Question: What is the mechanism of making the switch from the love of friends to the love of the Creator?

Answer: You have to undergo a series of states in advancing along this path. The previous state doesn’t disappear in the transition from one state to another. Each time the new state is built on the basis of intensifying the previous state. This is how it is in spirituality; it is as if we build a pyramid: the higher we ascend, the more we have to enlarge its basis below.

If the pyramid is low, a narrow base is enough, but if we want to reach great heights, we have to build a very large base for the pyramid.

This is the reason that first we adhere to the Kabbalistic books and their authors, which is called being in adhesion with the study and the teacher. This gives a person the right direction.

Once there is a direction, its fulfillment begins: through the connection and adhesion with the teacher we reach a connection and adhesion with the friends and we build a society, an environment. When we fulfill the building of the society, we begin to discover the need for the Creator’s bestowal in this circle. All this is described in great detail in Rabash’s articles, but a person doesn’t always see that. A person can see what the books say only according to his need for it.
[129538]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/14

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When the Jewish people entered the land of Israel, they had to continuously fight their egoistic desires. The first thing we should expect is a very long period of conquering the land, which means fighting an internal war among us and within each one of us.

Great hostility and hatred appear between us that is in opposition to our wish to unite in order to receive the Light of Hochma that shines in the land of Israel.

If we cannot receive this light, it will operate and affect us negatively by invoking different problems and hared towards everyone, including our friends and brothers with whom who we had good relations just the other day.

In the desert, on the level of Bina, we were one whole. Suddenly we began to fall into a dark and infinite abyss called the land of Israel. To where have we been brought? Yesterday we hugged each other, sat around the bonfire, sang songs together, and everything was fine, nice, and calm. What now?! Women cursed and enticed the men, turning them against one another, and children have become so stubborn! Suddenly one nation starts a war against us and then another! Different internal problems suddenly come up!

How can we make the switch from a peaceful normal state, while being only in slight adhesion with the Creator, and without knowing why, to suddenly want to overcome all these oppositions because it is the Creator’s command? We see how the transition to the future state is made difficult for us to begin with. We are told to get ready, for now you will begin to discover differences between you and life will seem terrible! You will not be able to unite! And by losing the unity between you, you will lose the connection with the Creator! In fact you are advancing towards the snake’s mouth, the one you escaped from when you escaped from Egypt.

Therefore, when we enter the land of Israel, we have to be prepared so that no interruption will stop us. We have to fight systematically, knowing that there is no way back and that we have to keep on advancing. We have to clearly understand this so that we will be able to succeed.
[164509]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/2/15

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Question: What must happen to create a new Kli (vessel) in a person above his present desires?

Answer: For this, first of all, there is a need for support that can be obtained thanks to the group, the teacher, the study, and dissemination.

Submission is the first and principle act regarding the Creator upon which, afterward, all the rest is built. After all, our desire is egoistic, so the first action must be the submission of the ego. Someone who is ready for this tries to implement what the group needs and what the teacher asks, to be stimulated by the learning, and to invest himself in dissemination.

The main work here is clarification through the emotion and intellect. After all, it could be that a person carries out many physical actions, yet doesn’t make any calculations about them, or the opposite, all day he makes various calculations, yet doesn’t realize anything. These calculations aren’t worth anything. This is only philosophy.

Everything begins from submission because without the submission of the ego and the intellect that serves it, it is impossible to begin to work above it. I must pull out my desire to receive, study it, and subdue it. Submission is the first activity on the way to adhesion. After all, with the desire that is in me now, I will not be able to get closer to the Creator in any way.

So, I bend it, criticize it, and clarify with which part it is possible to work and with which part it is not possible. I don’t have anything except a desire to receive, so I begin to learn how it is possible to change it, in which directions. For example, I approach the friends even though I don’t feel anything at all, but I understand that I must do this.

Thanks to this, by implementing changes in my previous state and bringing myself forward a bit, I correct my attitude. I sacrificed myself. I helped the friends. I carried out the advice of the teacher. I passed from the F₁ state to the F₂ state. Even though these two states are within my ego, there is a difference between them, a delta due to my change. I can learn from the example of the change that I made and the results that were received by using this as the first brick in building my nullification of the self.

