Question: During our acting workshop, I still have the feeling that this is not serious. It is clear to my ego that it is all a game. How can I really be incorporated in this game?

Answer: Look for the answer yourself and try to examine and to understand yourself better. Don’t expect any tips from me; the answer will come only as a result of your efforts. Thus you will gradually begin to know what needs to be clarified by your actions. With every action you take, you will become wiser, as it is said: “There is none wiser than the experienced.”

Eventually the light-headedness will turn into a serious attitude. Later you will realize that it isn’t a game, but actual training.

Let’s say I’m training for an important marathon, intending to participate in the Olympic games. In the meantime we hold pre-Olympic competitions in our country. These are not the real games but only pre-Olympic games. However, if I don’t go through these games, I will not go anywhere! If I don’t achieve good results in these games, I will not be able to participate in the Olympics.

This is not accurate, but it is still an example of what we are doing now. For us, however, the game and the performance are the same thing! When we come closer to the actual fulfillment, we will suddenly see that what we thought to be a simple game was all real.

With this game, we draw the Light that Reforms. This is called from Lo Lishma (not for Her name) we reach Lishma (for Her name). The meaning of Lo Lishma is that I don’t deserve the Light, but still it comes to me thanks to my participation in the game. This participation is not only my actual actions, but the fact that I feel that it is a serious means.

My actions draw the Light, and I do everything in my power, seriously, so that the Light will impress me. Otherwise it will not function.

Question: So I have to fight against what stops me from being seriously incorporated in this game?

Answer: This is your real evil inclination, which confuses you: “Never mind, don’t try, it is only a game.” This is where the real snake hides—see how cunningly it operates.

I sincerely wish you victory in this game!
[90045]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: If I sincerely answer the question “What do I want?” then the answer that comes up in my heart is “to feel good.” I try to change this desire through the mind and say that I want to bring contentment to the Creator, but in the next lesson my real desire is once again to feel good. How can I exit this feeling? How can I reach the true spiritual desire?

Answer: If a person remembers that he has to say: “I want to bring contentment to the Creator” since otherwise he will not succeed, it will not help. The Creator does not enjoy it if I’m just saying that I want to bring Him contentment.

I can only bring contentment to the Creator by actions and not by empty words, by the act of connection. Thus I bring contentment to the Creator by revealing Him. I can only reveal Him in our collective vessel in which we are all united. But in order to connect with others, I have to exit myself and to try to connect with them. By that I bring the Creator contentment, because then He can be revealed.

This whole system of mutual bestowal can be revealed and this is called the revelation of the Creator to the created being. This is called bringing contentment to the Creator. I don’t do it by words, but by actions, by giving Him a place to be revealed.
[90023]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/12, The Book of Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 42, “What Is that the Acronym Elul in the Work”: For this reason one is given a form of blackness from Above, and then one sees if one’s work is in purity.

In other words, if one can be in gladness in a state of blackness, too, it is a sign that one’s work is in purity, because one must be glad and believe that from Above he was given a chance to be able to work in order to bestow.

If a person feels glad, above all his moods, it is a sign that he is already detached from his desire to receive and that he can advance.

This is always the test: Are we immersed in our desire to receive or can we rise above it to some extent? A person doesn’t ask to be in a good mood in order to continue his work. On the contrary, he is happy about the darkness, about the bad mood and the confusion. Above all this, he is ready to make a slight effort.

It doesn’t matter what mood we are in, we don’t see it as important, but rise above it. If things look bad in the vessel of receiving, I can work above it in bestowal, in unity and in love of friends. It is a sure sign that I am on the right track. All our work is in feeling the darkness in the vessel of receiving and making even the slightest effort above it, yearning for a connection, for bestowal.

This is why we have to perform the right exercises, to play games by which we learn. Of course, it isn’t easy for a new student during the first few years, but then he begins to feel the gap between his feeling and his intention, which means between two different systems.

He may feel good and then he may feel bad, and he understands that it doesn’t matter, that he should work only above these feelings and that time after time they will provide him with different details of the perception of reality that are necessary on the way to learning about the different forms of the Creator’s Providence. A person accepts all the feelings—the good and the bad ones—as a benefit, in order to rise above them and constantly keep the right direction towards the goal.

