Depression is one of the problems of modern humanity; it appeared at the turn of the 17^th – 18^th century in forms characteristic of the aristocracy of the day. People that led idle lives, didn’t know what to do with themselves, with what to occupy themselves. Based on this, they secretly began to raise the question about the meaning of life; on one hand, everything seemed to be there, and on the other hand, there was nothing.

To distract people from these thoughts and dampen the growing emptiness, society began to encourage romance, sex, and small wars. Then the development of various technologies began, and sports, travel, and the pursuit of fashion became popular. Everything was focused on keeping a person busy, giving him a sense of fulfillment instead of focusing on the true answer to the question “Why am I here?”

In parallel, print media, radio and television, and soon the Internet were developed, which further filled leisure time and all of a person’s resources. The Internet is filled with a vast variety of information that plugs the emptiness that arises within us.

But despite this, no matter in what a man is engaged, there is a greater and greater sense of inner awareness of worthlessness, insignificance, and the limits of his existence. The question of the meaning of life subconsciously gnaws at any person, be they more or less educated. This wormhole is inside of him, and he needs to do something with it.

This longing by the masses has caused a significant level of depression, and in order to address this, the masses are offered sedatives and other recreational drugs. Under the banner of struggling for a healthy humanity, government health agencies prohibit smoking, but instead they are slowly killing people with recreational drugs.

The by-product of ignoring the truth and not focusing on finding the right answer has led to everything being permitted. Humanity isn’t limited in any type of behavior, meaning sexually or drug related. Fulfill yourself with anything, just so the depression isn’t felt. This approach has led to the masses being willing to kill everyone and everything, including oneself, since he is no longer afraid of anything.

Searching for the meaning of life is most difficult because in order to find it a person must rise above oneself. A person can’t rise above oneself except in the case, by the will of fate he finds the wisdom of Kabbalah. Although it’s also a long path, at least one sees some kind of a perspective, not through feelings but through logic.

It turns out that depression is a problem for all humankind. The sooner humanity will move forward under the influence of the Internet and the overall development, more and more people will feel the insignificance of life, its limitations, and short term.

Subconsciously we feel that much greater potential is inherent in our lives than the one in existence now. For a person wasn’t created to live like an animal, meaning to be engaged in oneself, one’s offspring, and the arrangement of one’s own life to the grave. A person has some internal embryo that requires its own self-actualization and realization. On one hand, there is this embryo in each person, and on the other hand, this embryo can be suppressed.

Today, the most important industry of the world is the entertainment industry, which takes huge amounts of money, resources, etc. Even this industry has already been experiencing a setback and we are no longer satisfied by Hollywood and other mass entertainment venues.

A person has become impatient in the search for the meaning of life. A person cannot watch an online video clip that lasts more than five minutes. A year later, it will be shortened by a minute, and then by another minute. A question gnaws at him “Will I find something here? If not, then I won’t even want to watch.” After all, viewing long clips only increases the void, so it’s better not to watch them.

The problem is when a person opens a book or becomes engaged in some business, he is afraid to stop such activity due to an even greater disclosure of emptiness, insignificance, worthlessness, and lack of response to this gnawing question; therefore, he tries to preempt it. Therefore, people decrease their Internet discussions and talks over the mobile phone, limiting them to short phrases like ‘See you tomorrow! Later!” as if they want to leave something for the future. And what do they have tomorrow? The same emptiness that is today, but it seems better to break in the middle of a conversation, as though there was something to talk about afterward.

A person has to feel that there is a future! And there is no future! Somehow today we still can see it. Perhaps it looks ghostly and foggy, but we can still lie to ourselves about it. But day after day this feeling passes by, and in the hands of humanity, there is nothing that can plug this void.

No matter what, this emptiness remains and becomes more gaping, black, and grim. So, the younger generation quietly parts with this life, since it is much easier to forget everything while under the influence of drugs and to leave quietly rather than carrying this darkness internally.

