We live in the first generation of people who wake up to discover the meaning of life and to understand why they live. In the previous generations, we used to live like animals. We had only egoism, the desire to enjoy, that constantly pushed us forward, and through it we tried to fill ourselves in an endless race from one pleasure to another. However, we were never satisfied because pleasure is opposite to one’s desire to receive, like the two poles in an electric circuit that are opposite to each other.

As soon as the Light touches the vessel desiring to enter it, annihilation, a “short circuit” immediately occurs, and they nullify each other. Every time we want to enjoy something, it is enough to just touch the pleasure, and it disappears. We sense the taste of food, but it goes away. We see something beautiful, but the charm dissipates. Positive feelings do not remain with us, and we are not able to accumulate or add them to our “piggy bank” from day to day.

In the end, we see that our generation is in despair. People have nothing to fill themselves with; they do not feel flavor or pleasure. They use drugs to escape and they calm themselves with medications and antidepressants. Why?

Our egoistic desire that was growing throughout history has stopped its development. For thousands of years, it was gaining strength, and it seemed to us that we would continue to find greater pleasures in new desires. The feeling of pleasure is the feeling of life. But today, our desire to receive has become completely satiated, and we have fallen into despair from helplessness, not seeing any possibility to move somewhere else.

This is a special time, a special condition, and that is why Baal HaSulam writes that he is glad to be born in the era when it is possible to divulge the wisdom of Kabbalah. Why is this possible? “Kabbalah” means reception in Hebrew. It teaches us how to attain wisdom, to become filled with infinite pleasure, not feeling the pleasure disappear and our dying as all pleasures vanish. The wisdom of Kabbalah leads us to endless pleasure which means eternal life.

Moreover, Kabbalah brings us to a degree where we become the masters of our lives. Along with the over-satiated desire to receive, the “point in the heart” (•) is revealed in a person, which is an additional property, the desire to bestow.

The plus and the minus, the desire to bestow and the desire for pleasures exist in the same person, and he acquires the freedom of choice. Now he has two forces, and by developing them one against the other, he begins to control them, that is, to control himself. He decides which path to take and what measure of desire to use.

Thus, he is evolving in three lines: He makes the middle line from the right and left lines. In fact, this middle line is called a “human” (Adam) because he did it; he formed his inner essence, and as a result, it belongs to him. Before that, in all our reincarnations we developed similarly to animals, pushed by our egoistic desire, and received more pleasures according to its orders.

Today, we cannot control our desires yet because we only have a small point in the heart. We get together and study the wisdom of Kabbalah which explains how to develop this point so that we’ll have two big desires. Then, we will no longer be governed from Above by the force of egoism; instead, we will hold two forces in our hands and will be able to rise above this life.
[44844]
From Lesson 1, Convention in Spain, 6/3/2011

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The crisis we are experiencing today is an indication of our lack of unity with one another. In essence, the crisis is letting us see that we are total egoists and individualists who are living in a global world. And this is the entire problem. Nature is revealing the world’s globality to us, but our egoistic nature is completely opposite to it.
This difference or abyss between the two is felt by us as a crisis. This is why we feel pain and confusion in everything we do, and it is the reason we are plagued by diseases and misfortunes. This comes from the lack of similarity between our egoistic desire and the upper Light.

Therefore, we have to see the current crisis as the initial point of humanity’s ascent to the special state from which it once descended, according to the program contained in the informational particle that was born by the Light. We were born here in our universe and now we are returning to that perfect state.

The part of humanity in which the point in the heart has surfaced is developing with the help of two forces. All we need are the right conditions: the group, studies, and teacher. The second part of humanity is going through a developmental process and reaching a state of crisis that is becoming unbearable. That is when a question arises: What does “unbearable” mean?

The sensation of horrible suffering can bring humanity to wars, annihilation, and all sorts of problems. This is exactly what is happening: A part of the population is forgetting about everything through drugs, others engage in terrorism, and others yet are not worried by anything—they have completely sunk in theft. Egoism is breaking out in every direction. Because of the lack of inner fulfillment people feel, they don’t know what to do with themselves.

These negative phenomena are exposing the entire extent of the despair and hopelessness that humanity feels today. And people aren’t guilty of this. They feel enormous inner pressure, which is causing explosions of violence. So what can be done to relieve their situation?