We have to constantly make these efforts as we try to preserve the energy of the ascent that enables us to use the time and the means we have rationally, so that we can also use it during a descent. True, it is very hard, but at least we have to try. Thus we gradually detach ourselves from the vessel of receiving and move on to another kind of work, already living in the intention and not in the feeling.
[90042]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/12

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It takes a very long time until, against all the desires and the rejections, a person can convince himself that it is essential to establish a relationship with the friends. It takes a very long time until he clarifies all this and convinces himself, after many ascents and descents.

Gradually by learning from all the states and actions he has been through, by checking himself, he begins to understand what is good and what is bad for him. First he thought that it was good when he had new feelings, understood and felt more, and thought he was respected and powerful. Now he gradually begins to understand that all these pleasant feelings do not indicate his spiritual advancement at all. On the contrary, they indicate that a person is drowning more and more deeply into his ego, into the desire to receive, the matter of creation.

First a person thinks that advancement depends on studying the theory, on knowing the material. He goes through the books wanting to understand them, believing that by that he will be able to approach the goal. Then he rushes to disseminate this knowledge, thus hoping to get a reward for his efforts. He tries to break through in different directions by revolving around one central point: love for the other.

He reaches it only when he has no other choice, and is in total despair of attaining anything by himself. As a result of all these actions the Light illuminates him, and he begins to understand and to feel that the entrance to the spiritual world opens only where his heart connects with the heart of the friend.

Through this point of connection, where the hearts come in contact, I exit my heart and penetrate the heart of the friend, so that in the heart of the friend I will discover my spiritual world. This is what each of us does with relation to the friends.

It takes a long time to do this, since it has to be in the heart and not in the mind. The mind becomes only an external tool. Thus a person advances in the right direction and discovers the most distant and hateful state of all the states in this world.

Previously he couldn’t even imagine that this is the goal of life. But this is what he has to reach, so that the goal of his life will be the connection of the hearts of all the people in this world into one heart.

We have to be patient with ourselves and with the friends that go through different external states. Everyone needs his own time and form of development until he finally discovers that there is no other work but the love of friends.

The more you take your time in this process, the more you succeed. People who think that they can start this work immediately usually burn out quickly. This recognition requires an adaptation period, a time for all the other types of work to “dry up” so that from all his experience and his efforts a person will feel despair. Then, with the help of the Light that Reforms he will understand and feel that nothing will help him except connection. This is when his work begins in the right place.

Since we are connected in one general network with all the people in the world, we pass on this feeling and this understanding to everyone. Thus the world begins to talk about the need for stronger connections among people, which can save humanity. The more we work on ourselves and the greater efforts we make, the more Light we will draw upon ourselves according to the law of equivalence of form that also pours into the external vessels, to all of humanity and so this idea reaches everyone.
[90034]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/12, Writings of Rabash

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It is clear that we were created so that we are only capable of worrying about our own good and we have no drive to act altruistically. In all the next 125 levels we increasingly discover this truth lurking in our ego, which totally controls us.

The only way to break away from it is with the help of the Light that Reform, that raises us from the egoistic intention to the intention of bestowal. We remain with the same desire to enjoy, but its intention changes.

This is only possible under the influence of the Light. When the Light shines on the desire, it holds on to the intention to bestow. The moment the Light stops influencing the desire the enjoy, it immediately returns to the intention of for its own good. It all depends only on the intensity of the Light that influences the desire.

It turns out that all our life depends on how much the Reforming Light influences us. This is why we have to summon its greatest influence upon us. In order to do that, we need a deficiency, a desire. Where do we find it?

For that there is a mutual inclusion. After all, none of us has a great desire to achieve bestowal: We don’t understand it and don’t see any benefit in it. So I have to incorporate in the group, in the right environment, which impresses me and tells me about the greatness of bestowal.

It doesn’t matter if the others don’t know what they are talking about; I am impressed by them since that’s how I am built. If I place myself under the influence of the environment that acts out bestowal, even artificially, as a game, it impresses me, and I begin to want to bestow! After all, it is the environment that has inserted the idea that it is a great, valuable attribute in me.

It’s like fashion that is advertised on all channels with lots of publicity, colorfully with famous actors taking part in the campaign, who tell me how important it is to have those products. Eventually I want to buy what they want to sell, although none of the actors have even thought of buying these products themselves, and the ones who hired their services simply want to make a profit. They all work only in order to confuse me and eventually they succeed: I go out and buy what they advertise.

