Question: Why, according to the whole historical process, does the rescue come as a result of big pressure, at the most difficult moment, after a long time that we were preventing ourselves from hearing about it? For what purpose are all these difficulties?

Why is it required to reveal the Creator, the connection between us, in such torments and tension that we see ourselves at a dead end and only at the last moment, suddenly the answer is revealed? Why wouldn’t we all begin to occupy ourselves in the integral education, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, and walk comfortably toward the goal by having such a solution in hand?

Answer: You know yourself that our ego is working as “help against us.” And only under tremendous pressure do we agree to separate from it. And also this is not immediately, but only after many blows— the ten plagues of Egypt, in darkness, under terrible tension, and in haste—are we finally willing to escape from it. Otherwise, no.

And this is not because we are so weak, but because the ego is very strong. This ego helps us later to reveal the whole eternal spiritual world. Once we connect, we immediately begin to reveal and feel it. Right here in this life we reveal the upper world; about this it is said: “Your world you will see in your life.” I hope that we will reach it.

If we will now perceive all this pressure as force that is given to us precisely as help, then we will see that it works on our side. One needs only to receive it in understanding and we will succeed.
[95055]
From Weekly Torah Portion 12/4/12, The Zohar

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Question: The group’s responsibility is to constantly take care of the greatness of the Creator and the importance of the goal. From practice, we see that when we are experiencing a general ascent, for example, the preparation for a convention, then this work is done enthusiastically; everyone is ready, everyone is agreement, and everything is fine. But as soon as egoism grows, then everyone is weighed down with excuses, important things, just not to engage in it. How can we overcome this?

Answer: Each lesson should be the next step. If I had not felt this, I would not have the strength to come to the lesson every day.

Every day I have to see renewed people, that is, the same faces but different in content; they could be in descent, in ascent, but different.

These are not just faces, but a huge mass of people. After all, I do not remember anyone’s face, I do not remember names because I feel only their qualitative changes. I feel those who are on-screen and off screen, those who are present, together, with us at the lesson: There are hundreds of thousands of people.

Recently, we conducted a survey in Israel of who watches our TV channel. We got incredible figures. It turned out that hundreds of thousands of people watch us. And I feel all this mass. But it must change, and this brings me to a state of readiness.
[95344]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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We need to understand that the eternal particle of the soul exists in its potential in every one of us if we unite with the others. It is one for all of us and is initially created as such. If, however, we don’t feel that we exist in one collective whole, this means that none of us has this soul and all we have is just our animalistic nature.

The soul is also called “Adam”—from the Hebrew word “adame”—similar to the Creator.

The desire to receive is totally opposite to the desire to bestow; it wishes to receive, not give, but at the same time, if it realizes itself against its own nature, it becomes similar to the Creator. Its similarity lies in the core of its action, not according to its nature, but according to how it transformed itself. This is its inverse, corrected state and is called the soul or Adam.

It is also called “Shechina.” This is a special word, from the Hebrew word “Shochen,” meaning a place of dwelling, settlement, residence. It is the place where the Light descends to and fills it up.

Thus, there are various names for the soul depending on which of its aspects are being discussed. But generally, no matter what is being discussed, it is the only subject matter: this collective soul, the only one that exists, besides the upper force. And we are its corrupted part and don’t understand where we are. We are in this soul but in a broken state, and that’s why we can’t say that we have it in us. Respectively, all our work is aimed at one goal: only to correct and find ourselves in this reformed state.

There are many people in the world whose parts in the collective soul have been corrected. These parts are called “particular souls”, and they are assisting us.

There is circulation of souls: Every instant a person passes through certain states even if he hasn’t yet entered the spiritual world, meaning that he hasn’t found his part in the common soul and hasn’t become Adam in general, hasn’t linked with this whole system; that is, he is not yet its active part.

This is an enormous egoistic system containing all the egoism of the universe and working on bestowal, in sync with the upper force, with the Creator. They connect, receive from each other and bestow to each other, and between them, a complete contact occurs, a so-called adhesion. One way or the other, we are in this common soul in everything and always, although we are moving toward our goal either willingly or unwillingly; that’s the difference.

People who live in our world without any understanding of it, move around unaware of and yet according to the program of creation. There is nothing that could break the confines of the law of the collective creation. This program is concealed from man, but he doesn’t understand where he is going and what he is doing at any particular moment in time. Suddenly something pushes him, and he acts, instinctively or seemingly conscious. None of us can see what strings we are being pulled by.

Why did one suddenly wish to act this way, think this way, or got into this trouble—we don’t understand. Only having risen over our state of existence and observing ourselves from aside, like a mother watches her child, will we be able to work on ourselves, on our egoism. Then, we will feel when we are being pulled by the strings, and maybe we will be able to pull them ourselves.

