Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

Does A Woman Need A Group?

laitman_599_02Question: You have said that naturally there cannot be true friendship between women, why?

Answer: True friendship cannot be between men either. Their friendship is no different from childish friendship. Women don’t know how to be friends because they are individualistic; we see that in everyday life.

In the spiritual world, both men and women encounter the same problems and it makes no difference that women are more distant from a mutual connection between them than men who seem to find it easier to connect to one another, but it only seems so at first. But when women begin to build internal connections between them, they see that it isn’t that easy and so do the men. Therefore my advice is not to think that it is easier for men to perform spiritual corrections.

Question: Do women need a group?

Answer: Women need a group just like men do. In spirituality, women have to perform all the actions that a man performs: the same closeness, the same mutual guarantee between them. In the spiritual world it makes absolutely no difference which body you are in; think that you have no body.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/6/15

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We Are Building Our Spiritual Life Here!

laitman_528_01Question: How do we organize ourselves in a state of spiritual Ubar (Fetus), and the group as a uterus within which this Ubar develops?

Answer: It is up to us to build ourselves from nothing. The Creator brings me to a group and says to me that I must build my spiritual life here! Now, it is up to me to build myself as an Ubar and make a uterus out of the group. This is the only thing that is given to me.

It is up to me to build a society around myself that I will use as a uterus or an incubator, meaning that it will support me constantly and be an example for me, a standard for the higher level, the state of perfection. I will be able to exist within this environment on condition that I constantly open a connection that is directed more and more toward the higher perfect level.

It is up to me to build all of this by myself. After all, I am in a state where I have nothing. There is no Creator. There is only His essence, a force that I do not know. I must form all of this with my own hands.

Question: By what means do I build an environment for myself? Is it just by calling upon everyone to appreciate the property of bestowal?

Answer: There are many articles by Rabash that are dedicated to building the group. It is only necessary to fulfill his instructions and build it. However, I need to build myself in two forms. I build the higher level, the group, for myself, and I build the Ubar, the lower level, for the group.

The Ubar is all of us together. We lower and nullify ourselves, each of us in regard to the group, the friends. The Ubar is also our common co-creation. Through nullifying ourselves we can connect together.

The group is the higher level. It is also the commonality between us, but already in the form of bestowal. The more we love the group, elevating it, perceiving it as whole and great, the more we inflate it around us and can exist within it.

Both the Ubar and the uterus are built by the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light), the Light that Reforms. However, our work on two opposite forms is required for this. Sometimes, it is directed downward toward nullifying the self. That is how we build the point of Malchut. Sometimes, it is directed upward for building the Keter. The Keter we build is linked to a higher level.

We are summarizing now everything that we have been learning for many years about the group. We have gone over those articles many times, but notice how many of these concepts have not succeeded in penetrating our hearts. We constantly hear about the structure of the group, but it still is difficult for us to digest these principles.

When we explain this to the general public, we must understand that they are much further away from these concepts. After all, we are very familiar with the spiritual states. There have been numerous spiritual changes that have happened within us and we still have not ascended the spiritual ladder.

The preparatory period before the first spiritual level is very long, but we are at its end. We just must understand that it is necessary to relate to the external public with love and understanding, giving them explanations drop by drop.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/14, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Envy And Dignity Raise The Lazy From the Sofa

laitman_543_01Question: How can we clarify our desire for connection with the group more and more precisely?

Answer: The desire in itself will not be clarified, except through my effort. I must constantly bow down and look under my feet, trying to find additional desires, deficiencies, and problems. This is an unpleasant, uncomfortable process because it is directed against my ego.

A person is built physiologically like this so that he egoistically yearns for comfort and fulfillment. Hormones that cause joy and happiness spread through the body while I lie on the sofa, watch some silly but enjoyable movie, and eat something sweet and tasty. In this state, there is the maximum emission of the happiness hormone.

