Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”: “Even if one man came before his Master in complete repentance, the Messiah King would come at once.” This means that whoever it was, even if it were only one man in the generation who was rewarded with extending that soul by himself, he will be able to reward his whole generation, since all who are obliged, exempt the public through their duty, and he can do much praying and hold his own until he rewards his entire generation.

In the article “600,000 Souls” Baal HaSulam tells us about the structure of the soul in its whole and integral form, when all its parts are mutually interdependent, when they are not separate parts but a whole structure that we see as split up, broken, and scattered to great distances only because of our corrupt ego.

The truth is that we are all in one wonderful system, in one soul called Adam. At first this structure was called Adam HaRishon (First Man), and it was the structure that the Creator created, and then it broke.

We have to reconstruct this structure, which means to reach the same feeling, the same recognition, but by ourselves. This is the reason that we don’t attain Adam HaRishon’s form but the form of Adam that is 620 times more understanding and who feels the Creator inside him.

Because all the parts are interdependent and connected to one another each one corrects everyone, because one part cannot be corrected without correcting its incorporation in all the other parts, until they all respond to it and become incorporated in it.

This is the reason that each part becomes whole only if the whole structure is whole. In this structure there are different important roles, but these roles are fulfilled in the mutual incorporation. There are prophets and Moses as their head, priests, and Levites—Kabbalists of all the generations who have already reached the attainment of the whole soul and are incorporated in it, which means in roles that are different spiritual levels according to their importance in the system.

There are several phases in the mutual incorporation: three times two thousand years, or 125 levels. Each one has to be corrected so that everyone can be corrected. Only if each one corrects everyone except himself, can he thus correct himself. This is his intention.

He has to subdue himself before everyone in order to correct everyone. This is his role in taking care of them, in acceptance, in submission. On the other hand, he has to raise himself above everyone in order to see that everyone depends on him. After all, the Lord has chosen him and he has to correct himself because no one else can correct his part.

It makes no difference who he is: whether the one sitting behind the millstone stone or a prince. After all, there is an opposite correlation between the Lights and the vessels and in the general vessel all the parts are equally important with regard to the end of correction. If one part is not corrected, its incorporation with all the other parts is not corrected.

Consequently, all the other parts are not corrected because of this part and cannot correct their incorporation in the other parts either. It is a chain reaction, and eventually the whole system can be corrupted as a result of one small, uncorrected component.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/14

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Baal HaSulam, Introduction to the book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot, Section 7: Thus, there are two ways to attain the above-mentioned goal: through their own attention, which is called a “Path of Repentance.” If they are awarded that, then “I will hasten it” will be applied to them. This means that there is no set time for it, but when they are awarded, the correction ends, of course.

If they are not awarded the attention, there is another way, called “Path of Suffering.” As the Sanhedrin said, “I place upon them a king such as Haman, and they will repent against their will,” meaning in its time, for in that there is a set time.
By that, they wanted to show us…

… as it is written, “Canst thou send forth lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee: ‘Here we are’?”

There is a path of pain that can cleanse any defect and materialism until one realizes how to raise one’s head out of the beastly crib, to soar and climb the rungs of the ladder of happiness and human success, for one will cleave to one’s root and complete the aim.

Not one of us can take his head out of this feeding trough. It is impossible to be detached from the feeding trough, and we must realize this as quickly as possible.

However, it is only possible to do this together, and essentially, in this is the difference between the “path of suffering” and the “way of Torah,” between Beito (Path of Suffering) and Achishena (Path of Light)
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What does it mean to be in a continuous dialogue with the Creator?

Answer: A person must make continuous efforts to bring reality to its right form, instead of accepting it as he currently feels it.

Even when a person reaches certain spiritual levels, he still must try to see himself on an upper level and imagine what reality is like there.

In order to achieve this goal, he begins to arrange all the necessary components: himself, the group, the study, the teacher, and the Creator. There are three main components:

1. The person himself
2. Whatever is between him and the Creator, which is the entire world, including the group and the teacher, all the problems he encounters, and the support that he receives
3. The Creator

All the forms of concealment that now appear before me are like different images, vague shadows in the dark, but thanks to them I can discern that there is something here. Although I see them in their wrong, unnatural, misleading form, it is still some discernment. This means that being in a state of Lo Lishma (Not for Her Name) is already a preparation. Now, I ask that these forms should turn into real ones.