We have already talked about the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah. This is the salvation. If we spread the knowledge of the science of Kabbalah before people’s ego breaks out to the surface, then we will save the world from great troubles. Therefore, everything depends on the people with a point in the heart.

Nothing depends on the world and we shouldn’t wait for any actions to be done by other people who don’t have a point in the heart. They don’t have the positive force that is able to supplement their egos. They are just carriers of a huge egoistic desire, and only give us an addition of their dissatisfaction and pain.

We have to process this enormous desire, tune into it, and together with it, aspire to unity. We have to continue studying and, in response, increase dissemination with a special emphasis on the need to unite among us. We are the ones who have to unite our common broken desire into one—our common spiritual vessel. Even though it is broken, it contains parts that are interconnected, despite them having completely different qualities of desire. Therefore, if all others will join these interconnected desires, they will also become included in this connection.

That is how one part of humanity actively builds a connection among one another, while the other part of humanity participates in this process passively.
[45046]
From the 2nd lesson at the Madrid Convention, 6/4/11

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The science of Kabbalah is special because it allows us to reveal how to control the two forces of nature: the force of reception and the force of bestowal. All of nature is comprised of these two forces. We see them everywhere: plus and minus, bestowal and reception. Their combination is what creates the essence of our lives.

On the still level they build atoms and molecules, dipoles, crystalline patterns, and so on. On the vegetative level the combination of a plus and minus produces life: a plus provides useful things whereas a minus excretes waste, which enables a body to live and develop.

On the animate level a plus and minus become even greater and their interconnection not only causes useful things to be absorbed and harmful things excreted, but also brings about movement, reproduction, and the individual life of a separate animal. This is already a special sum of two influences.

However, as paradoxical as it may be, on the human level only one of two forces was operating to this day. As a result, any pleasure that entered us immediately waned. That’s because our desire is egoistic and we did not have any chance to oppose it, to add a second force against it so we could excrete the harmful things from our desires and thoughts, from our hearts and minds, which belong to the human level.

Now a second force is being revealed in us—the point in the heart, which stands opposite to egoism. It enables us to form ourselves, to decide which thoughts and desires to bring inside and which to take outside. As a result, out of thousands of thoughts and desires, we can gather a new structure and build a special level inside of us called “human” (Adam) or ”soul.” It consists of ten Sefirot and is also called “Partzuf”—a spiritual structure.

This is what we form inside of us by virtue of the fact that two forces have finally begun developing in us. For hundreds of thousands of years, only one force operated in us on the human level. We were constantly activated by the desires and thoughts that awakened in us. That is how we lived.

But now, together with several million people from the whole world, we have received a true gift from above—the bestowing desire in addition to the receiving desire. And now we are forming a new creation inside of us. We must build the human in us ourselves. This is the entire purpose of man’s existence in this world. Otherwise, why does he exist here? What can he possibly do here?

Today we are advancing together with all humanity. We are the first, and others will come after us. From one day to the next new people are awakening and joining this process of building a person inside of each one of us. You and I are learning how to become human in the true sense of the word.
[44840]
From the 1st lesson at the Madrid Convention 4/6/11

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Question: If we have to rise above our egoism, then the more we strengthen it, the more difficult it is to rise above it. Thus paradoxically, the flourishing of culture deprives us of the opportunity to overcome our ego, doesn’t it?

Answer: Yes, it is true. But why do we develop in the egoistic form and, and what’s more, exponentially so? This is for us to see inside our ego how much it ultimately destroys us, and yet we are able overcome it.

We have no other matter besides our desire! Thus, the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the wisdom of reception” (“Kabbalah” in Hebrew means “reception”). This wisdom explains how to realize one’s desire rather than destroy it. From our egoistic matter, we are building the form of a human (Adam), “similar” (Domeh) to the upper one, the Creator.

Thus, on one hand, the ego has to grow up to the point when we become disappointed in our real egoistic form which always wants to grab for itself. Then, I will begin to use my ego in its inverse form and each time turn it into bestowal. To the extent I can do this, I will acquire forces for my soul.