If we seek possibilities for advancing in the way of Achishena (I will hasten it), we need to be in a completely opposite state. I cannot lie down, but must work, attain, and acquire additional deficiencies. I must clarify what else I am missing. I constantly search for deficiencies as if I am searching for unpleasant things, and this is work.

How can I make this work easier for myself and not run away from it? After all, the body will always resist it, and so I must go along with the group. If I take obligations upon myself within a group and we work together, somehow I can fight against myself and do this. Otherwise, I cannot.

So, if you want to reduce the time and make it more useful and beneficial, advancing easily and pleasantly, you need to pull and obligate your body to work hard and in an unpleasant way instead of lying on the sofa and enjoying idleness. You can do this playing to your natural feelings of shame, envy, and honor, meaning you use the incentives inherent in the human and not the animal level.

An animal lies on the sofa, but to connect with others, I require human, not beastly, motives, meaning envy, lust, and honor that cause me to leap off the sofa. We must organize in a group in such a system. And if we don’t, then we simply are wasting time for nothing, and achieving and gaining nothing.

We must be somehow connected to the life of the world group. If there is no local group, then at least contact us and get some tasks. Be connected to the departments we have here. Otherwise, you won’t even notice how your beastly body always will draw you toward something comfortable and easy. You always will be satisfied, and it will seem that everything is okay to you, but advancement will be nil.
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From the 2nd part for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/14, The Book of Zohar

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An Old State, But On A Larger Scale

laitman_236_02Where can we find spiritual deficiencies for love and bestowal? They are not found in this wide world, but only in the group and Kabbalah books, in means for spiritual advancement. Thus, I shorten the way quantitatively and qualitatively: I advance and make sure I have new vessels. This is called the path of “I shall hasten it” (Achishena) in which I build my deficiencies by myself, make sure my desire is made of the right components, and thus implement the goal.

On the other hand, by advancing in its time (Beito), I must build up a deficiency for a long time by clarifying exactly why it must be that way and by which means I can fulfill it. I must know its complete character and form while I have no yearning for it and am in a state of a descent, not feeling any attraction to spirituality. That’s the way it will be until different problems come my way from external sources that will push me forward by suffering. This is the only way that I can be motivated since I am detached from spirituality.

When I am given a state of descent and feel in spiritual darkness, I don’t lose the connection with the group, the teacher, or the source. I may not even feel the darkness, but simply operate automatically like a beast, as of yore. In this state, I can be awakened only by suffering, so I am sent some trouble related to the family, making a living, or health.

Then, I begin to run around in order to take care of the problems, and if I am not connected to the group and the teacher, I can spend my entire life in this endless struggle. However, if I prepare such a connection in advance—coming to the lessons regularly, to the meetings of friends, and participating in dissemination activities organized by the group—I gradually receive the right awakening from the Surrounding Light and understand that these are not external problems but that they come from the upper management. Everything comes from only one source: all of the confusions and all of the discomforts in life are caused only because I haven’t tightened my connection to the ultimate goal enough and have not looked for it myself.

I must organize my life so that I will behave like an old man who bent over constantly looking for something he dropped. This is how I need to move forward, looking down at my feet checking if something is lost: I can make a deeper and more complex deficiency than the desire that now lays at my base and operates me.

Every level is built on the previous level, and our perception grows and becomes ten times sharper in the sensitivity of the vessels and in clarifying them. If I perceive one hundred different discernments on one level, I discern ten times more on the next level, which means a thousand discernments, and on the next level, ten thousand discernments. It is the same desire, but it simply becomes finer and more complex. I suddenly identify details on a larger scale with greater perception in it and increasingly more discernments.

The development is due to the multiplication of qualities, rather than power. The power in the spiritual world is determined by the number of distinct pieces for each impression, sensation. This is what our advancement depends on. The main thing is to be constantly involved in practical work, studies, and actions that awaken a desire to seek spiritual properties, more sublime values. Through this approach, I turn from the path of natural development, in its time, to the path of light, the acceleration time. Then I will not need to waste my life in vain hopes and I’ll advance quickly and easily.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/14

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Looking At The World Through New Eyes

Laitman_006Question: How can we discover the Creator in every action that we make? After all, we have personal desires, social desires, desires of the group. How can we focus ourselves anew each time?