If it weren’t for these fictitious forms, I wouldn’t be able to make an effort and want them to turn into real ones. This means that I couldn’t see the real forms and wouldn’t discover the Creator because He is supposed to be revealed in the real forms. These are not His forms, but the forms through which He presents Himself to me. I cannot reveal Him, the actual source, and there must be some reference form in order to do that, YHVH.

This is the reason that I must start from the vessels that later turn into Hassadim. I must discover and study the evil forms of concealment and then discover how they turn into the good and right form that is the form of revelation. The opposite form is the revelation of the Creator.

Therefore, we don’t want the shadows to disappear from the world since without them we would have no contact with the Creator and would never be able to feel Him. This is the reason for the shattering: it is so that we will reassemble the forms of the shattering and discover all the breaches between us that are the main thing. We don’t study the entire vessel but how it is made of the different parts, which means that we study the cracks that allow us to hold onto the upper force.

We must see the Creator before us who speaks to us through all these vague forms of concealment. We must accept them as an invitation, as a call to turn to the Creator correctly and realize that when all these Dinim (Judgments) are sweetened and the negative forms turn into positive ones this is the form in which we discover the Creator.

All of our work is to use all these means—the teacher, the books, the study, dissemination—to help us want to change the forms of concealment that appear before us into the forms of revelation. However, I must identify with the attribute of bestowal, with the Creator, in the forms of revelation. The sweetening of the Dinim will occur to the extent that I wish to be part of the attribute of bestowal.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/14

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Question: What is the role of the external part with regard to the internal part?

Answer: The external part is meant to put pressure on the internal part. This is actually what builds the mutual connection between Galgalta ve Eynaim and AHP.

Galgalta ve Eynaim are vessels of bestowal and they don’t want anything for themselves. They have no needs if it isn’t for bestowing unto someone below them. Their state with regard to the Creator is called Hafetz Hesed and they are incapable of more.

It says, “the fewest of all the nations.” What is more, this doesn’t refer to quantity, not to the 15 million representatives of the Israeli nation in the world, but to the fact that we don’t have a strong enough desire.

This is the reason that Israel are few and cannot advance. I simply don’t want to ascend; I don’t feel any need for that. Even if I do feel the need to do so, it is only when I have a reason to or someone to do it for, and if I have the means to do so. The Israeli nation cannot do anything by itself. This is the reason that the pressure of the nations of the world is necessary. Moreover, it has to be great, in the form of the pressure of seven billion on 15 million. We need this Aviut (thickness) of the desire because it will force us to raise the ultimate request, MAN, and to bring everyone to the end of correction.

We will not be able to overcome otherwise. We are unable to want more for ourselves and even the study doesn’t turn us into Galgalta ve Eynaim. We format the complete vessels of Galgalta ve Eynaim in order to help AHP, but if I don’t set it as a goal from the beginning, I will not even be given the state of Hafetz Hesed.

Hafetz Hesed means that I am between the vessels of receiving and the vessels of bestowal and that I want to bestow and to help and am ready to burst from the bestowal that fills me like a cow that bursts with milk and has no one to give it to…

This is the reason that Galgalta ve Eynaim doesn’t grow without AHP. Therefore, the wide dissemination we do, during which we meet the desires of the AHP, and it makes no difference which desires, will push us to connect and to unite. We already know that from our earlier experience.

Nothing is more helpful than troubles, but instead of waiting for real troubles, we absorb the troubles and problems of others.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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When we unite, our desires that are so different, opposite, and distant from each other merge into one single desire.

It turns out that on the one hand, we are completely distant, but on the other hand, we united and are therefore beginning to reveal the single force of nature.

This occurs precisely because we have huge egoism, but above it we are trying to come to unity.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed only to those people who possess a special sensitivity, who simultaneously feel both their disconnection and their unity. In this way, it will gradually be revealed to everyone in the world.

