Question: In the past Kabbalah was passed on through the chain of Kabbalists, from one to the next, between selected individuals, special souls. Today, however, the conditions have changed and Kabbalah must spread around the world. How do we accomplish this?

Answer: As we become more distant from the first “man,” Adam HaRishon, who was the first to unveil the spiritual world 5771 years ago, it becomes necessary to simplify this wisdom even more and reduce it to the level of understanding for the masses. We are witnessing the so-called “descent of the generations,” which become much more “material,” meaning that their egoistic desire is getting bigger. We see how egoism grows from generation to generation.

Because of this, today’s souls have greater potential than the previous souls, which allows them to receive, understand, and attain more. On the other hand, it has been more difficult to reach them, that is, have them finally accept and understand it.

In truth, we contain such enormous ego that it clothes us in a bullet-proof armor of egoism of horrific coarseness (Aviut). Hence, we are constantly trying to simplify Kabbalah for the masses even more. In the degree of the ego’s growth, we should lower Kabbalah as well so that we can pass it on to a person at his level. Either way, it remains a mystery to him. By simplifying Kabbalah, we don’t deprive him of his free will; he will still have to exert effort.

After all, if one person is burdened with desire for pleasure valued at “100 pounds” while another at “500 pounds,” then each of them needs to receive this wisdom at the same caliber. He will have to exert an effort in the matching degree in order to break through such a powerful concealment. We won’t steal his free will.

It is our duty to bring Kabbalah closer to a person, or he will keep walking away from it even more. Our ego removes us farther away from the notion of what spirituality and bestowal are. In the past, it was very easy for people to comprehend since it was obvious to them that this was the truth based upon the design of their soul. Today, however, it is completely alien to man with his egoism; he is unable to process even a drop of bestowal even intellectually, not to mention emotionally.

Therefore, our work lies in the field of adapting Kabbalah to serve the people. Unveiling the wisdom of Kabbalah means simplifying it to such degree and forms that would make it enter a person freely and easily, and become as close to his heart as possible. After all, our ego today has grown out of proportion, so much so that people have become totally deaf to perceiving spirituality.

It doesn’t matter that in the past, only a chosen few could study, avoiding all others, while today, there are millions. Increased egoism equalizes all conditions. Today, one can buy Kabbalah books in any store, learn about it from newspapers and television, but people still fail to hear.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/2011, “The Freedom”

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Where is our free will, after all? It wasn’t my will to come into this world, nor did I pick my life setting: family, country, and ethnicity. I am made of my parent’s genes which define absolutely all my qualities. I was raised by the environment where I found myself: my home, the kindergarten, and school, none of which was up to me. Nothing in me is my own!

By the time I grow up, I am completely formed, a finished product, like a pie from the oven. But this isn’t all! In fact, as the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us, we are all interconnected cogwheels; we are parts of one integral soul that was broken into pieces. It is as if we became a “puzzle” printed as one whole image to later be cut into small fragments.

So, each of us is assigned a very specific place in which we fit with all our properties and attributes, 613 desires, that make us depend on one person, the second and third, in order to link with them. Everyone depends on all for this puzzle to be complete. And it isn’t just a one dimensional puzzle since we don’t connect by mere contours: Each of us has “613” facets by which one is adjacent to all. Imagine such a 613 dimensional space.

Then what is the freedom that we are talking about if I am merely a tiny piece in the puzzle forced to totally match all the others in my properties? Hence, when free will is being discussed, it doesn’t pertain to a person per se and his personal, independent choice. This is one freedom shared by all; it is determined by all of us together!

Even if a person can make some move, it has to correspond with all the other parts, all the other souls and their properties. If I move in some direction, the movement must occur in the entire system. Now we need to find out: What constitutes my free will after all?
[32126]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: You said that in order to build ourselves we have to use two forces: reception and bestowal. What if instead of two forces, I have only one, the force of reception?

Answer: You have both of these forces except that you don’t wish to use the second one! We start ascending from below, from “zero” of bestowal, until we have covered 125 spiritual degrees and acquire absolute bestowal. But “zero” of bestowal doesn’t mean you don’t have it; you simply don’t employ this force you possess.