Answer: When I begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, this world still dominates me. Car or bus rides, house chores, trips to the bank and post office, seeing different people, places, the news, the radio, TV, the Internet with all its confusion—I am totally filled by this world.

Kabbalah brings along different problems that are meant to build an empty place in us, to make room, to shake me and create a part in me that doesn’t belong to this world. Even when I am still confused in this world and don’t get along in it, I detach myself from it to some extent eventually. It isn’t that I don’t depend on it but that I am not automatically dominated by it. Here this world doesn’t dominate me and doesn’t have the powers that dominate everyone in the world.

In our ordinary life everything is connected: a person who is born and raised in the jungle behaves according to the laws of the jungle. The same applies to the urban jungle, anyway the world dominates a person and formats him from childhood. So to give me the opportunity to look at things more objectively and independently I have to be shaken to make room inside me for another perspective, and this takes a long time.

I can shorten time by connecting to the group. If I am strongly connected to the friends, more blows can be sent to me, more shakings, and then I advance faster. However, these aren’t ordinary blows and troubles but blows in the relationship that I try to make stronger. If instead of tightening my connection with the world, I tighten my connection with the friends in the group and focus on that, I will feel more blows in that respect and this is where I will have more discernments and more experience.

This is how I shorten time: by transforming the external blows and troubles into internal ones, thus making them more qualitative. It is impossible to do so without blows, but here they become purposeful.

I begin to worry about the group and to take care of it in my connection with the friends, in my attitude to the study and dissemination, and this becomes the most important thing for me. Now I begin to look at the world in a more objective manner, or at least from the side, and not according to my previous discernments of the world but with new discernments. Now I begin to see everything that happens through the principle of “there is none else besides Him,” through the discernments of the group, and I see everything in an opposite manner.

But this happens very slowly. First I tip the scale a bit each time in favor of this world, which means that I look at everything—the family, home, the study, friends, my world, the bank and other institutions like the post office, the medical care clinic, social security, the education system, etc.—through different eyes. I feel all that as one whole called my world, which is clarified in my vessels, in my desires, but I still have to see the one upper leadership that demands the same one unique attitude toward everything from me. Thus the whole picture becomes a meeting place with the Creator for me. He fixes everything and I reveal Him in every single detail in this world.

This is a very good discernment and we should reach it as soon as possible so that from now on we will begin to take care of the phase of Ibur (conception).
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/14, The Book of Zohar

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Whitening The Black Point

laitman_423_02Human growth in the spiritual world is similar to the phases of the moon, the constant renewal of the moon. The moon symbolizes Malchut, which in itself is black and doesn’t shine but reaches correction through the Ohr Hozer (Returning Light). The correction of the moon is called Kiddush (Sanctification), which is Kodesh (Holiness), meaning it rises to the level of Bina through which it is whitened. Through corrections, the black point transforms into a white point every month.

A Hodesh (Month) symbolizes Hidush (Innovation), and this doesn’t necessarily last thirty days. It is even after this when the work with our spiritual Partzuf is divided into Rosh, Toch and Sof, each one with ten Sefirot from which exactly thirty parts result. However, in the meantime, we can go through renewals every moment because we have not yet discovered the details clarifying our contact with the Creator at every point.

So, the main thing now is to try to construct oneself as an Ubar (Fetus) within the group. It is necessary to imagine that the group has the image of the Creator that it is in connection and love, and only I must become integrated with it. Through the group, I will be able to find the strength that will help me to nullify myself.

I must nullify myself regarding all of the events in life, but this doesn’t mean that I don’t need to do anything, as we sometimes mistakenly think and sit without moving in some meditation, canceling ourselves with respect to something higher. Nullifying myself means canceling my egoism, not inaction.

