Pure desire without intellect represents an original form that is derived from the root. If desire strives only to maintain itself without any other desires, it is called “inanimate.” It doesn’t change, but rather always wants by all means to preserve its existence one hundred percent as it is and continually resists any changes whatsoever. That’s why it’s called “dead.”

On one hand, it’s the most powerful force that keeps inanimate matter in its form and because it is inanimate, it is stronger than anything else. On the other hand, it has a deficit because it doesn’t develop at all, nor does it create any advanced form!

A plant doesn’t possess as much force for self-preservation as inanimate matter; it is weaker. But it does have an addition; it is able to change! It develops, alters, and grows. On the other hand, it still cannot remain eternal; that’s why it “acquires” life and death.

There is no choice, there is a price for the opportunity to continue developing. If you don’t possess stony steadfastness, but rather allow yourself to change, you go from edge to edge, from life to death; there is no other option. In other words, our development happens at the expense of immortality.

For a lifeless stone, life and death are the same. For a plant, life and death are different since plants can sense life. This is the root of any sensation, pleasure and affliction, one against the other.

Animals are much farther from inanimate nature; they undergo dramatic changes and experience tremendous growth. They acquire a higher intellect that accompanies their desires; so, during the process of development, animals acquire diverse forms. Naturally, animals are subject to an array of external and internal influences. Compared to inanimate and even vegetative levels, animals have a much more complex organization. Of course, animals sense their mortality very strongly as the difference between life and death.

The added ability to use intellect for analysis constitutes a distinction between human beings and animals. As opposed to an animal, a person has developed to the extent that he recognizes “time” in his brain: past, present and future. People can bring time closer by including it in desire. All of a sudden, we start envying someone who lived a thousand years ago or someone who will be born two hundred years from now.

We observe that at a human level, intellect enhances desire. The work of intellect upon the desire is directly related to the Light; actually, it’s the only work we ever do. The more we work on clarification and expansion of our desires, the more advanced we consider ourselves to be compared to our past, undeveloped states: inanimate, vegetative, animate and speaking levels within the human stage.

Naturally, humans sense life and death, the Light and the darkness, even more strongly. We become more dependent, delicate, sensitive and constrained. But this is the payment for our development.

At the time when our development at simple levels (inanimate, vegetative, animate and speaking) is complete, we approach the Creator’s level at which we gain new senses, a different kind of intellect and an alternative developmental force, all three components together, which we didn’t have before.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/12, The Zohar

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The Creator doesn’t hide from us; rather, it is our ego that hides Him. Our opposite nature is what separates us from Him. So how can we take on the Creator’s form? How can we reach Him according to the law of equivalence of form? How can we discover Him and find out that He is in us?

In order to do that, we have to perform certain actions. Who performs these actions, us or Him? There is probably a need for cooperation here. We can’t advance without the upper Light. By “rocking” us, It demands our cooperation, which is called “free will.” This cooperation is all of our work. There are no restrictions here. It is open to everyone and is implemented by the correct studying of Kabbalistic books.

These sources can be the “elixir of life” or the “potion of death.” It all depends on our approach.

• If I intend to discover my evil inclination and to correct it, I can succeed, and the wisdom of Kabbalah will be the “elixir of life” for me. I will discover “death,” my ego, inside me and will want to correct it in order to come to life.
• But if I study to attain egoistic achievements, if I am looking for knowledge, power, respect, control, etc., then the studying only reinforces the egoism in me and my success is opposite to bestowal and I am not even aware of it. Such a study becomes the “potion of death.”

Thus we go through the stages of the Creator’s concealment. The concealment is divided into single and double concealment; the revelation first reveals to us the governance as reward and punishment and then the revelation of His eternal Providence.