I already have something in my hands. The state that I have attained is better than the previous state, and so I call it a “pleasant and kind bride” (Talmud Babyli, Ketubot 16b). I received a higher and more beautiful Kli, and so Beit Hillel (the school of Hillel) doesn’t force me to lie. It only shows me that it is up to me to attain this state.

Beit Shammai speaks about the present situation, whereas Beit Hillel speaks about a desired state, but one that will happen eventually. When I attain it, reach it, then, state F₂ becomes the main state for me. This state needs further work so that the F₂ state of Beit Hillel will become realistic. It is the point of view of Beit Shammai from which I clarify the desired state F₃ of Beit Hillel. That is how I continue and advance further.

However, I first use the delta between the states of F₁ and F₂ as the unit of measure: a millimeter, a centimeter, and a gram of correction. I use it as a model, as a standard, a scale of measurement, and armed with this, I can advance.

Question: What must be done to advance from state F₁ to state F₂?

Answer: It is necessary to see the two states from the point of view of Beit Shammai and from the point of view of Beit Hillel, “a beautiful bride as she is” and simultaneously “a pleasant and kind bride.” However, a person himself has no chance of seeing state F_2; for this purpose, he is given a teacher and the books that he must listen to. He must accept what is said by the teacher as truth, and the teacher says, “There is none else besides Him,” “the Good who does good.”

If he sees the bride only as unattractive as she is, then it is necessary to continue to work in a group, study, and disseminate. Respecting the teacher means carrying out what he advises regarding your advancement. This means carrying out activities and watching for a response of the Light, similar to a bride who must prepare herself, and only then will the groom come. The right actions will necessarily cause a response from the Upper Light.
[130221]
From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/14

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Question: How can we unite if the breach between the different streams and sectors seems impossible to bridge?

Answer: That’s the way it should be at the end of the exile. It doesn’t surprise me. We have reached this state as a result of ages of evolution. The modern world is the advanced level of the evolution of our ego. It is good because the ego is revealed in its clear and specific form on this level. The only thing missing is the recognition of evil: we have to understand that we feel bad precisely because our ego shows us that it is the source of all evil.

We still lack this recognition, which means that we shouldn’t just suffer because we feel bad, but rather we need to discover the reason for this evil. At the moment we don’t associate the split between us with a military escalation somewhere in the world, with demonstrations, with problems that come up all the time, and with the rising cost of living. We don’t associate all that with our ego, and therefore we still lack the recognition of evil and simply feel bad.

We have to work on that and to explain that it is actually the lack of connection between us that is the source of every form of evil and that the correction is also lies in the same cause—the renewal of the connection between us.

Humanity itself will never be able to discover this dependency and that the lack of connection between people has a destructive effect on nature and on the ecology. We can convince people that the separation has a bad influence on society and leads to breaches between religious and non religious sectors, between the rich and the poor, between different streams; it also leads to problems in the educations system—but all this belongs to the human level. When we speak about the effect on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature it becomes hard to explain that.

People have to undergo terrible afflictions before they can see the connection between these things. Therefore, it is our obligation to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah, and Baal HaSulam says that the time for that has come.

Question: Can we convince people by setting a personal example for them, by showing them the good outcomes that the study of Kabbalah can lead to?

Answer: I don’t think it will help even if we run around and demonstrate beautiful examples of connection between people. Our main work is to use our intention. We have to perform actions, but most of all we have to focus on our intention and not look for solutions other than integral education.

I don’t think we will be able to make any progress through our actions. Actions are important, but they take place on the account of the Upper Light that operates according to our intention. The action itself on which the intention is based is not so important. We simply have to use all the options that open up from above.

We are nearing the right intention all the time—this is all our work. Consequently, we draw the Light and we don’t need anything else except the Light. I am not armed with a gun or a spear, but only with the intention that I have to use in order to draw the Light.
[129918]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Congress in Guadalajara “One Heart for All”

Question: What do we have to correct first: ourselves or the environment?

Answer: It is a very complex question. I cannot correct myself without the environment, and I cannot correct the environment until I correct myself. And to the extent that I correct myself, I see that the environment is already corrected and I only need to be correcting myself, and this is what each of us feels.

In essence, we are in a perfect reality that has no flaws. Only inside of us there is a sensation that we feel bad, that we are flawed and divided. But when we reveal the true reality, environment, and world, then we discover an upper world instead of this one. And then we see that aside from our perception of reality, nothing else had to be corrected.