I specifically need to carry out actions, and there are many. I need to contend with all of the disturbances that conceal “There is none else besides Him” and, as it is written, “You are good and You do good” (Psalms 119:68) from me. I need to determine beyond all of the disturbances that everything comes from the Creator, both me and my surroundings.

There is only one black point, from which I make a clarification about myself and the environment, that wants to blacken everything from perspective of my egoism. It is only this black point that I must transform into white, understanding that everything comes by command of the Creator, according to His order, and that is how to advance.

If we make efforts like these and help each other, then very rapidly we will reach a state of Ubar.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14

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An Embryo Has No Right To Criticize Its Mother

laitman_232_09Rabash, “What Is That The Right Hand Should Be Raised Over The Left Hand In The Work”: We need the drawing force and the delaying force in conception. This means that conception is the first phase when a person enters Holiness.

The drawing force is the force that shows the truth, the drawing of the world, which means whether one has a good picture of the state he is in, which shines on him in the world, which means the form he has when he looks at his work, whether he is in a state of wholeness or not, meaning whether he works for in order to bestow or whether he wants to work for in order to bestow no matter what.

The delaying force is called by that name since when the drawing force shows a person the truth, which during conception is called the beginning of the world, he surely sees the deficiencies which may be grip for the Sitra Achra (the other side) and therefore there must be a delaying force, so that the embryo will not fall, which means fall into the Sitra Achra, and in order to delay and prevent the fall although there is a deficiency, as the drawing force shows, a certain form that this work has, the delaying force is called the right line.

It is because it moves on to the phase of wholeness, which means that he believes in the faith of sages who said that a person should be happy with what he has, which means with his attainment of the Torah and the Mitzvot (commandments), which is a great reward for him since he sees that there are people to whom the Creator has not given a thought or a desire even for the fact that I do have a certain attainment, which is called the delaying force, that one should not fall from the world and that he will also be born later, meaning from this world of keeping himself in conception, meaning at the beginning of the work, that there should be two lines, meaning the right and the left lines, and he will be rewarded to be born and to be in the phase of suckling of Holiness, which by the drawing force and the delaying force a whole embryo will come out of this work in Holiness.

Our development involves drawing and delaying. The drawing force develops the embryo and the delaying force delays and guards the embryo so that that drawing force would not destroy the embryo and so that it will develop into the correct body. The drawing force develops the embryo from the inside and the delaying force limits it on the outside and so together they build the future newborn.

It is just like a statue that can be sculptured out of clay and can be made from a block of marble by removing unnecessary parts, which means that it is possible to add or to remove, to add a form or to remove matter, and thus eventually turn the block of marble into a statue.

This is how our embryo is formed, because we need two forces, the force of bestowal and the force of receiving, which should be balanced, in harmony, supporting each other; the Light keeps the darkness and the darkness keeps the Light. This is the reason that we must constantly yearn for connection, mutual support, love, and corrections because this is the correction of the shattering. We build the embryo in the connection between us, the states of Ibur (conception), Yenika (suckling) and Mochin (mind), meaning our increasingly more advanced forms, until the end of correction. This development is achieved by the increasingly greater connections between the parts of the desire, attributes, and inclinations that are in the connection; the drawing force is revealed in the feeling of connection between us.

I undergo ascents and descents in the same connection, feeling it as good or bad, justifying it or not. I see the depicting force that draws the picture of the Lord’s work for me in a different way and so I must constantly work on keeping my state of an embryo so that despite the pictures that are depicted to me I will accept them thankfully and be impressed by them because I keep advancing in bestowal toward the true form of the Creator, toward absolute love and bestowal.

It turns out that I need the delaying force, which guards and doesn’t allow me to break through and to criticize but constantly keeps me impressed by the forms that I attain. These forms are not pleasant, of course, if we weigh them by our egoistic mind and feelings, and so I constantly need the delaying force that brings me back to the right conclusions.