Actually it all depends on my desires, on my vessels. With regard to the Creator, there are no restrictions. He doesn’t hide and is not concealed. It is my desires, my vessels, that hide Him, and if I work with them properly, they are gradually corrected, and according to their correction, I discover the Creator. One way or another, I am the one who hides Him from myself. [Read more →]

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“: Indeed, you should know that the reason for our great distance from the Creator…is for but one reason, which became the source of all the torment and the suffering that we suffer, and for all the sins and the mistakes that we fail in…. Clearly, by removing that reason, we will instantly be rid of any sorrow and pain…. And I tell you that, that preliminary reason is none other than the “lack of our understanding in His Providence over His creations,” that we do not understand Him properly.“

So our only problem is that we don’t understand the leadership, His Providence. So let’s understand!

But no, we don’t want that. Therefore, the most important thing for us is to discover His Providence, to discover the way He treats us, the connection with Him. After all, this connection has a form, a formula, and a format that enables us to locate Him.

It is about the line between us and the Light of Ein Sof. The “Light of Ein Sof” is the Creator’s attitude towards us, which is above all the circles. In other worlds, it is the line that passes through all the circles until the central point.

We can’t attain the Creator by ourselves, but through that line we can build, we discover His attitude towards us, and so we rise up the spiritual ladder. Eventually, when we go through all the levels and reach Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction), we fill all our desire with the Light in all the circles. This will be a sign that after having corrected our desires, we feel the Creator and understand Him. After all, we reveal only Him.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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The goal: We have no idea what it is and no desire for it. We want something totally different, and it isn’t even the opposite because we don’t have anything to compare it to. Kabbalistic books speak about one thing, but we think in a totally different way and don’t take it in at all.

A certain urge simply appears in us: We aren’t happy with life and we try to find fulfillment. At the same time we are confused and we deceive ourselves that we are attracted to some wonderful sublime goal. This only increases our pride and nothing more.

In fact, the only thing we want is to satisfy our ego. Here too, we don’t know exactly what it is: We don’t see its limits, we can’t measure our yearning, and we don’t see to what extent egoism controls us and how addicted we are to it. All our life passes in foggy blindness and ignorance.

So the question is: If we did catch the end of a thread and we do have a chance, how do we make the best of it? Of course, we distance ourselves from different false methods in which we determine that there is no true filling. They are meant for people who cannot make a thorough examination and are happy with the “truth” that satisfies them.

But it could also be that we are caught in the illusion of a certain method, and that if we look at it from above we will see that it is also false. Just like many mystical methods that seem true to their followers.

Who can check that? What can we count on with regard to that? Can I, at my present level of development, examine what is happening outside my level?

After all, everyone judges according to his present “self,” and of course reaches positive conclusions: “Everything is fine; I am in the right environment and the right method.” Everyone examines the situation according to his level and his height, according to the depth of his criticism and ego and so he justifies himself.

So perhaps I have also been “tricked” that way? Perhaps I am also satisfied with what I have, swimming with the current, just like yesterday?

How can I still assess the situation not as part of the routine? How can I rise to a more qualitative approach? Let’s stop here for now, with the question that we have to ask ourselves on the spiritual path.
[66616]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: We are talking about the need for balance. How exactly should we reach balance?

Answer: What in me are not just thoughts, desires, and deviations? Can I cut off all this from myself? No. Can I suppress them all? It isn’t a good idea; it would take great efforts and a lot of time, and eventually I would see that my innate attributes wouldn’t disappear even after fifty years.

So what kind of education are we talking about? What does it mean to “be human?” how can I transcend myself?

We have to take all our attributes and just balance them. I don’t need to regret something bad in me; I just need to balance it with something good.

I don’t need to erase anything; this already calms me: After all, I don’t have to feel guilty because I am that way. If I erase anything in me, what will I be left with? All that will be left is to put an end to my life. This is what pushes people to commit suicide: They discover that there is nothing good in them. There can be various external reasons, but the conclusion is the same.

But we approach the issue in a totally different manner. A person should preserve everything that is in him, and advance by his properties adding positive discernments, good attributes, to the negative attributes. Balance, don’t destroy. By destroying, you become a “reformer of the world,” in fact it is doubly bad because one becomes a damager of the world.