We need the same thing, but we should organize this game by ourselves. We have to increase the importance of bestowal and to convince ourselves that it is good to bestow! Everyone must sell this merchandise to others.

We are first incorporated in each other’s desires and everyone acquires a desire to reach bestowal. Second, we work together building our environment so that it will provide each of us with the greatness of bestowal.

Eventually I receive an internal desire to bestow and so does the environment, the group that inserts the importance of this attribute in me. This is why I want it! Everyone acts as if he has ascended and is in bestowal and is attracted to it. I am impressed by that and want to attain the same thing.
[89940]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/12, Writings of Rabash

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“Preface to The Book of Zohar”: Indeed before we are awarded to turn the desire to receive in us to receive in order to bestow, by the Torah and Mitzvot (commandments), there are strong locks on the gates to the Creator, since they have an opposite role then, to keep us away from the Creator. Thus the forces of separation are called locks, since they block the gates of closeness and distance us from the Creator. But if we overcome them, so they don’t influence us and cool the love in our hearts, the locks become openings and the darkness becomes light and the bitterness becomes sweetness, since for all the locks we receive a special level under His Providence and they become openings, levels of attaining the Creator.

This happens even before we go through the Machsom (barrier) into the spiritual world and before we acquire the attribute of bestowal with which a person begins to work. Even before that, the locks gradually become an invitation for a person’s feelings and perception.

First, he begins to understand that the locks were put there for his own good. Then, he really feels that by seeing the benefit that each descent and fall brings him, every problem in life and all the confusion, both the closest and the most distant ones. He begins to expect a positive result in everything that happens, and this focuses him correctly and straightens his path toward the goal.

Eventually, a person begins to justify everything and to be grateful, even during a time of a descent and confusion when enemies and adversaries attack him. He knows that they are all forces that were brought from Above to correct his way.

He sees the good angel, instead of the stormy waters of the flood. He sees God’s hand in everything that happens. He gets this feeling thanks to his experience and the gradual acquisition of the force of bestowal, until finally, he really is rewarded with the revelation of the force of bestowal and begins to use it beneficially for his advancement.
[89932]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/12

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Baal HaSulam, “Letter 19”: But not in one time will a person be ready for the high, sublime pairing, called complete coupling. But “only goodness and grace will follow me.” Therefore He intervenes, which is the beginning of the coupling, which means, “a righteous suffers….

The Creator wakes a person, which means that He doesn’t push him forward but arranges him by many tricks, as if flirting with him. We see that even in nature in the animal world there are mating games before the coupling. It’s a whole process in which each side has to show the other that he is ready for the connection and is responsible for it, able to care for the next generation.

It’s the same with a person who is rejected from the coupling by the Creator because he does not have a strong enough desire. A person thinks that the Creator doesn’t want to connect with him and so he suffers because he wants to connect so badly, and is so ready for it having done everything he could in order to attain it. So why doesn’t the Creator reveal Himself to him?

It seems to a person that he is ready to bestow, but we understand that he only thinks of how he can use the revelation of the Creator for his own pleasure. These are not vessels of bestowal yet. If he had a desire to bestow, his sorrow would be different. The sufferings would immediately turn to goodness, to pleasure

But “time will do what the mind doesn’t do”… If a person follows this path persistently: working in the group, studying, doing everything that he can, his successes and failures are already in the hands of the upper Providence and his only goal is to continue. He should try to make the best of every state that he experiences.

It isn’t enough to drag oneself from one phase to the next. Thanks to all the awakenings, all the stings from the Creator, and since he feels bad as a result, he must desire to run forward, to break all the barriers along the way, and this is clearly impossible without mutual guarantee.

A person thinks that he has made such great efforts and has not received any rewards yet! His great passion is unanswered, which means that the Creator does not respond. As a result, he despairs: How long can he chase the Creator without any results? Is there a limit to this or not?

He begins to ask: Where have all his efforts, all his exertion, and all his yearning gone? And he is left with a feeling of great longing. Actually we have to connect all our successes, failures, and disappointments. On the one hand, we should feel a great disappointment, but on the other hand we should rise above it in “faith above reason.”

The times in which the ego power pushed me forward are over. Now I have to break through all the hostile barriers along the way; now I have to feel how many such barriers are inside me and how to rise above them in “faith above reason.”