We can’t say that something doesn’t exist in the universe; this force doesn’t register only in you, in your perception. And the confirmation of the fact that it does exist is that it can unfold in you in the next instant, only to disappear yet again. This is regarded as a “zero.” In reality, however, it doesn’t exist; it can be so solely in man’s perception.

You have free will to evoke the force of bestowal from this zero. In order to do so you are given an environment comprised of the teacher, group, and the books. Start utilizing it to work on your zero of bestowal and it will be a zero no more.

After all, you can evoke the force of bestowal only when you relate to someone else who also desires to experience it. So start building such relations; don’t get locked in your own self! What other way is there to unveil bestowal?

The force of reception is concentrated within one person, but it takes two to keep the force of bestowal so that it can work in between the two. Therein lies the major difference between the egoistic and altruistic choices: In your ego, you are alone, but to bestow, you need the right environment. Otherwise, where will you actualize it? Where will you find this force and confirm that you indeed possess it?

Therefore, as soon a spiritual spark awakens in a person and calls for development of the soul, he or she is immediately brought to a group and instructed: “Choose it!” This is where the real free will is exercised: in choosing the correct environment.
[32008]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: In mathematics, when analyzing a system with many unknowns, we make all parameters constant, leaving only one degree of freedom. Oftentimes, in man’s inner work we get the same feeling that you are looking in a number of directions: perception of reality, the group, the Creator; that is, there are too many "degrees of freedom," and it’s overly perplexing. Can I use the same principle as in mathematics and in the meantime only take into consideration the attitude towards the group?

Answer: In spiritual work it’s much easier. Even with all that infinite number of variables, we need to relate to a single Source and become included in Him. Let all these thousands of parameters change, while you remain inside the Creator, the sole cause of all that infinite number of changes.

If you attempt now to "freeze" reality, making it still in order to connect all of it together, it would forfeit the whole purpose of the spiritual work, degrading it to the level of dissecting events in the material world. Why do we need it?

We only need to know that from all the infinite number of changes, I should immediately establish contact with the Upper One, the Creator, and grasp Him. Let everything around me change even more, let the whole world swirl.

Despite and above it all, I have to hold on to Him even more strongly so that these changes will only strengthen our bond. There’s nothing else I need! I don’t have to learn anything about these changes. The moment I adhere to the Creator, I attain all the senses and mind, achieve the purpose of all the changes. So why should I get bogged down in them to begin with?

The sciences of our world are entering a crisis because they are going in the wrong direction. What are we wasting our time on: looking for yet another one of many thousands of particles, a search that has no end? The further we advance, the more and more entangled we get.

Let’s say they discover a new elementary particle which they were missing, only to find that it can be split into another thousand particles, and so on to infinity. It’s pure curiosity. Although in the final analysis each quest contains the search for the Upper One, the Creator.

But if we want to advance correctly, we need to find the cause of all that is happening. And it means that we must break through to a higher level. So I never concentrate on what is happening in this world. I must make only the actions that connect me to the Creator: Through the group, make some physical actions, but only in that direction.

On the level of this world we will never reveal anything higher than that. After all, what research tools do we have in the material world other than our earthly, animal intelligence? From the height of the animate level we explore the still and the vegetative degrees.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: Where is our freedom of choice when reading The Zohar?

Answer: We read The Zohar to realize our freedom of choice. Otherwise, there is no need either in The Zohar or in the entire wisdom of Kabbalah. Why do I need it? Is it to know the number of angels in the sky? What difference would it make if I counted them by name? I still wouldn’t know what “skies” or “angels” are, or I would draw them with wings.

For this reason, I approach the reading of The Zohar, the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, work in the group, and the entire spiritual work in order to realize my free will, in order to receive the miraculous remedy, Segula, through all these means.

The book before me is a certain artificial device that connects me with the spiritual world of which I am neither aware nor have any idea about its properties. However, Kabbalists say that I have a certain “adapter” that can connect me with an unknown world.