If these new forms are forms of in order to bestow, I weigh them in my desire to bestow in faith above reason and accept them as good and right forms, and although at the moment I cannot accept them in my heart and soul, I accept them in faith above reason, in my overcoming power, and agree to be in them without any egoistic sweetening. I don’t think about my personal benefit but only about the well being of the group, of the environment.

I am required to scrutinize things carefully and sharply in order to weigh my situation soberly and without mistakes in the spiritual fog. But I actually weigh things simply and see whether it is for the sake of my ego or for the sake for the environment. If I weigh it from the perspective of the environment, I ensure that my embryo adheres increasing more tightly to the wall of the womb. The group is the womb. Thus I advance and adapt myself more and more to the upper, to the spiritual womb, and this is how I will be able to receive from the upper increasingly more of the Light that Reforms, like a corporeal embryo who receives his vitality from his mother.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14

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Brain, Heart, Liver – These Are Various Forms Of Self-Nullification

Laitman_524_01Question: Every time a person nullifies himself towards the group, is another black point added?

Answer: That is precisely how the Ubar (embryo) grows. Every new point is joined to it and shapes its body and all of its organs every time a new self-nullification towards the group is required from us. This is our work in gathering the cells into the body of the Ubar as the result of many such actions.

In the beginning these are general points that have no precise distinction like “stem cells.” And then we begin to see distinctions among these cells. We still don’t see specific organs behind these cells: liver, legs, lungs. These organs aren’t working yet, but only laid the foundation for their future. But it is already possible to distinguish that these different cells have different manners of nullification.

Much later, the person begins to feel that there is a connection between all the various types of self-nullification. He constantly experiences all kinds of disturbances and reactions to them, externally and internally. Sometimes a problem comes from the outside in a special way, summoning a particular internal response within him.

And sometimes an internal disturbance appears in him that summons a particular external response. And according to these modes, a person already begins to distinguish lines, evaluating the height, although in the meantime it is still only an Ubar.

In this way he must complete his entire structure to the form of Ein Sof (Infinity). On the one hand he achieves the wholeness of his final form, but on the other hand, he approaches this final form in stages. In this way he passes through all the phases, Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, and Dalet. This means that he must finish the Aviut de Shoresh of desire, and then the levels Aleph, Bet, Gimel, and Dalet. But it is impossible to finish the Shoresh phase until the end of the last level, Dalet, because that determines and influences the previous level.

It follows that a person grows all characteristics in stages, constantly swinging back and forth and completing everything together. So even in the physical Ubar, there is no sequential growth, one by one, the head, the body, the hands, the legs; instead everything grows proportionally.

So the degree of development is evaluated according to various parameters. For example, for a two-year-old child we take into account height, weight, inner development, and the ability to perform particular actions with hands and feet. We examine his entire level, which belongs to the “Nefesh level” as a whole. These are the same stages of the new moon that we must renew all the time.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14

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How Is It Possible To Discover The System Of Creation?

Laitman_524_01Question: According to what criteria is it possible to determine whether a person is going in the right direction?

Answer: If a person carries out what is written in the wisdom of Kabbalah—meaning that he works in a group correctly, making an effort to connect with his friends in order to attract the Upper Light—this means that he is going in the right direction.

With a good connection that is created between him and his friend, he discovers the system of higher management because everything that there is in creation is discovered between ten friends, only in miniature form. Their connection is built like a hologram. There is one big picture within which it is possible to take out some part and see the full picture within it, but on a smaller scale.

In the same manner, we take a group that is composed of ten people (ten small Sefirot), and they attain everything that exists in creation within it, but in a small form. Certainly, we don’t see details and particulars there, but if we join an additional group of ten with this group of ten, our field of vision will grow, and in this manner we can expand the perception of our reality. Our task is to discover the system of creation.

Question: Did you study in a group of ten?