It is such a joy to see how our Kabbalistic groups are springing up around the whole world. Many people are coming to study and want to learn about the method of connection. Year by year, humanity is growing more confused, losing its purpose, despairing like a small child who got lost, went astray, and now does not know where to go.

In the meantime, we are understanding more and more clearly what a unique method we have at our disposal. We only need to implement it on ourselves and offer it to all of humanity so that they too will unite and feel themselves at a higher level of existence because everyone will become one whole.

We still have a lot to learn about it. Do not forget that we learn this wisdom from nature, not only from books. We need to implement the connection between ourselves as a counterweight to the egoism that separates us. We are like research scientists, revealing this method empirically.

A Kabbalistic group is a laboratory where we conduct an experiment on our own selves, year after year, lesson after lesson, registering all the details of the process that we are undergoing.

Only in the past year or two have we gotten closer to the phase of direct implementation. Before that, we only studied the system: how it is connected in an ideal manner, that is to say, the system of the upper worlds.

In essence, the upper world and the lower world are in the same place. But when we are divided, we refer to our world as the material world. When we unite, then we feel a different reality, a harmonious one, connected by a single force.

All of nature becomes one organism, which is called the revelation of the Upper Force—the only force that manifests inside us, since it cannot be revealed somewhere externally, outside of the connection with us. This signifies the revelation of the Creator to His creatures in accordance with the condition of equivalence of form.
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From the Convention In Guadalajara “One Heart For All,” “Day One” 7/17/15, “Preparatory Lesson”

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A Theater of One Actor

Question: If the Creator created everything, in what way is our work summed up?

Answer: Right, if everything comes from the Creator and He does everything, if He arranged this small theater, does it mean that we don’t exist as independent people but only seems that way to us?

I feel that I exist according to the degree of my detachment from the Creator and His concealment; or the opposite, to the degree of His concealment, I disappear. I become “transparent.” I feel how everything passes through me, and I myself don’t exist at all.

In this manner, I exist only because the Creator is concealed. So, how can He be revealed? The creation would simply disappear. There would not be anything that really exists besides Him, and, in spite of it all, according to the plan of creation, I can acquire independence and discover the Creator on condition that, before this revelation, I act like Him. In other words, I acquire particular characteristics of the Creator thanks to which He can be revealed without erasing me from the picture of the world, and then I and He become one.

I Am Independent; We Are United

Now, I must say thank you very much for the concealment, for only by means of that can I acquire the characteristics, thoughts, desires, and actions of the Creator. Within the concealment, I want them to be revealed in me, to be born in me.

To this degree, the Creator can be revealed. This will happen according to the law of equivalence of form. In this case, I don’t erase Him from the picture. Rather, He is revealed this way, and I am not erased. I exist independently, and at the same time, He and I are mutually connected, similar, adhered. It may even be with a singular characteristic, but we adhere together.

This action is to be implemented with each one of our desires so that resembling the Creator is entirely a great, internal selection by the person in mind and heart, in thought and desire. This is what is still to come for us.

Behind the Friend, the Creator

We achieve this with the help of Kabbalah when we implement the study, the theoretical basis, within a group, in a group of ten. We gather and try to be together. We complete each other. We agree with each other. Another way of saying this is that I need to build a mutual relationship with a friend that is identical to that with the Creator.

Through this exercise, we develop the right approach within us, and our efforts in work with the friends attract the Light that reforms.

I try to behave with the friends as I do with the Creator, as if He is standing behind each one of them, as if it only seems to me that it is a friend, but in fact, “There is none else besides Him,” and through the friends, I demonstrate and show different forms of behavior all of the time. However, I remove these coverings and say that everything is for the best. I must overcome them, rise above them. I need to relate to the Creator as loving and beloved.

If I make this effort and try, then I awaken the Light that Reforms, and it corrects me, corrects my characteristics so that they truly will be like His, and within them, I will be like the Creator.

Theory Lacks Power

We need to think about this and try to implement it after that. The main thing is specifically the realization and implementation. Believe me; it is possible to read and talk about it for years without understanding anything because of the lack of implementation.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a practical wisdom, and so it is written, “… we shall do and we shall hear” (Exodus 24:7). We will do this actively, and then we will understand. In other words, we will acquire the characteristic of Bina (Intelligence) and feel what it is talking about.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/22/15, Shamati #241

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Question: Why does a child play so naturally and truthfully while for a grownup a game is a lie?