We are faced with a huge problem that we lack the desire and ability to solve. Only Kabbalah gives an answer to this problem. However, until people don’t become completely disappointed, they won’t hear us out.  We must be ready to present them with the Kabbalistic wisdom in a way they can understand. It should become clear that only we have the answer, and the answer is only to reach the infinite, eternal, perfect existence, which is not concentrated in our body, but among us, in the sense of our own “I.”

My body, the animal substance, dies after some time; however, the human being in me is forever. So I need to separate the “I” from what I now consider myself, pull it out, isolate it from my body, and start raising, nurturing, and shaping it. This is the human being in me that I must realize.

Question: If a person is on this path, will his depression fade?

Answer: Yes, but other problems will certainly start to appear because a person has to develop himself. However, they all will end up breaking away from their animal. After rising above the body, the person will remain there for eternity and in perfection. The wisdom of Kabbalah provides a real answer that is realized by ourselves in our world and inside us. Here we do not depend on anyone and no one can restrict us! This is our freewill. To realize this we don’t need any special tools; everything is in our hands.
[147258]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/23/14

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Question: How can we determine that we can move on to the next spiritual level?

Answer: When you feel that you have no more powers to develop and have exhausted them on the current level, but have not yet reached the goal, it is a sign that you lack the next level.

In other words, we reach a certain state in our spiritual development in which we run out of powers to attain an inner level or to just remain on the same level today that we were on yesterday and to remain tomorrow on the level we are today. We run out of fuel! Then we begin to advance laterally. This is called self-movement, using your freewill.

The purpose of lateral movement is to connect all the people in the world into one whole, one desire, and one network that will be based totally on the good, mutual connection between people. Then the Creator, the attribute of love and bestowal, will be revealed in this network.

By this network we will transcend to a new level of existence and change our feeling of the world and our perspective.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/26/14

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The vast development of humanity doesn’t pay attention to the universe, and yet it is the place where we can find our roots. ​I​n the enormous open spaces of the universe, we would find the power, clumps of other types of matter, anti-matter, and so on.

It is clear that humans explore the universe, but do not give their research enough weight because they are certain that our future depends on who is stronger, wealthier, or more powerful. Our advancement doesn’t aim at understanding nature in its full revelation, nor does it encourage the acknowledgement of our deficiencies.

I assume the universe is  complete bestowal and that the force of bestowal created and arranged everything that exists. Finally, by combining certain forces, bestowal generated the inanimate, vegetative, animate and speaking levels of nature.

The universe keeps developing matter towards a special, qualitatively new level at which the matter suddenly questions itself about the force that launched it: “Where do we come from? Who are we?”

We know that the thought behind any action is in the result for which the action was meant. We react to the result; however, we never pay enough attention, nor do we ever allocate enough energy to clarify what exactly is influencing us.

On the other hand, we recognize that we are the outcome of this force’s activity. While exploring human nature, we clearly see that we don’t possess any free choice nor do we enjoy freedom of actions. We are preconditioned by our genes, instincts, calculations on profits and losses using primitive formulas.

Here is the problem: How can we possibly explore the universe, its progress and the processes we undergo if we devote all our energy to other things?

One of my students works at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. He told me that at first, there were endless debates about whether or not it was good to start such a tremendous and expensive project. However, the cost of the Collider is equivalent to the cost of keeping American troops in Afghanistan for one week.

So, it is obvious that we don’t apply sufficient effort to exploring nature. I am really sorry for this state of affairs. If we knew nature well enough and spread the knowledge to ​the masses better than we do today, we would recognize our deficiencies. We would discover the lack of new properties: the ones of bestowal.

Then, besides the will to receive that we already have, we would also obtain the power of bestowal that would allow us to explore nature from a new angle.
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From the program “A New Life” 3/02/14

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The Upper Light, the Creator, made a desire, “something out of nothing,” that is completely opposite to Him. This desire is the only creation that was ever made.

Later, the desire expanded under the influence of the Light and at some point started acting on its own. It aspired to become similar to the Light and considered the Light to be a remedy for achieving this goal through the act of accepting the Light for the sake of bestowal to the very best of the desire’s ability.