It turns out that I existed in a perfect reality all along, and it was only in my uncorrected perception that it appeared broken because I myself was broken. My properties were corrupted, and thus I judged everything according to my own flaws.

Therefore a person should understand that only he alone is corrupted and everyone else is corrected. But he can correct himself only if he connects to everyone else in the right way through teaching everyone how to unite correctly.

All other people outside him are broken parts of his own soul. Therefore, the work of our correction goes in two directions: from oneself outward and back.

And indeed, there is no vice in any person or in humanity as a whole. Only the connections between us are corrupted and only there should we focus our efforts: on the correction not of the human being himself, but of his relationship with others. If we achieve a good connection in some group, then we reveal an upper world in it and see everything in the correct form.

A person should correct his attitude to the friends and through it show them an example of how he loves them. There is no need for anything other than this example. If you succeed in this, then you will see how much you advance forward.
[163862]
From the Convention In Guadalajara “One Heart For All,” “Day One” 7/17/15, “Preparatory Lesson”

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Question: Sometimes it is absolutely clear to me that I am totally dependent on my good or bad feelings. In fact, this is the only thing that worries me, but I listen to the advice that I should ascend above that and try to justify the Creator despite everything I feel. What is my work if I see that I only care about what I feel? How should I exert myself?

Answer: You need to hate your reactions to what is going on.

Question: But I tell myself that it is my nature and therefore I have no control over it.

Answer: This is a true and simple excuse, but I must summon upon myself the influence of a different nature that exists in reality, the influence of the Creator, the influence of the Light that is in the group. Then I will feel to what extent my nature, which is to receive, is opposite from that nature of bestowal, and then I will begin to get to know it.

Question: How can I awaken the second nature?

Answer: It is through the group. I spur the powers that allow me to discover the nature of bestowal by the right attitude to the group, in the relationships between the friends who are connected in mutual love and who speak about a certain advancement that I don’t understand. I look at them and don’t understand what they engage in. I keep hearing everyone talking about the group, about connection, and about frameworks that we have to build.

I don’t understand what they need all that for. It is true that Kabbalists tell us about that, but not explicitly. It is enough. We have read about that and now we can go on to something else. I don’t distinguish the internal changes yet, and the information and the scientific interpretation of things is quite enough for me. But why do I need to change myself with regard to society?

Question: So, how can I sharpen my attitude toward the group in order to be more strongly influenced by it?

Answer: This is the reason we live in this world. It is because here we can perform actions in corporeality and not in our desire. We can feel corporeal and not spiritual shame.

I enter the group, and want to be incorporated in it and to remain there. Then I am told that in order to remain in the group, I must take part in different duties, to come to the morning lesson every day, and so forth. If you don’t want to, you must leave. There are rules, and you must participate in the group together with everyone else. This obliges me to be incorporated, to be among the friends.

Then, whether I like to or not, I find myself in a workshop where everyone talks about the fact that I must see myself as small and all the others as great. This is what is accepted in our group, and I follow the others and speak in the same vein, “Guys, you know that everyone must lower his head before the friends because this is wonderful,” and they also tell me that it is wonderful!

No one does anything yet, but the Light that Reforms operates on us in the meantime and changes us. Gradually I begin to have a new insight that if I really see myself as small, I will benefit greatly. It is actually by annulling myself that I will attain the Creator. This is why it is worthwhile.

This is an incentive to advance spiritually. Perhaps it is a private egoistic incentive, but it is an effective one. Then the environment, the teacher, the study, and the workshops begin to affect me anew. The Creator sends me increasingly more advanced, finer, and more internal new states and situations, and I must sort them out time after time in order to use them correctly for my advancement. So, it turns out that the egoistic nature is not an obstacle. We all start from it.

Question: Do these changes take place in me automatically?

Answer: These changes take place according to my exertion. If I don’t exert myself, I don’t feel the changes. In fact, the changes take place all the time, but I perceive only a small part of them (one millionth) and respond to one millionth of what I perceive. When we advance in our world, we become more sensitive, sensitive to changes.