We have to balance every phenomenon about ourselves, but not erase it. Otherwise we disturb the general balance. Similarly, we try to balance blood pressure and other physiological problems, as well as problems in society and the family.

We mustn’t oppress anything. After all, it isn’t by chance that the desire to receive was created in this form. It stems from inside and is revealed in our Reshimot (informational genes), which we cannot erase. Their chain continues to evolve, and the only thing we can do is to balance them, to correct the phenomenon by using them correctly and revealing their positive side.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/12, “The Peace”

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Question: What can I do if a large part of my thoughts is devoted to material matters: how to earn money, my family, and  my position in the eyes of people, and I hardly think about spirituality?

Answer: This is great if you already know that all your thoughts are only about yourself and you do not agree with this, but cannot do anything. At this point you already have the opportunity to discover that there is one additional force besides yourself, the teacher, the group, and the whole world.

There is a hidden force, which creates this egoistic relationship between you and the others, and only it can change this relationship to the correct one.

You lack only a thought, a scrutiny: Is it necessary to change this relationship? Why do you need it? You do not have enough awareness of how much you want to win it and cannot think about anyone else but yourself, and that you cannot stand that you cannot overcome these thoughts. Then, from this inner feeling that has reached a huge tension, a cry is born, to which the reforming Light responds.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/12, Shamati #153

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Question: When we talk about education for adults, there is a fear that people will accuse us of offering something impractical, too detached from reality.

Answer: I totally disagree with you!

Today’s world and the one we propose are absolutely opposed. We must face the truth! It is actually true. There should not be partial solutions! I cannot create a school half-humanistic and half-egoistic, the way it is today.

When a young child comes to school, he could be beaten and robbed; he could be made into anything, compelled to do anything by force, pressure, influence, and some values. He is forced to be the same as everybody else with the worst examples. He can become attached to smoking and drinking alcohol, not to mention the threat of drugs! School is a school of depravity, a school of vanity! One is driving a car, the other gets there on foot.

All the evils of modern society are manifested in children at school in the cruelest way. We need to fight against this! We should start doing something about this. They are our children!

Since we have become insensitive egoists, we treat children likewise, pushing them away as if saying: “Go to your school. They should deal with you there.”

Instead of raising a child as a normal person and creating a future for him, the next society, we neither create society nor make a person a human being.

It does not matter what will be. That is why we do not want to bear children. We simply exist and go with the flow, which carries us to a huge waterfall, to fall into the abyss.
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From a “Talk About Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: However, when he achieves the aim of Creation and the Creator receives pleasure from him, since His will is done, man’s essence, which clothes in His contentment, is granted complete eternity, like Him. Thus, he has been rewarded with freedom from the angel of death.

Baal HaSulam explains freedom in the context of the perception of reality. We live in a world of forces. There is no matter; it is only depicted to us under the influence of different forces that stabilize this feeling for us.

I perceive the inanimate nature in all its forms and manners and also the vegetative, animate and human levels of nature. These four categories that fill my field of feeling are forces that are depicted in my desire and that draw, like on a screen, the picture of the three-dimensional, varied world.

This happens because my desire to receive divides the general bestowal, called Light, into many types and degrees of internal reactions. On the whole, it makes up the picture of the world in which I feel and see of all these actions.

So from the start, I was given a feeling for which I don’t have to prepare myself. I already have the desire to receive and in it, I feel the world. Besides that I see large-scale processes in inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature and also in between these levels. Actually it is about our internal world, but we take the names of the objects and the phenomena in it from the lowest level according to the principle of a branch and a root.