This is our development; I come to a state where before I am pulled, I will pull myself. Thereby, I engage the Light to affect me instead of the Light coming to play with me. This is a crucial turning point in a person’s work on his transformation, when he begins controlling his own development.

This, essentially, is what we are striving for: to be handed the governing force and to govern with it on our own. When the Surrounding Light is in my hands, I can engage it and make it affect me as necessary. In that case, I govern my soul; I am equal with it. This is the aim of our development in the group. Because essentially, the group represents the soul for me in a “material” form. If I connect to the friends, I connect with the collective desire, which, actually, is the soul.
[95247]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 2

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Question: Why does Baal HaSulam say that a person is thrown from the friends to the teacher and back again like a “slingshot” and by that the right vessel for receiving the Light is built in him?

Answer: A person receives wholeness from the teacher and through the group he discovers his evil. Despite his reluctance, he is incorporated in the group and makes great efforts to become part of the environment and to connect with the friends.

Thanks to that, in response to all his efforts, he discovers aversion, hate, and anger. This is how his egoistic desire is revealed in him; it isn’t his friends that he sees, but himself in the friends, as if in a mirror.

When all these negative feelings are revealed, the question is to what extent he acknowledges that this evil is revealed in him and not in the friends. At the same time he comes to his teacher, to the lesson, and receives treatment from the teacher, a correction.

If he has the right connection with the Rav and with the study, he has to come out white. As all the evil that he felt towards the friends takes on an opposite form, and he understands that it is in his favor. Instead of cursing he now gives thanks for it. Instead of feeling the evil in the friends, he feels good; instead of feeling good and proud about himself, he now feels bad. This means that everything turns upside down.

The opposite definitions that he now understands and feels in his attributes compared to the friends is called “a slingshot,” reverse, a trigger.
[95282]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Let’s say, someone has wronged me. I turn to the Creator, ask for love, and through the prism of love, I try to look at the offender: He is great and this is the manifestation of my uncorrected properties. Should I talk about this with the offender?

Answer: The offender has nothing to do with it. Here is the Creator who manifested Himself in this way. But this is not about forgiveness.

If you decided to respond to this action of the Creator, based on the fact that you desire to unite with Him, you can protect yourself and strike back at your attacker. But first of all, try to see contact with the Creator, to see a manifestation of the Creator in the offender and any other object or situation. However, this does not mean that you have to forgive him. No! In the end, you have to build the same relationship with him as he is with you against your egoism and against him.
[95257]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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Baal HaSulam, Letter 20: You are carved … on my heart, all day and all night and like incinerators of thirst after your goodness and your wholeness, and the Creator knows what exertion and powers I have given on your behalf, and you are sure that it will not be in vain and God’s word will be eternal.

From this day onwards we will grow stronger in the Torah and the Mitzvot (commandments), “like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load” to raise Divinity from the dust, and the sins will become merits, since His honor will fill the land. And thank God, I am very sure that our salvation is soon to be revealed, and we will be rewarded to worship the Creator together, in expansion and God willing, we will succeed.

Baal HaSulam writes about his investment in his students and about his helping them. However, in the spiritual world, in contrast to the corporeal world, the lower has to make efforts so that the upper can help him.

In the corporeal world, a baby is naturally attached to his mother first by the umbilical cord in the womb and then to her breast, to her body, and so he receives her treatment. Nature forces him to annul himself this way. He doesn’t make any efforts on his part. On the contrary, he feels that his mother is the source of his life, and he is inclined to adhere to her.

However, in the spiritual work, we have to do this action against our ego, toward the group, the teacher, and the Creator. Only to the extent that we annul ourselves will we receive nourishment from them, either through what we call a “spiritual umbilical cord” or through the spiritual breast of the upper Partzuf, through the Surrounding Light and the Inner Light.

So, if a teacher writes that the students are carved … on my heart all day and all night, it means that they also have made a great deal of work in order to reach such a mutual connection.

What exertion and powers I have given on your behalf, this is possible only if the students allowed the teacher to bestow upon them. If a baby refuses to eat, how is it possible to force him? Here, it is a matter of his own freewill.

First, his freewill is only in annulling himself. Then, it is also in agreeing to accept the bestowal from the upper, which is always in contrast to one’s own mind and feelings. It is a very big problem. Even to just annul yourself and to accept everything as Hassadism isn’t easy. The embryo is in the waters of Hesed, but it isn’t simple to receive everything as Hassadim in total self-annulment.

So, a student should begin to accept actions that are opposite to his feelings and his mind, and to accept them in order to see the upper’s grace in the greatest sufferings, just like Rabbi Akiva in his painful death.