Today we have reached a certain “ceiling,” “satiation,” meaning the maximum possible egoism in receiving for ourselves until we consume the last fruit of the Earth. This will lead us to the realization of our evil. Either in a good way or bad, we will understand that we must act in the opposite manner and use our egoism for bestowal.
[44667]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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A person who opens The Book of Zohar, opens it in order to reveal the Creator. By definition, the science of Kabbalah is the method of revealing the Creator to creation in this world. Otherwise why would Kabbalah and all of Torah be given to us? The Creator becomes revealed in the desire to bestow and love in a person. This desire is equal to the Creator in qualities, and the Creator becomes revealed in it according to the law of equivalence of form.

Thus, the Creator is the quality of bestowing and loving, the force of bestowal and love, “the Good who does Good.” How, then, can we achieve the desire to bestow and love, the Good who does Good? By connecting with each other in spite of every person’s egoistic forces that mutually repel one another and by building a net of good connection between us above the net of hatred. By building a net in which every person is good and does good, bestows and loves in relation to others.

But how do we do this if each of us is just a small egoist? We read The Book of Zohar, which talks about our corrected states in which we are connected by a good connection between us, and we desire for this to come true inside of us. In that case we receive an impression of those good states, which already exist in infinity. This impression, the influence of forces from our corrected states upon our current state, is called “surrounding Light” or “the Light that returns us to the source of goodness.”

Then, according to the formula, “I created the evil inclination and I gave the Torah for its correction, because the Light in it returns to the source,” we return to the source—the Good who does Good. Thus, we reveal the Creator, the Good who does Good, our root.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/11, The Zohar

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Shamati #25: Regarding things that come from the heart, enter the heart. …The thing is that when one hears the words of his teacher, he immediately agrees with his teacher, and resolves to observe the words of his teacher with his heart and soul. But afterwards, when he comes out to the world [to a different environment], he sees, covets, and is infected by the multitude of desires roaming the world, and he and his mind, his heart, and his will are annulled before the majority.

…He mingles with their desires and he is led like sheep to the slaughter. He has no choice; he is compelled to think, want, crave, and demand everything that the majority demands. In that case there is only one counsel then, to cling to his teacher and to the books [on the internal level]. This is called “[Being nourished] from the mouth of books and from the mouth of authors.”

A person who is born and lives in this material world develops in an environment that’s far away from spirituality, and obviously he cannot understand anything on the spiritual path. Even if he has an aspiration to spirituality, this point is immersed in the egoistic desire, which is surrounded by the egoistic society. Therefore, it does not have any chance of developing correctly.

Only a person who makes his way into the right environment merits spiritual development. This is an environment which has a teacher and a group that carries out the teacher’s advice. Besides, this group must study the authentic Kabbalistic sources, but this is already a result of how they accept the guidance of their teacher.

Therefore, the bottom line is that the group’s development depends on the teacher, the Rav (which means “big”). To the degree the students are able to cancel their opinion to his opinion, that is how they will develop. That’s because the spiritual environment is based on the teacher’s opinion, thought, and method, as well as the recognition of the teacher’s authority.

A necessary condition for the student is to constantly check who and what determines his opinion. After all, he is under the influence of two forces and must always decide that the teacher’s opinion has greater force than his own opinion. And if he does not feel any struggle and resistance, it means he does not perform this verification at all and instead thinks that everything is fine just the way it is.

Sometimes a student goes against his teacher’s opinion and thinks that he has a better understanding of how he should act from the point of view of his logic and reason. That is, he does not annul himself. But nullifying oneself means that he goes against his desire, against his logic.

If he endures in this resistance, it means he chooses the spiritual path and progresses on it. But if there is no opposition and inner struggle, then a question arises: Maybe he does not even understand that he is always following his own opinion, all the while thinking that he is advancing correctly?
[43949]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/11, Shamati

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Question: In “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” Baal HaSulam writes that in our world the receiving desire materializes in its entire, adequate, desired form. What is it desired for?

Answer: For correction. Otherwise why would it need to descend down the ladder of the spiritual worlds? Moreover, on the lowest level it went through life cycles over and over again until taking on the adequate form in our time. Even in our world the development happens “according to schedule,” and now in the 21st century we are starting our ascent back up. Our current state is the desired, adequate form.

This point was instilled in us from the beginning of creation and we had to reach it. Now is exactly the beginning of man’s or creation’s birth. Until now there was no creation. There was just desire, which developed according to a set program in order to reach a specific state where a point of freedom emerges, the point of our independence.

Question: We are talking about a fully formed egoistic desire, but the “desired form” sounds like a positive thing.