Answer: I learned through a different method, one on one with my teacher. This was a different system through which, in its time, it was possible to prepare a person to continue the work. Studying alone is much more difficult and complicated than studying in a group, but this was necessary because this made it possible for me to acquire the training method.

Today, there is no longer a need for this method. I am sure that I was the last who received knowledge from his teacher like this, whereas now the world has crystallized as an integral system so that starting from our generation and on solitary Kabbalists are not required.
[173554]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/8/15

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Help For Finding Deficiencies In The White Light!

laitman_528_01Question: What does it mean not to be afraid to start each degree anew after all results from the previous work are erased?

Answer: Let’s assume that I am in a good state, meaning feeling the connection with the friends. This state is not necessarily pleasant to my ego, but by relating to the goal, I feel good; that is, I understand its importance and am aimed at the goal.

With this, I can go through difficult, unpleasant, confusing states, but the only criteria for evaluating all these states is the understanding of the necessity for attaining the level of Ubar (Embryo). And the same can be applied not only to the stage of the Ubar, but also to the subsequent higher degrees.

I am happy with my lot and progress. Where can I fall from this state if the importance of the goal and the importance of my degree are giving me inspiration? I am happy that I overcame this state, and with the help of the friends, the teacher, the study, the Creator it becomes clearer to me that all these states are the components from which my spiritual vessel is assembled.

It is not important if these states are pleasant or not, the main thing is that I rise above them, hold them together, and understand that this is my world through which I must aspire to the good that does good and there is none else besides Him. No matter what is going on inside me—what seething volcano of desires, intentions, qualities quake in me—all this is rubbish, and I am above them and build a white picture above the black picture.

I can fall from it again to this world and suddenly lose all aspiration for spirituality and be satisfied with corporeal comfort. I can fall to this state if I have not looked for deficiencies in advance. And then I fall to the degree of this world; I live in this world like a regular man, and even come to study, but this is simply a routine that will continue until I am tired of it.

If I don’t want such a descent, then I need to look for deficiencies while still in the higher state, in the “white light.” And this is possible only if I have prepared a strong connection with the friends that will add clarifications. How could I reach perfection by myself at this point? I justified the Creator and my state, so now where will I find deficiencies? Only the group can awaken them in me. When I am connected with them through mutual guarantee, then I am impressed by their importance of the goal. The importance of the goal that I receive from them is greater than mine. And I must tie myself to it.

After I have tied myself to the importance of the goal, I discover that I have no need for such importance. I have no aspiration or attraction. I don’t burst to feel it, and therefore, I am aware of my lack of desire. I begin to search where to get such a need from. There isn’t anywhere, because I am already fulfilled. As if I had eaten until there is no room for more in some cheap restaurant, and when I came home I found that my wife had prepared my favorite meal, and I say I couldn’t resist and had eaten on the way home. Now I suffer from heartburn, don’t feel good, and even feel nauseous; I can’t eat anything more. This means that I don’t feel the lack; where can I get it?

We are exactly in this state. After we have fulfilled ourselves and completed our degree only from the outside are we able to receive an additional desire. If I sit with friends and have a small drink, the appetite will awake in me. We must do such simple tricks in order to receive new deficiencies from the environment. If I don’t have an environment, I will fulfill myself and that’s it.

Without the support of friends, I am sentenced to fall to the degree of this world, to the state of “beast,” and to live in it. With this, due to the fact that I still go to the lessons and participate in some activities, I gradually receive from others their desires, exit from the routine of the study, and rise to the new degree. But this will take a very long time.

Therefore, after attaining some degree, one needs to immediately check if you are in the correct connection with the environment. Now I am giving you valuable practical advice that will cost a lot of blood for a person who wants to build this system, the method. If you see that you have received a new desire and again you caught fire, then it means that your connection with the friends worked, that there is guarantee between you. If there is no guarantee, you will fall to the level of beastly existence and live such a life.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, The Book of Zohar, 2/16/14

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