This isn’t simple at all, and we have to prepare ourselves for that. The main thing is to want that our attitude to what is happening with us will change. We are required to ask and to beg, to pray, so that we will be able to justify everything that happens, and to receive the Creator’s actions upon us with love and to ask for help in order to adhere to the group, to the teacher, and to the Creator so that love will cover all our sins.

This work is called like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load. We must constantly feel that There is none else besides Him, and the vessel for this feeling is our connection and love. This is why it is called the great rule of the Torah.
[95176]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12

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Question: The article, “There Is None Else Besides Him,” speaks about the need for making our own efforts in the spiritual work, but all the states come from the Creator. When can we become independent?

Answer: Our independence is expressed in becoming similar to the Creator from within our egoism, thus including in us two opposing forces. If you take away the force of the ego, there will be nothing left of you. You will exist in Him like the starting point that He created as something from nothing, and will have no personal feeling of anything.

Initially, the Creator’s question was how to create an independent created being that is similar and equal to Him. This is what He does in all of creation.

We are committed to constantly try to attain a state of full adhesion with Him with the feelings and the mind that He summons in us.

Adhesion with Him means that both my feelings and my mind come from Him so that, through them, I will ascend above my ego and begin to actually feel His bestowal in me.

It is hard to express. There are no such words in our language.

On the whole, we have to yearn for connection with this only root, with this source—every moment, in every parameter, in every section, in the heart and the mind, in our desires and our thoughts.

Then, a new heart and mind will be created in us that work in order to bestow in a different coordinate system, in another dimension.

Only then will we begin to understand from what space this force operates. We will already enter this space, but only through systematic work on ourselves that brings about the recognition that everything in me and around me, everything, comes from Him at any second, at every moment.
[95168]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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In the News (from DailyMail): “Being a nurturing mother is not just about emotional care – it pays dividends by determining the size of your child’s brain, scientists say. …

“According to neurologists this sizeable difference has one primary cause – the way each child was treated by their mothers. …

“The child with the larger and more fully developed brain was looked after by its mother – she was constantly responsive to her baby, reported The Sunday Telegraph. But the child with the shrunken brain was the victim of severe neglect and abuse.

“The consequences of these deficits are pronounced – the child on the left with the larger brain will be more intelligent and more likely to develop the social ability to empathise with others.

“But in contrast, the child with the shrunken brain will be more likely to become addicted to drugs and involved in violent crimes, much more likely to be unemployed and to be dependent on state benefits.

“The child is also more likely to develop mental and other serious health problems.

“Professor Allan Schore, of UCLA, told The Sunday Telegraph that if a baby is not treated properly in the first two years of life, it can have a fundamental impact on development.

“He pointed out that the genes for several aspects of brain function, including intelligence, cannot function.

“And sadly there is a chance they may never develop and come into existence.”

My Comment: Love, that is, inclusion in the desires of another, is the major property of our world and the upper worlds. The only difference is that in our world this attribute is concealed from our being able to identify it as essential and develop it. Therefore, it is given to us as a command—a guideline that is necessary to follow in order to bring myself and the world to perfection.

Naturally, the same quality of love is beneficial at all levels.

In the case of children, our natural (animalistic) instincts switch on, which are sometimes interrupted by opposing super-egoistic, human ones, when we hurt our own children by choosing ourselves before them, in which case people are “more beastly” than beasts.

Exiting into a higher world rests on love—in spite of and over our egoism. We are building love, leaving rejection beneath it, covering hate with love—and with the least screen, we begin sensing the upper world.
[94778]

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Question: What is the correction of the world?

Answer: We are on the highest level of a general system because we yearn to be above ourselves. The previous lives have made us the way we are.

There are different illuminations in the world, and this whole system is mutually connected. But the signal comes from above. The Light goes through us to the world and then spreads everywhere. This is called the “correction of the world.”

I don’t correct anyone. If we correct ourselves, then the Light is transferred through us to all the other parts of the world. Most people cannot draw the Light; they cannot correct themselves; they don’t understand; they don’t know; they lack the desires. Try to talk to them about the meaning of life and what does it mean to them. It isn’t good or bad, since in the meantime they have no such desire. What is more, these people make up 99% of the world population, and it is up to us to correct them that way.

On the other hand, Kabbalists speak about our obligation to pass the wisdom of Kabbalah on to them, so that they will feel that there is hope and that there is an ideology of correction, that there are levels the world has to go through in order to be corrected, and that we can ease this path for them and make it simple and quick. They have to know a little about it, only generally. The actual correction takes place under our internal influence on them, since we are all connected in one network.
[95088]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/7/12, Lesson 2

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