why, from generation to generation, as Kabbalists advance in their correction, Kabbalah also changes. A person from the next generation does not have to repeat the corrections done by the previous generations. Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah reaches him in a different form, and he himself is completely different. This happens with each succeeding generation.
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From the World Zohar Convention 2/5/14, Lesson 1

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Question: You have said that this will be a very special year in dissemination. How can we strengthen one another and the connections with the groups? How can we make people who have no experience in disseminating feel confident?

Answer: It seems that we are doing so many different things: studying, disseminating, and many other things, but most of these actions are in our intention and only dissemination actually requires practical actions. When we study, the main thing is our intention. In the workshops, the main thing is our intention. Everything is fulfilled through the intentions. Even the major part of dissemination, its inner part, is in creating the right intention.

The fulfillment itself will later seem very simple. We reach a certain group of people, explain to them what a certain type of connection is, and hold a workshop on this topic. It’s very much like the workshops we have between us, but not according to our tough rules, but just letting people express themselves and showing them some clips. After all, we teach them about the simple popular integral connection between people, integral education.

We don’t need to pressure and overload them with serious stuff. Most of the time people simply speak between them and we constantly hold on to the intention and perform inner clarifications. So we don’t need to feel pressured and to worry about the work of dissemination. We only need to get used to being in continuous clarifications and to keep building a structure inside us, brick by brick, the form of the upper world, of the spiritual world. Then we will feel how we stabilize ourselves, the group, the Creator, and the public day by day. A person should engage in this internal work 24 hours a day.

If I feel tired and I have some free time, I watch National Geographic, there are some very good programs there about animals. I see it and translate it to the language of Kabbalah, to my levels. It’s because all of reality is identical. It’s a replica of the upper worlds dressed on our world in which the same processes take place. Everything comes from Above and the difference is in the way it’s expressed. So I dress it on my expression. Sometimes it’s very interesting to see the parallels and to interpret these films.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: At the beginning of the week you said that if we manage to tighten the connection between the friends who are returning to their home towns and are able to overcome all the obstacles of this world, the end of correction would come the next Sabbath. If that is so, why did we hear in yesterday’s lesson that the end of correction will not come unless a couple of million people who support us and who are in contact with us come together?

Answer: It’s a very complicated question and it depends on many conditions. How can we keep the connection between all the groups if we are not surrounded by an external ring of several million? One doesn’t nullify the other, but we will not feel the need to be so strongly connected, as if we are one next to the other although we have already dispersed each to his own continent, if these millions don’t oblige us. So it depends on that.

Question: If that’s the case, then what is our mission for this week in order to summon and to draw the force of the end of correction that is called Messiah?

Answer: We have to prepare ourselves for external dissemination actions all over the world and to strengthen the groups and the friends who engage in integral education. We have to reduce the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah and totally switch to the dissemination of the integral education. I have no doubt that it’s much closer to the implementation of the end of correction and that it summons less objection. We have to establish detailed work plans of the general dissemination in all the continents, countries, cities, and groups.

We should perceive the next series of conventions in Europe, North and South America (Columbia, Chile, Peru, Mexico, the U.S., and Canada) not simply as conventions but as an internal convention that will give us a great spiritual push forward. We already need to prepare ourselves for that by using every opportunity given.

The fact that we have started talking about the formation of the spiritual embryo and the spiritual womb is a great success. It’s very meaningful progress. It isn’t so difficult and we simply need to organize ourselves because we already know where the hands and the legs of this spiritual embryo are and what we should hope for and what we should do. All the discernments are in our hands. It really fills me with great hope and joy.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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