I have to feel the full depth of my ego, to feel totally disappointed in my powers. Then suddenly I understand that I can’t cope with these enemies and to break through, only because I am trying to do it with my ordinary egoistic powers (the corporeal mind and feeling) by brute force. Suddenly from this disappointment I see the solution and I understand that this isn’t the way to advance: I have to rise above reason and then everything will suddenly work out. This means that there must be a feeling of disappointment and heaviness in which the solution, the new approach, is born. But in order to reach that, we have to reach a full measure of disappointment.

And the one who knows the mysteries knows how much a person desires to be close to the Creator, a desire that may cease. And so the Creator increases His interventions, which means the beginnings of couplings. This is to the extent that a person can bear them.

It depends on the environment. If the environment is strong and sustains a person internally and constantly evokes him, he can go through this process very quickly and end all the preparation stages for the coupling.
[89834]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/712, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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After the shattering, under the influence of the informative genes (Reshimot), the shattered desires go through different states detached from spirituality on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. And so they gradually understand their state until they finally reach the human level.

Then they begin to understand that something brought them into our world, into a state in which they feel only themselves in a special desire called “body.” It is as if a particle from the upper world was thrown downward and immersed in some liquid in which it has remained.

Now a person is faced with a dilemma: Should he work for this world, for the sake of adding, for the benefit of the body, or should he work for the benefit of the soul? He has to choose one of the options.

Of course the choice isn’t up to a person, but rather stems from the reincarnations he has been through on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature where he examined his state. A soul that has come closer to its fulfillment is called a “high soul,” and with it a person can already decide to act for the benefit of the soul and not of the body.

In order to act for the benefit of the soul, a person needs this whole world to help him reach the awe of the Creator. Fear is a spiritual vessel, a desire aimed at bestowal. The illumination from above called the “Light of the soul” is dressed into this desire, or more accurately into the intention that is built on top of it.

This intention is built from the depth of the desire (the thickness), a Masach (screen), and Returning Light—which make up a person’s spiritual vessel. Of course it is possible to develop it only from this world when we ascend from it up to the height of 125 degrees.

People who have reached this fulfillment according to their Reshimot come together. The upper Light operates on everyone equally, but if the informational genes are revealed, the Reshimot that are ready for this correction come very close to one another aspiring to connect. As a result a person comes to a group in our world.

But after he comes to a group another law begins to operate on him, which allows him freewill. After all the Reshimot have to be fulfilled in a person’s desire.

Even if it says “I am the first and I am the last” and “there is none else besides Him,” the preparation for this revelation, for the recognition of the greatness of the spiritual goal from the darkness of exile, is totally in a person’s hands.

Here nothing can be done. Whether this load seems heavy or light to a person depends on the height of the goal and on how much a person values the one he serves.

If he disrespects the teacher, the group, and the Creator, then nothing can help him. After all, these three components are inseparable and supreme for a person. If he doesn’t value them, he will eventually divert from the path and leave the spiritual development

If he works on it as he makes every possible effort so that it will save him, it will help him belittle his ego, his corporeal mind, and his life experience that seems to have some value. It is revealed as totally useless before the new states he has to go through, but it will also empower him and give him fuel to advance along this path.

This is only possible if the greatness of the goal, the group, the teacher, and the Creator are more important to a person than his egoism.
[89846]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/09/12, Writings of Rabash

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Survey (from The European Depression Association): “One in 10 working people surveyed in Europe have taken time off work because of depression, with an average of 36 days lost per episode of depression, according to a new survey from the European Depression Association. This equates to more than 21,000 days of lost working time in this group of people. However despite the size of the problem, nearly one in three managers reported they had no formal support or resources to deal with employees who have depression, and 43% called for better policies and legislation to protect employees.

“Depression is the predominant mental health challenge among working-age people and more than 30 million European citizens will suffer from depression at some point in their life.1 The IDEA survey (Impact of Depression in the Workplace in Europe Audit) polled more than 7,000 people in Europe and found that 20% of respondents had received a diagnosis of depression at some point. The highest rate was in GB (26%) and the lowest in Italy (12%). Among workers experiencing depression, those in Germany (61%), Denmark (60%), and GB (58%) were most likely to take time off work, while those in Turkey were the least likely to take time off (25%).