The desire is called the soul (Neshama). The maximum amount of Light that the desire can receive for the sake of bestowal is called Nefesh–Ruach–Neshama. The desire cannot receive other Lights, as yet. Only later, at the end of correction, the Lights of Haya and Yechida will enter the desire. Now, the desire is called Neshama, as it bears the name of the maximum Light that it can accommodate.

It means that all of us represent one soul, one desire. In order to make this single desire act independently and acquire similarity with the Creator, it was shattered into many pieces. In essence, it is still the same common desire, but now it perceives itself as being broken into 600,000 splinters. We regard ourselves as one of the fragments of the common desire.

The pieces of the desire continued to splinter to the extent that each creation in this world bears a tiny particle that once constituted a big vessel. Our goal is to get people voluntarily to reconnect all the elements.

When connected, each of the fragments, every single person, feels as one common soul. Each one merges with the rest of the 599,999 particles, thus the entire structure to a full 600,000 is obtained. Through our relations with the rest of the particles, each one of us builds one’s general soul out of 600,000 pieces.

It applies to everybody who merges with other pieces or splinters, followed by one more fragment and then another. So, when we all reconnect, we recreate our soul and together we constitute just one common desire.

By reattaching, we reach a state when we constitute one vessel. Each of us has to correct ourselves completely, i.e., merge with the rest of the pieces. So far, we are trying to connect in tens, but in fact. the same approach applies to the entire vessel, all souls, all of creation, every single person in this world, to those who lived before us and to those who are not yet born and who will show up later, after us. It doesn’t matter when.

All of them are parts of one soul because we connect to them in accordance with our personal qualities. If each of us connects to the rest of the 600,000 parts, we’ll recreate the original unique soul. Each one of us connects with others in a way that nobody else can and every person merges with others in a way that no other particle can do in the same fashion. This is why each one of us is so important!

During the process of linking with each other, we have to constantly keep in mind that even though at this time we merge with a small ten, we still are preparing to bond with the rest of creation through our tens. This is called one soul.

If we act within our group of ten with this intention, it will be sufficient for attaining the revelation of the common soul within this group.
[147021]
From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/01/14, lesson 4

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Question: In our time, most people feel that time seemingly slips through their fingers. We deal with urgent, pressing matters, and the most important we leave for later. How can we use time to realize every minute optimally? Is there a concept of a “waste of time”?

Answer: Of course! But everything is relative. Humanity has been evolving throughout history for many thousands of years. The question is: Can I grow faster than my generation, accelerate time as if I jump over decades? If not, then can I successfully realize time in my generation?

I live in the time period in which I was born. Can I use this time most effectively? And what does it mean “most effectively”?

Suppose, I can fill my life by satisfying the basic desires—for food, sex, family, wealth, fame, and knowledge—inherent in every person in a certain combination, depending on what importance he attaches to each of them. This combination of six desires, defining the purpose in life, makes us different from each other.

But if we talk about the realization of my general desire in which, for example, 10% of the desire is for food, 20% – for sex, 10% – for family, 20% – for wealth, 40% – for power and knowledge, the question arises whether I stay in the same desires I was born with? We see we don’t. My aspirations depend on the society I am in, on the measure of its influence on me.

I can use my properties, inclinations, and desires according to the environment. That is, the environment influences the way in which I will use all my inclinations to achieve pleasure. Indeed, the desires for food, sex, family, wealth, honor, and knowledge are the sources of pleasure with which I want to fulfill myself. In essence, I am the desire to enjoy.

The question is how the society I exist in affects me. The surroundings can suddenly increase my desire for science, power, or money and food, sex, and the family will lose their former importance to me, and I will use them only in order to achieve fame or power. And it may happen the opposite way.

It depends how a person realizes himself in society. Although his natural inclinations are very important and over time they still direct a person to a certain niche, peculiar to him.

But there is always a struggle between the individual and society. The individual wants to realize himself as much as possible with the help of society, and the society wants to absorb the identity and use it for its own benefit as much as possible and not take into account the personalities at all. After all, the person does not have intrinsic value to society; it only matters how they are integrated in it.