The higher I rise, the closer I get to the Light through the layers of my desire. In the lowest place I see the picture of this world. Then I rise to the next level, to the desires that are closer to the Light, and these forces are before me in the form of Partzufim, worlds, and Sefirot. Then I see the connection between the branch and the root in everything, and accordingly I call the forms that I feel as desires and the relations between the forces by parallel names from our world. Thus the language of the branches is formed. [Read more →]

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The current crisis includes all of nature’s levels. Recently there was a TV show about natural phenomena that appear as total surprises to people. Among other things, they spoke about an island in the Pacific Ocean whose inhabitants livelihood is based on fishing.

Now when they go out to sea they are afraid to get further than a few kilometers from shore. The climate has changed so much that violent storms suddenly appear and it is impossible to forecast them. Very experienced fishermen who have lived their whole lives at sea relate these happenings; the ocean, which they knew so well, has suddenly become a stranger.

Such is the scale of the general human crisis. After all, man is the upper part of nature and so he has the most destructive power, much more than all the other creatures.

There are revealed and concealed forces in the world. It is hard not to notice the explosion of a bomb. On the other hand, radioactive radiation can only be felt by its effect. There are even finer radiations whose effects can be a total surprise for us. Their source is concealed from us; this is man’s mind power, the power of human desire.

We have reached the end of our egoistic development: The world population produces such powerful negativity that we are simply suffocating one another, and at the same time destroying the levels that are below us. They are great in quantity but weak in quality, and we by our qualitative potential can simply destroy them, which is actually what is happening. This is where the “ocean surprises” and many other phenomena stem from.

So if it is all about our thoughts, let’s correct them. Kabbalists speak about two ways of development: the good path and by suffering. Apparently at the moment we are advancing by suffering. How can we advance in the same direction in the good way? After all, we have one goal—adhesion with the Creator. This is the fate of all the people, of all the nations. This means that we have to explain to them how to follow the good path, and to adapt to the uniqueness of their development.

Man’s mind power is destroying the world. We are causing ourselves and the other parts of nature harm. Today it is possible to openly show people scientifically based examples of this. Therefore, we must treat each other well or we will all be destroyed. So let’s improve our lives with the help of the one force that can help us.

If people ask, “So what is that force?”, we will answer that it is the force of the good mutual connection among us, which is actually another definition for the term “Creator.” Today we must use this force worldwide. After all, there is no distance for thoughts, and they don’t weaken as they draw away from the source and reach even the most distant stars, which are thousands of light-years away.

How can we do that? The time has come in which we will not get anything without the right request. You won’t succeed in anything if you don’t ask for the Creator’s help. Just turn to Him “in the right way,” like a good boy and then you will get your “box of candy.”

What should you ask for? Bestowal.

–          I want to give out these candies to everyone.

–          Great. Take them!

At first it isn’t so attractive, but then you learn. At first you will also be allowed to taste from the general box, but gradually you will begin to enjoy bestowal by taking only what you need.

The danger of destruction threatens you by sufferings if you don’t reach the request for others: “I want to receive pleasure only by seeing that others feel good. Let me enjoy this; give me the power for that! Make it possible!”

This is how the correction is done.
[65309]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/12, “The Freedom”

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Question: Immunization against various diseases is one of the sensational achievements of medicine. They have saved a great many human lives, but waves of objections constantly arise to the immunizations of both children and adults. Why do things that have already proven themselves invite objections such as these?

Answer: At one time people did not trust medicines and immunizations and now they don’t trust doctors. After all, nowadays doctors are devoted to money, not health.

Medicine has turned into a business and most medicines are produced with the goal of making profits, not healing. Of course our world is egoistic, but in this area, people are especially susceptible.

Life is the most precious thing there is for the average person. But, he can’t entrust this to the hands of a doctor because the doctor thinks not of his health, but about money. Medicine has turned into a huge business.

How is it possible that a person is healed according to his financial ability? After all, bodies are equal, but no, the doctor skillfully examines the thickness of the patient’s wallet and warmly suggests to him what he is silent about in other cases. Everything is rotten in the world of today, and medicine is no exception.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/12, “The Freedom”

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