“The costs of depression were estimated at €92 billion in 2010 in the EU, with lost productivity due to absenteeism (taking time off work) and presenteeism (being present at work while ill) representing over 50% of all costs related to depression.1 In the IDEA survey the average number of days taken off work during the last episode of depression was 36 days, with Germany and GB having the highest (41 days) and Italy (23 days) having the lowest.”

My Comment: In general, depression is the most common disease of our time. Just because it is not fatal and is hidden, it can be easily concealed, and it does not bother society. Where do the current and future unemployed belong? Undoubtedly, with the growth of individual egoism and its transformation into integral egoism that is shown in the interdependence of everyone and everything, depression will grow and turn into the epidemic.
[89724]

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Our main force is the ego. Except for the ego there is only one small point in everyone’s heart and we have to connect these points. If we connect them into one big point, we’ll feel the spiritual world inside. Then everything will come together: me, the group, and the upper force.

On the other hand, the ego wants to push all our points away from one another. It’s actually meant to push us in the opposite direction from connection, and this is why it’s called a “help against.”

How should we build an environment that will help us fulfill the points in the heart and our egoistic forces so that together we’ll connect into one big wonderful point? Despite the interruptions of the ego, by using it, we want to connect our points in the heart into one point. How can we use the power of the ego to achieve this goal?

The point is that I don’t know the way to the spiritual world. For me it’s a question mark hidden from me. How can I reveal it? How can I focus myself correctly? With the help of the group, I use my ego in the opposite way; it becomes a “helpmate” (Ezer Ke Negdo) and helps me focus myself accurately on spirituality, on the Creator. This is only possible in the group when I work with the point in the heart in order to turn the ego in the opposite direction, (the broken green line in the drawing). Then instead of pulling me downwards, the ego will direct me correctly, so that I can enter the spiritual world.

So there is only an ego and a point in the heart in a person, and with the help of the group, we change the ego and find the way to advance in the opposite direction each time.

Actually, it isn’t only about the egoistic desire to receive different things in our world. It’s a special ego aimed only against connection, against the collective point in which I discover the spiritual world. This is why I disregard and ignore all the desires and the thoughts that are not related to connection. Instead I work in the group trying to connect with others, and I discover how opposite I am from that: I don’t want anything of the kind, I hate the friends and I can’t even think about connecting with them. It’s this repulsion that’s the real ego opposite connection. Everything else doesn’t matter.

The group has a key role here: It increases the importance of unity in my eyes and constantly spurs me and obligates me to keep it. Only the environment (Sviva) leads me to the unknown, serving as a model that helps me subdue myself and still connect internally. The environment actually brings me to connection.

Thus we actually ascend to the first level (step 1) above the Machsom (barrier) when we turn our entire ego, all the rejection and the resistance to connection and unity to the opposite direction—to the force of connection and unity. This is the meaning of “help against.”

Then we move on to the second level. Here the ego is revealed again, but this time bigger than before, since it already belongs to the next level (step 2). Here I have the choice of unity with the help of the group, where the ego begins to show itself again. If I am not attracted to unity, I don’t discover it.

This is why strangers don’t understand what ego we are talking about. The point is that it isn’t just human relations; it isn’t about good deeds and intrigues. People believe that treating others badly is egoism and treating others well is altruism. We judge only by the point of unity. Therefore, after I discover the first level, I want to go on and connect to the group. I discover the ego on the second level (Ego2), and I work against it and ascend to the second level. On the whole there are 125 such levels on the way.

Eventually I reach perfect unity, with all of humanity; we are all together in one point called the “drop of unity.”

What kind of environment should it be in order to allow me to discover the right ego, to separate it from the animal ego of this world, and to turn it into a driving force? How should the environment influence me so that I will reach the goal?

Furthermore, how should we use our conventions, when we mutually influence one another, so that this powerful connection will allow each of us to discover the point of unity: “Where is it? What should I do in order to attain it? How do I enter the upper world? How do I discover it?”

How should we worry about everyone in order to allow them to reach this inner point (the center of the group), our “womb” (Rechem)? After all, we enter the group as if we enter a mother’s womb, and we develop like an embryo. How can we prepare such a “wrapping” for each of us, in which each one will develop like from a drop of semen?

[89247]
From the Convention in Italy Day One, 9/28/12, Workshop 1

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