If I want to manage my time, I should be developed as much as possible both in personal and social terms because only in connection between them or on their border will I find my optimal self-realization.

After all, I should feel where society is heading, what its goal is, where I am directed according to my natural inclinations, what the goal would be if I could change the entire world for my own benefit, what could be in the connection between me and society, and how I realize myself with the help of society, in which I exists.

This means that I am going to manage the time of my life, to realize it in the most effective manner.
[147277]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/22/14

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: From the beginning of Creation, all people have reservations, and the Thought of the Creator necessitates them to come to the feast, knowingly or unknowingly.

This plan certainly will be fulfilled, and it is all a matter of time. After all, the evil forces we develop return to us like a boomerang, pressuring us and bringing us to the right decisions.

The goal will be obtained one way or the other, and we actually are bringing it closer by using our developing ego incorrectly so that eventually it acts against us, forcing us to respond.

On the whole, until recently, the process of evolution was good for us. We developed new tools, introduced competition, built a banking system, developed commerce, discovered continents, and basically, everything was just fine since it helped us advance.

However, in the 20^th century, we exhausted this form of development and for the first time began to see that there is a limit to our advancement. We found ourselves at a dead end. We have exhausted our ego and today it is beginning to destroy itself. We have seen clear signs for that for a while now. In 1971 for example, the gold coin in the US was replaced by a paper note. The eruption of the ego had many consequences, but the main lesson was that future problems will force us to change our lifestyle, the formula of human existence.

The question is whether blows will force us to grow wiser and to understand how to avoid problems along the way, or whether we will be able to identify what is coming in advance and begin to change ourselves.

Slow evolution will lead to totalitarian forms of government like in Germany or Soviet Russia in the first half of the last century. These are the two ultimate forms of the ego’s development, and we may be witnessing them again. What is more, this is exactly what we are advancing toward; however, today, it is called “Armageddon,”or we can force ourselves artificially against our growing ego to develop the good, anti-egoistic force of bestowal instead of the force of receiving between us.

So, let’s develop this way. This is actually what Kabbalists tell us: use the force concealed in nature. It can dominate us just as our ego dominates us today. So far, the evil force has dominated the good force, receiving dominated bestowal. However, now, the force of bestowal can dominate the force of receiving. This means that they will be balanced just as the wisdom of Kabbalah explains and teaches us how to understand the balance between them. After all, it is impossible to use only one of the two forces. The force of bestowal, absolute love, can be a destructive force. Generally speaking, each of the forces blinds a person, and he doesn’t see anything before him. If we accept one force only, we will be captives of that force. Only the right balance of the two forces we find inside us is called the Adam (Man) in us. It brings us to the realization and to the true feeling, to receiving and to bestowal, that allows us to use all of nature and build ourselves in the middle of these two forces.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is no other way that we can develop. In the worst case, we will reach it through blows and sufferings. However, the blows will not create the right form in us. We must make the choice by ourselves, make decisions, and gradually establish it inside us so that we will grow wise and understand the connection between us and the Creator through our efforts to build our home, the Divinity (Shechina).

However, we are like a stubborn kid who refuses to learn, and so the troubles come: the disciplinary measures that force him to begin learning. If he would learn from his books, there would be no need for the blows. On the contrary, he could save time and avoid the sufferings.

It is actually impossible to advance on the path of “in its time” (Beito) since then you stay in the same place without moving, like a donkey, until you are beaten and have no other choice.

Baal HaSulam says that the guests will come to the feast knowingly and unknowingly, so we should listen to him.
[146573]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The difference between a person and a cat is that a cat doesn’t make mistakes because it is connected to nature, with the force that moves it called nature or the Creator. This is the power of the overall system that manages the cat and shows it how to behave at each and every moment.

So a cat never makes a mistake. It doesn’t even think about what it is doing; it only acts and that’s it. It is constantly managed by the system, and so every one of its jumps are precisely calculated. A cat acts like a perfect machine.

A person, unlike a cat, is not a perfect machine. On the contrary, he doesn’t know how to act and constantly makes mistakes. Even though he has received additional senses and intelligence in comparison to other animals, he is not managed by nature.