Let’s say that there is a notion of a “micro world” in quantum physics, a world of elementary particles. Even though I live among them, I do not feel them, but physicists say that it is possible to create an instrument which will help you attain this world and begin to perceive it. This is why they are building different devices, such as (elementary) particle accelerators.

This way, there are tools that help us perceive the inner world of particles that are concealed from the world we presently feel. We can attain a world where we are not able to perceive anything because our senses do not operate in its range.

The wisdom of Kabbalah also gives me a tool, the reading of The Zohar, which can help me attain the concealed spiritual world, and it works! Just use it.

However, by using the tool in Kabbalah, you are the one who changes, and this tool transforms into your inner instrument. In contrast, the scientists who study earthly sciences do not change. They only perfect their tools and make them more powerful. For this reason, whatever they are doing is called the external world, outside of man.

In Kabbalah, we work with the inner world because thereby we change our nature. And at the same time, we suddenly begin to perceive phenomena that previously were completely outside of our sensations.

We do not improve the sensitivity we already have, as do musicians who perceive sounds much better than we do, or artists who perceive colors much better. Kabbalah helps us attain a state where properties that we previously did not have develop within us.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “You Are Partners With Me”

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We want to reach free choice in order to attain the Creator. Right now we are unwillingly carrying out nature’s orders. Reshimot awaken in us and we realize them as if they are our own desires because we do not feel the One who obligates us to do this. However, the goal of creation is for us to attain the Force that obligates us, as well as its goal and program in relation to us. We should take from it all the forces and parameters for our growth in order to independently desire, understand, and realize the phases of development.

That is why their realization is actualized above the current parameters. The parameters come from the Creator, manifesting in the will to enjoy, or in the corrupted Reshimot. It is written about it, “I created the evil inclination.” On our part, we have to arm ourselves with the force of correction and all the necessary means so that on every phase, when revealing yet another parameter, we will find the way to correct it and make it similar to the Creator.

By virtue of this work we will attain the Creator and acquire independence.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Every person wants to be unique and realize the unique root of his soul. That’s why he is frightened by the explanation that he is a mere cogwheel in the common mechanism. He is afraid to lose his individuality in the society.

Answer: But why should you get lost in the society? On the contrary, you can become a righteous one who is regarded as the “salt of the earth”: to bestow to all and pull the entire world forward. Who is stopping you? There is no restriction on bestowal. Please, do bestow!

You are complaining that you are prevented or not permitted to use all the others. Obviously, nobody wants to let you take advantage of them. On the other hand, if you become great not at reception, but at bestowal, nobody will stand in your way.

One can be unique in the positive sense of the word, in bestowal. Why, then, do you insist on being different in the negative form, in egoism? Everybody wants to be special, so, please, do let them. Realize yourself in spirituality.

A person may be frightened by the very look of the linked cogwheels. He imagines being a robot or a screw, but it is a fact of reality, a picture that does exist in Nature. In Nature, nothing can be bad or good; it is simply a fact.

You may agree or disagree with it; it won’t change reality. You will only evoke blows upon yourself if you don’t comply with it. You may claim that you disagree with the law of gravity and deny its existence. Go ahead; we will see later how you will be falling off the roof.

It’s the same case here. We don’t understand how strictly we are connected with each other and we are still trying to do as we please. Everybody is pulling the blanket over their eyes. Later, we witness how everybody suffers, time after time, for thousands of years.

Now, we are entering such a state where our ego has grown to its maximum in all our earthly desires and tied us all to one another all over the globe. Nonetheless, we still don’t wish to admit it and we keep trying to deceive and use each other. However, we don’t understand that by doing so, everyone brings the very same pain onto himself that he brings to others.

We don’t see it, but if it were clearly revealed to me and I got an immediate, reciprocal blow at the moment when I harm someone, I would act like an animal that doesn’t have free will. I would keep swinging between blows and pleasures, working like a machine, if the law of mutual connection affected me openly.