Answer: Of course, this is a positive state. That is exactly how the Torah defines the deadly egoistic desire that has accumulated its full might. This is where creation begins because now it can form, express, and sense itself.

As long as a person doesn’t feel that he is evil, completely opposite to the Creator, as long as he doesn’t realize the entire horror of being in this position, he won’t be able to work on himself. Therefore, in the boundaries of the process of correction, this is a good state because it leads to the formation of a human being.

However, if you suppose that “goodness” is when you feel good, fine, go ahead and feel good. But this is purposeless. In a goal-oriented state a person feels his opposition to the Creator, and this is exactly what motivates him to act.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Our will to enjoy is constantly changing and growing. There is an inner engine in it that keeps spinning and thereby unfolding our will to enjoy one layer after another.

If I am not in sync with this engine and don’t correct my will to receive so that it is filled with the Light, this desire unfolds darkness to me, and I feel worse. In the meantime, the engine continues to spin, whereas I, having not corrected my previous desire, am delayed and cannot correct my current state either. This makes my life much more disappointing and difficult. Day by day I am feeling more miserable.

Therefore, if a person understands that nothing is going to come from the Creator and it is the created being who is supposed to provide everything, if he realizes that nature has been arranged so as to reveal to us our entire will to receive and all we have to do is reach correction, only then does he view reality in the right way. It is all up to us. The ball is in our court.
[43568]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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All we need is to develop the desire. I remember when I used to own a clinic, one of the workers used to bring Yemenite food with her. At first I couldn’t come near it since I simply did not understand what this was. That’s how different it tasted from anything I was used to. But with time, I started becoming familiar with this food and tasting it, and little by little, I developed an appetite for it.

It’s the same as how a baby is born into the world without having any tastes yet. Afterwards, depending on the customs and predilections of his society, he begins to get used to food and to acquire a taste for it. Without taste, without the desire to eat precisely some specific dish, we would not be able to enjoy it. Of course, it’s possible to eat so you don’t starve to death, but that’s not the same as pleasure. You can receive the pleasures of this world as a bare necessity, but anything beyond that is admissible only if you desire to enjoy—and that enjoyment has to come from bestowal.

Question: Baal HaSulam writes that this requires only a psychological shift. What is that?

Answer: We do not understand how it is possible to enjoy by loving and filling someone you love. “Someone you love” is not just my child, taking care of whom gives me pleasure naturally. Rather, we are talking about someone who’s a stranger, who is alien, distant, opposite, and even hateful to me. This is like food from a foreign country that nauseates me. So I deliberately start developing the taste for it, looking for an approach to it, for closeness and understanding. Gradually the corresponding desires are born inside of me and then I suddenly feel that I love this person.

A question arises: If I love him, then won’t my bestowal to him be egoistic? After all, I will be enjoying it.

That’s true, but my love does not revoke the hatred I felt before. That hatred remains with me constantly and even increases, just like it happened with the students of Rabbi Shimon who write in The Book of Zohar that at first they hate one another, but then they reach love. We continuously advance in two lines, elevating love above hatred, as it is written, “Love will cover all sins.”

Precisely the hatred and love together create the taste, the “juice,” the might of the pleasure. They are like two reigns. If you nullify hatred, then only a tiny material relish will remain with you from the entire height of pleasure, but if you rise above the hatred, covering it with the screen of love time after time, then you end up with a huge vessel that has a huge pleasure inside.
[43755]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: Kabbalah has taught me to accept all the troubles that come my way with a smile. Is that wrong?

Answer: The science of Kabbalah gives a person the strength to feel, after all of the troubles, that they have a reason. And it doesn’t matter whether you are crying or smiling form the misfortunes. The most important thing is that you use them beneficially, for taking a step forward. The misfortune has to be perceived as a force that obligates you to advance.

But we have to try to advance even before we receive the blow, just like in the cartoons about Tom and Jerry where a huge cat chases a small mouse. They always show how the mouse runs away from the cat, who is just about to catch the mouse, but the mouse always runs away. That is how we should run toward the goal, while the problems will keep on chasing us, running right behind us all of the time. But try to escape them!

We have to understand that the problems are exactly what enables us to run to the right place and very quickly. We have to try to be that smart mouse.
From the 2nd lesson at the Rome Convention on 5/21/11

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