This is called his freedom of choice, which determines how he uses his human emotion and intelligence. And if he doesn’t take the entire general system into account, he always activates his intelligence incorrectly and harms himself. After all, his ego causes him to err.

If we intentionally don’t learn how to use our intelligence correctly, we always harm ourselves. The proof for this is in the entire history of the human race that has gone on for thousands of years, yet development isn’t good and beautiful anywhere. It is accompanied by wars and problems, searches and disappointments, and failure is followed by failure. We try to do things for the best, but things only become worse.

The time has come to say, “Enough!, We are tired of all of these failures, the hatred, the problems in the family.” One by one, families fall apart, since in our development, we have reached the recognition of evil.

This is no longer just the miserable life that we lived before when nature pushed us to development through blows. In our time we have reached a level of intelligence and feelings by which we can see we have been developing by suffering that is only increasing. We are talking about a third world war. So, are we unable to stop it?

Modern man no longer wants anything from life except drugs or antidepressants. He doesn’t want to start a family and bring children into the world. He doesn’t want to take any responsibility. In this situation, we come to the month of Elul, to repentance. But this means that the solution to this bad situation is already illuminating us and redemption is near. We are ready to stop this flawed development, this negative trend. We have had enough suffering!

This is the sum total of the month of Elul, our decision to develop in a new form from now on. It means that we decide to reach balance with nature, to approach the higher power through establishing new rules of behavior based upon, “and you shall love your friend as yourself.” In this way, we reach balance with nature and become like the higher power.

Human society must reach full mutual support so that by itself, it will control that additional intelligence and feeling that has raised us above the level of the animal, prevented us from balance with nature and took us outside of the realm of its control. This means that we must arrange our reason and feeling through connection, unity, and love between us.

In this way we complete ourselves on the level of Adam (man) and make the entire system homogeneous, integral, connected, united, and completely mutually dependent, like everything else in nature. This is called love.

We don’t understand what love is. Love is to be in partnership, in the right connection with all the rest of the parts of nature. You feel them and do what they need and they feel you and do what you need, like a healthy body in which all of the organs are in a mutual connection such as this.

The understanding that we must reach such a connection is called the month of Elul, repentance.

Question: So what is it necessary to think in a time like the month of Elul, in order to change life into a better life?

Answer: In our world, only the good connection between people is missing. There is full abundance, but everyone suffers because of their intolerable character. We must correct this, and we have the opportunity to do so.

If we direct ourselves towards correction, it would be a wonderful result of the self-criticism that we do in the month of Elul. So we truly advance according to its name: Elul, meaning,  “Ani LeDodi VeDodi Li” – “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine,”(“Song of Songs” 6:3).
[144508]
From KabTV’s“ A New Life” 9/14/14

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Question: In my spiritual work, I am unable to connect the Creator and the group. What should I do?

Answer: Who gave me this group? Who brought me to it, organized everything? Who directs all the people who are sitting in front of me?

In the group of ten, there are nine people besides me, and they are all ready to unite with me. Who is directing them all, who selects them, prepares, and pushes them towards connection with each other? What force does all that if not the Creator? There is no other force. I only need to reveal how He does this, how He guides everyone by the strings, like a puppet-master, and in what manner He gathers us together.

And where am I? Who among us has freedom of will, where is it manifested and in which precise inner motion?

Then I begin to think, to look at the others, and realize that the Creator did everything, and He gave us the opportunity to increase the desire for mutual connection in order to reveal Him, so that from the hidden puppet-master He would turn into an evident one, the one who will fill all the empty spaces between us. Suddenly, with all our strengths, properties, and intentions, with our desires and thoughts, we start to complete each other in a way that arranges a perfect system where everyone fits each other ideally.

Therefore, apart from the possibility for connecting perfectly, for aspiring for unity, everything else is done by the Creator. We only need to show movement toward the ideal connection. And this, too, will be done by Him, but we need to try to remain in aspiration for it.