The whole spiritual world is in very high spiritual frequencies that cannot be perceived. When we ascend toward the Light, we transcend to very high frequencies that are above the attributes of our world. This is the reason that we must be prepared for rapid changes of qualitative states.
[129602]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 67: When a person from Israel enhances and dignifies one’s internality, which is the Israel in that person, over the externality, which are the nations of the world in him, that is, when one dedicates the majority of one’s efforts to enhance and exalt one’s internality, to benefit one’s soul, and gives minor efforts, the mere necessity, to sustain the nations of the world in him, meaning the bodily needs, as it is written (Avot, 1), “Make your Torah permanent and your labor temporary,” by so doing, one makes the children of Israel soar upwards in the internality and externality of the world as well, and the nations of the world, which are the externality, to recognize and acknowledge the value of the Children of Israel.

If we attribute ourselves to the upper part, to GE, to the part of Israel in the nation of Israel, we have no obligation to turn to the public and to disseminate among those who belong to AHP until we ascend as high as we can by our connection and unity, until we reach actual mutual guarantee, until we receive the Light that Reforms by this unity, which will really connect us.

Then the illumination will flow from us to the AHP, since there will be a contrast in the general vessel: there will be more Light in its GE part while in its AHP part it will be the exact opposite. On the whole, the nations of the world will acknowledge the importance of the vessels of bestowal called Israel. Those who are the external part will be able to recognize the internal part and this will be the direct outcome of our internal correction.

Therefore, if we connect and unite, even those who are against, who have nothing to do with this work, also receive an illumination from it by which it becomes clear to them that we have the Light while they are in the dark.

“And if, God forbid, it is to the contrary, and an individual from Israel enhances and appreciates one’s externality, which is the nations of the world in him, more than the inner Israel in him, as it is written (Deuteronomy 28:43), ‘The stranger that is in the midst of thee shall mount up above thee higher and higher; and thou shalt come down lower and lower,’ meaning the externality in that person rises and soars, and you yourself, the internality, the Israel in you, plunges down? With these actions, one causes the externality of the world in general, the nations of the world, to soar ever higher and overcome Israel, degrading them to the ground, and the children of Israel, the internality in the world, to plunge deep down.”

The nations of the world grow stronger when the part of Israel doesn’t function properly in the vessel. Then the darkness becomes thick, the children of Israel fall from their level, and the externality in them overcomes the internality until the destructive forces totally smash and humiliate them…
[129591]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What do you mean by the term “group”? Are these the people who are around us all the time: family and friends?

Answer: A group is an association of people who have one goal, one purpose. They eliminate all kinds of misunderstandings between them and act like a single fist, all of whose fingers are different but connected together into a single unified force.

In addition to this, our group must possess a particular characteristic. If they have a common goal, then they gather together to create a force for attaining this goal. This force can only give Light, and we can only get the Light needed for advancement with the help of Arvut (mutual guarantee).

This means that when I take the desires of someone else and want to correct and fulfill them, then I am like the Light, it shines within me and I am included in a group as a source of Light even though I am getting it from a higher power station because I want to give fulfillment to others.

If all of us act like this, then we become connected through mutual Arvut and advance towards a common goal. On every level of our growing spiritual advancement we get more Light, which connects us more tightly and we advance forward. This is what is called a group.

I think that we have already begun this action and have truly begun to feel that the foundation for our success is inherent in this. It used to be that some of the people understand this and some of them not as much. Now we “comb” everyone with a single comb, a single size, a single style. Now all of us have straightened the line, we know and understand the same thing. This is very important because everyone will now have an identical understanding of the material and the goal of the movement.

This was the biggest problem for everyone because there are many groups among us that are far from each other, and on the one hand, this created a great potential opportunity for advancement, but on the other hand, all the groups were on different levels and didn’t understand each other.

But now we are doing this for one single whole and have truly become one big group.
[129811]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: The Jewish people do a lot of good things and good deeds. But I see that non-Jews view it negatively, and instead of seeing us as good, they see us as bad. Why?

Answer: What good did we, the smartest and most educated people, do for the world? Did we perform our mission to be the light for the nations? Why should they love us?

Humanity feels intuitively that we bring harm and hatred into the world. We cannot imagine how this could be possible, so ask, “What are we doing wrong? We do not wish anyone any harm! Why does everyone hate us and not the people who seek to destroy others? For what?” Start to investigate this and try to find the true cause of this phenomenon.

Why does North Korea, with whom we have never had any relationship, hold first place in the world for anti-Semitism? Why such hatred?

Because anti-Semitism exists inside nature, is its law, and there is nothing we can do about it. No amount of logic will help us. If this phenomenon has been observed for thousands of years, then we should take it seriously, and not on the level of feelings. We must get to the bottom of why we occupy one place in nature and the rest of the world another.