Therefore, this law is concealed in order to give me an opportunity to add to it by using my free will. The law does exist, albeit  hidden, and I can make up for concealment myself as if it were revealed. After all, I wish it to work this way: I want bestowal to be enormous and powerful and prevail over receiving. It may be a law written out in every book, but I wish it to become revealed in practice. This is where my free will lies.

I was given one white spot which means that the Creator is concealed. I can bring Him out of concealment and fill this white spot with His presence. It will be my own presence since I will be exactly like Him. I will come to the place where He is hiding and replace Him. It will be as if He and I are partners, and I pledge that I will do His work for Him where He is hidden.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/10, “Peace in the World”

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Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World“: And each and every individual in society is like a wheel that is linked to several other wheels, placed in a machine. And this single wheel has no freedom of movement in and of itself, but continues with the motion of the rest of the wheels in a certain direction, to qualify the machine to perform its general role.

And if there is some breakdown in the wheel, the breakdown is not evaluated relating to the wheel itself, but according to its service and role with respect to the whole machine.

The first step on the path to success is to attain a sensation that we are all connected like cogwheels, having no freedom of motion in relation to each other. I cannot spin unless I make this movement together with everyone else. And if others spin, then I have no possibility of not spinning together with them.

Therefore, only by reaching a mutual agreement can we attain movement that will be desirable to all. If the world reveals this law, it will be nothing short of salvation. And if we reveal this in our group, then we will be able to pass that vision on to the world. This must be the main topic of our dissemination; we have to explain the situation.

However, the most effective form of dissemination is if we reveal this absolute, necessary, and mutual connection between all of us. This must be the main thought for us during events such as Unity Day, which is held by our Kabbalistic groups all over the world.

We are returning to the same picture of interconnected cogwheels where none of them has its own freedom of action. No matter what illusions each one may have about it or how mistaken they can be in their blindness, it is still so.

Therefore, I have to tune into the group in order to understand and feel how dependent and connected I am with others – not having even one free movement – not in my heart nor mind, and not in any of my desires, qualities, thoughts, and plans. Everything that I desire, dream of doing, or do in the end depends on others and I won’t be able to do anything unless I reach a mutual agreement and peace with them.

The realization of the mutual dependence in the group, in society, or in all of humanity is the key to correcting the world and correcting man. However, if I am uncorrected, then on one hand this depends on society because it is the society that has corrupted me. After all, a person is a product of social influence. However, didn’t I choose that society and it is not in my power to influence it?

A person cannot tune out from his society in both the good sense and the bad. Therefore, there is no assessment of a separate person, but only of his free choice, meaning what society he has chosen for his growth.
[30831]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/10, “Peace in the World”

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Question: Since I started studying the wisdom of Kabbalah and entered the group, I have been feeling how my desire for sex and other worldly pleasures are growing in me. How do I work with them?

Answer: It is written, “He who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than him.” During the entire course of our history, we have been developing egoistically; our ego has been constantly growing. In the end, we come to a state when we are utilizing all of the enormous egoism this world contains.

Therefore, people feel despair, fall into depression and abuse drugs; terrorism and other misfortunes expand. We don’t know what to do with our lives anymore. Now, we must leap further with the greater egoism in order to reach the spiritual world and the Creator.

Therefore, people who come to the wisdom of Kabbalah think that now they will be like “angels with wings,” as if wings were the only thing they lack when no worldly pleasures can fill them any longer. However, when a person starts studying, he suddenly discovers more desire for food, sex, traveling, and other corporeal pleasures.

Why is this so? The ego is increasing, and there is nothing we can do about it. Age doesn’t matter. A person can be 80 or 90 years old, and he still begins having desires as a young person would. I don’t want to advertise it or we will turn in a group of oldies. But, in truth, there is no salvation; in a person who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah, all desires must keep growing.

The foundation of all desires is sexual pleasure, the root of which is adhesion of the Light and desire (Kli, vessel), the coupling of the male and female parts of creation. For this reason, a person first experiences an increase in sexual desire to such a high degree as has never happened to him before.

Previously, he was a stable person, and all his desires were in check. However, now, they manifest in such a grotesque form that they start getting in the way of his normal life. All of this is true, and we know that as a person begins studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, all our desires and tendencies get renewed.