We do not know, do not understand, and do not feel. We only want for it to happen, with His help.
[144727]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14, Lesson 2

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Question: If only a person who has the point in the heart has the freedom of choice, does this mean that one must not demand for others to change? This means that everything depends on us?

Answer: We do not demand anything! I always keep repeating that Kabbalah needs to be disseminated in a very discreet manner. It’s only for those who want it.

We should not solicit those who are not interested, “There is no coercion in the spiritual!” We only need to show to those people who already have acquired the desire for spirituality, “the point in the heart,” that they have a place to go with this desire and develop it.

After all, this person feels bad. He does not understand why he does not know where to realize a desire that he is feeling. So, let him find out where he can realize it, and we do not address the rest. Let them stay as they were.

However, in our world, there is a nation called Israel. These are souls that once were on the spiritual level, but have fallen from it into corporeal desire.

They all must study Kabbalah and correct themselves. This is because they have been through the breaking; at one time they already had risen to the spiritual and fallen.

Even if the point in the heart is not awakened in them right now, they still have it, and we must bring this knowledge to them, and especially those who study the “external Torah,” instead of the “inner Torah.” They must absolutely study Kabbalah, and this is the only way the world can be corrected.

There is no other possibility to improve it and free it from all the misfortunes. All the problems in the world happen because of the lack of Light!

The only way to attract the Light to the world is by studying Kabbalah, which attracts the Surrounding Light. There are no other ways to do this.

Kabbalah is the means of connection with the Upper Light, the revelation of the Creator to the creatures, the revelation of Light to the desire to receive. It connects us to the Light. It teaches you to build an anti-egoistic screen.

These are the only three components: desire, Light, and the screen in the middle. All of mankind is on the bottom, the Creator is on top, and Kabbalah is between them as the means of attaining the screen.

This is why anyone who wishes to get rid of all misfortunes needs to try to come as close to it as possible because he attracts the Light by doing this. And the way we will feel in our desires depends only on the Light.
[28793]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/10, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: At what stage of the work does a person attain freedom of will?

Answer: Only after he has acquired a soul, after spiritual revelation.

A spiritual Partzuf is divided into two halves: the upper half-Keter, Hochma, Bina, Chesed, Gevurah, and the upper part of Tifferet; and the lower half, the lower part of Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut; and between them, the third part of Tifferet.

The upper part is comprised of desires to bestow, and the lower part is made of desires to receive. What is the middle then, the third part of Tifferet? It is not related to reception or bestowal, and here is where the freedom to choose what will you do with it is.

But you, like Buridan’s donkey, can’t pick either direction, are torn apart, unable to make a choice, until we discover that herein lies an opportunity to unify these two halves: the upper and lower halves to work together in the third, middle line!

I unify these two forces, the force of bestowal and the force of reception, and they start governing me together. This is called “receiving in order to bestow,” when the two forces work in harmony with each other.

This is the essence of Kabbalah, and for this reason it is called “Kabbalah” (reception); after all, it teaches how to receive these two forces, bestowal and reception, in such a way that they complement each other. And thereby you build your independence, true freedom.

You are independent of the Creator and simultaneously like Him! You learn from His example while remaining totally independent. You don’t have any other model to follow because receiving these two forces is mandatory. But how to accept them and be like them, in that, you are totally free.

Here, in middle between these two forces, in the middle third of Tifferet, lies our soul that we are constructing ourselves. The freedom of choice begins with the revelation of the Creator. It is written: “The dead are free,” which means that when egoistic desire dies, the two forces, reception and bestowal, stand facing each other, and you are between them, and then you are free. After all, you can work with both these forces equally.

Even though it seems to you that you are standing between them not knowing where to move since on one side you have the desire to receive and on the other the desire to bestow, but when one destroys the other, only in this condition, are you in a neutral state and may act freely.

As for now, we are all under the authority of the only desire to receive, and we have no desire to bestow. Therefore, until we have acquired the will to bestow, we are as beasts controlled by nature; but once we have obtained it, we become free and solely in the desire to become similar to the Creator and construct a human (Adam), which means “similar” to Him.
[27096]
From a lesson, 10/8/10, BaalHaSulam, “The Freedom”

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