I have been studying laws of nature for the past 40 years. Prior to that, my specialty was bio-cybernetics. But over these 40 years I have come to realize that unity is the cardinal foundation that exists in all of nature, and there is nothing one can do about it because we cannot go against a law of nature.

Abraham was not a Jew, but an ancient Babylonian who worshiped idols. But yearning to understand why there was such disconnection in his society, he revealed that in nature, there is a law of unity and that humanity needs to come to unification. All of nature strives for oneness within itself from the time of the Big Bang until final correction, and having revealed this law, Abraham began to teach it to anyone who wanted to learn.

The most sensitive, developed, and responsive people joined him. With them he went out of Babylon. They started calling themselves Yehudim, from the word “Yichud” (unity) or Ivrim from the word “Laavor” (to cross over).

Prior to the destruction of the Second Temple, this group fulfilled its mission. But since the time when the last exile emerged, they have not. And until we come together and understand our mission, until we grasp it and announce it to the whole world, we can not expect anything good.

Because ultimately, all the Babylonians, i.e., all humanity, must arrive at unification. And it is we who have to bring this unity to the world.
[163442]
From a public lecture in New York, 7/20/15

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Humans began to develop from the animate level, not because they began to walk on two legs hundreds of thousands of years ago, but because they began to develop social relationships. These were relationships not only within their pack, family or tribe, where they felt that everyone was as close to them as they felt themselves. They truly began to feel others and developed a connection with them.

Something like this doesn’t exist among animals. They live in families and packs, but there is no connection between the different packs. And humans developed beyond familial connections. This connection is egoistic, natural, and through this connection it is possible to exploit others as much as possible; I exploit you and you exploit me. Everything depends on the benefit that I can derive from the connection. You could catch a person and eat him, turn him into a slave, take his property from him and kill him if he resisted, or you could make an alliance with him. All of the egoistic relationships have existed until today. There is no difference between what was thousands of years ago and what exists today, this is the same form of behavior—to exploit others maximally for my benefit or for the benefit of my tribe, people, or nation.

That is how it always was and that is how it is today too. But now we have reached a very interesting point in history that has not yet been discovered. It arouses intense pressure and pain and tragic situations whose purpose is to awaken this point.

All of the families, tribes, packs, nations, and peoples who were formerly separate are suddenly beginning to feel that they are connected with each other and depend on each other. And this dependence obligates them to behave differently. On the one hand, from an egoistic point of view, I would want to exploit everyone. But on the other hand, I understand that I depend on them and need everyone.

In the meantime, this is only the beginning of development. But ultimately we will reach a situation in which a person will be forced to accept everyone as one family, meaning that he will see how much he depends on them, even though the ego won’t disappear, as happens in a real family.

We don’t feel an egoistic intention regarding people who are close to us; on the contrary, we want to do everything for their benefit. We behave with them nicely and well, for we feel that they are close parts of us as if we were one body.

So what do we do if, on the one hand, the mind tells us that strangers are close to us and we depend on them one hundred percent, and on the other hand, the ego still doesn’t disappear, as happens in a family? We find ourselves between two opposing forces. One force commands me to love others! And the second force turns around and says that I hate others! What can be done when there is a split like this?

In the framework of our world there is nothing be done and this is a great tragedy! Sometimes this happens in a family, and then there is nothing to fix. This is an unsolvable conflict like the commands that Abraham received from the Creator: “Through Isaac your seed shall be called and now you should bring him up for a sacrifice: And God said to Abraham, Be not displeased concerning your handmaid; whatever Sarah tells you, hearken to her voice, for in Isaac will be called your seed.” (Genesis 21:12).

“And He said, Please take your son, your only one, whom you love, yea, Isaac, and go away to the land of Moriah and bring him up there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which I will tell you.” (Genesis 22:2).

If this happens in a family, it is not terrible, it is possible to get along and settle the conflict. But what is to be done if our natural development brings us to a conflict like this, where our life or death depends on the ability to get close to others so much that we become one body, like one person with one heart?

Our entire society, our entire civilization of seven billion will have to reach this discovery. The ego is disturbing me and doesn’t make it possible for me to approach others, and on the other hand, I depend on them one hundred percent.
[130832]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/14

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