What do we do with this? As we may know from the wisdom of Kabbalah, we are prohibited from resisting our desires. Don’t challenge the “evil inclination” directly, as if you are about to battle it as a hero; you won’t win. Just submerge yourself in the studies, the group, and connect with them to the best of your ability so that the Upper Light could affect you more strongly. Only in this manner will you be able to go through this with all the kinds of obstacles surrounding you.

Besides, there is no other choice. All of it is designed to purify the intention and thoughts in order to seek in all of these obstacles the point of bonding with the group since your free will lies solely in it.

You are given such states so that you may forevermore settle in your choice, even on the foundation of all the desires for wealth, sex, family, and other pleasures of the corporeal world. On this ground, bond with the group tighter and realize your only free choice.

You don’t have the power to fight your desires. Don’t be a fool and start a war with them. After all, you are not the one in charge; it isn’t your job. You are given external conditions so that, thereby, you could exercise your free will to a greater extent.

This must be understood while facing any predicament in our life. Act normally in our world; there should be no change in home, family, vacation, and health. However, all your attention should be focused on your only free choice.
[26030]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, “The Freedom”

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 8: Time and place in spirituality signify a renewal of form. Since a Partzuf grows only through a multitude of unions (Zivugim) and transfers of Lights that differ from one another, building it together, they are called "the months of the intrauterine development" or the period of embryonic development, which can last for 7, 9, or 12 months depending on the amount of portions of Light that are necessary to form it.

We study the changes that happen to the will to enjoy and count the number of these changes or renewals, which are called "months" (Hodesh, month, comes from the word Hidush, renewal). There is no time in spirituality. Time is determined by the number of changes that we have gone through, rather than the motion of the hand of a clock or the changes of some external factor. As much as I changed, that is how much time has gone by. This is how time is defined in spirituality.

Therefore, the period of an embryo’s development means that I go through one state after another ("I go through," Over, comes from the word embryo, Ibur). I have to go through a specific amount of changes in order to go from the intrauterine development inside the Upper One to development outside of Him.

Now I am also in the Upper One and He develops me. During this process of development I have absolutely no influence on the changes I undergo. I am forced to change by instincts and forces that I experience as suffering, and thus, I go through these changes against my will.

Then another phase comes: I start to feel that there is some kind of reason behind it, that there is a high need for it, and there is an Upper One who makes all these changes to me, wishing for me to start finding out about the system of governance, the cause and effect order of development, the beginning and goal of the whole path. That is how the whole world is beginning to awaken in our times.

After that we reach the realization that we have to evoke these changes ourselves. From a certain state onward there is no time that the Upper One changes for us, forcing us to develop. Now the Upper One only adds Lights for us, which we perceive as evil. However, this does not enable us to develop, but only to reach the realization that we have to demand development from the Upper One. That is, we must already participate in the development ourselves and demand it.

The Upper One does not force me to do the action itself, but only to request it so I would ask the Upper One to carry it out. My request has to be in the middle. For now this request can be expressed as a cry due to feeling bad.

After that I develop and am required to have this cry come out of the realization of goodness, when I understand that all of this is for my good. Even though I might feel bad in my sensations, I already realize that this is good for my development, because I have to ascend to the next level. Then the Upper One no longer demands a cry from me, but cooperation in development. This is called partnership.

After that we reach a state where the Upper One does not awaken me at all, but I have to search for an opportunity to awaken inside of me, using the environment. I have to awaken the Upper One so He would awaken me, and then agree with His action and tell Him exactly how to do it. It’s as if I understand and choose the best form of action for myself, and then the Upper One does it.

In the end we reach a state where I give the Upper One all the orders. In the beginning of the path He made all the actions upon me, from beginning to end, without my awareness. I did not know who is operating me, what He does, and where I am. But at the end of the path I determine everything from beginning to end, and only use the force of the Upper One.

Our entire path lies in that we acquire increasingly greater independence and self-sufficiency, becoming more and more similar to the Upper One.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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