Answer: It is because we adults have gotten used to living in a lie: our life is a lie and the game is a lie. It isn’t a crime but simply our nature. A game is always a lie and never the truth because after all, I don’t play myself but someone I would like to be.

We wouldn’t be able to advance without games. Children perceive a game as the absolute truth and therefore develop and grow. If we wholeheartedly joined in a game, like kids, we wouldn’t be able to leave it and would stay in it.

This is actually the tool that the wisdom of Kabbalah uses. I am told: “You need to love others, and in this love you will begin to feel the Creator! Here, you have a group that is made of ten people; start establishing such relations between you by pretending that each one loves the others. You have to create such an atmosphere between you so that each one will disappear in it and will melt in his love for others.”

I act out this love over and over again by returning to it a thousand times each day until I am incorporated in it to such an extent that I melt in this love and connection. Then I can attain the revelation of the Creator.

By being incorporated in love, I am incorporated in the Creator. This ceases to be a game and becomes the game of my life. But first I play it artificially: I pretend that I love the friends and annul myself before them without any desire to do so. I force myself and convince myself that I have to act this love, although I don’t feel it at all.

But I suddenly feel a warm feeling. The others influence me by setting an example for me by their alleged loving attitude; I see that they are loyal to this love and I feel ashamed that I cannot return the same love to them. I criticize and reprimand myself over and over again and once more force myself to love the others.

But when I annul myself this way, I suddenly begin to see how all the corporeal objects around me begin to disappear: the table, the chairs, and the walls. They all disappear from my perception and only one thing remains—the love that I feel. I also disappear. I become enslaved to this feeling of love, and there is nothing left but that feeling that is external to me since my “self” disappears.

My “self” is my ego, which disappears, and then I begin to feel how the upper force, the Creator, fills everything. It is because I have annulled myself and now I can feel Him. I have annulled my egoism and have received the attribute of the upper force, the attribute of bestowal, and this is the real game.
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From KabTV’s “The Torah Chapters with Shmuel Vilozni” 2/2/15

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Question: On whom does success depend: is it the inner connection between us, the sufferings the world will go through, or our swift dissemination?

Answer: Ten years of sufferings in the whole nation will not bring the Upper Light as close as one day of dissemination and a few mornings of lessons, even ten years of suffering in the whole nation! Because sufferings that comes from the side of the vessel are not clarified, are not calculated; it’s similar to an animal that howls from pain and does not know what to do.
People don’t have conscious connection with the Creator. Therefore, this cannot be compared to the lesson that sometimes awakens a prayer, a request, a yearning. This is quite so regarding dissemination, that is realizing what is lacking, which lacks only the intention in order to bestow. Therefore, dissemination is the means to the most efficient correction; the sufferings direct us. But the question is, what is all this suffering for? What are you suffering from?

Comment: I suffer because I feel bad.

Answer: This means, you suffer from the emptiness in the most corporeal and regular desires: food, family, money, honor, and knowledge. This is still in the regular way of sufferings. The Creator sends you troubles and you cry. He puts more pressure, and you cry louder, if he puts less pressure, you cry less. If He tickles you, you begin to laugh. All that is a direct action of the upper conduct, where is your correct reaction here? You must think not about your feelings inside the desire, but above it where you build your Rosh ha Partzuf (head of the Partzuf).

The group needs to permeate us with the spiritual deficiency, the need to exit the desire to receive and move to bestowal. If friends would start telling you now about impending danger, about a storm or a fierce storm that will blow everything, that it is on its way and will turn everything to a desert, you would become frantic with fear and worry. You would be full of fear because of that; so why can’t they transfer to you at least a tiny part of this worry regarding spirituality? They should do it.

But they are lazy. So you need to pay them, to do everything that is needed in the group. This way each one will help the other. But if you just wait for the deficiency for spirituality to be awakened in you and for it to become a directed yearning, this will never happen. Through the group you exit from the egoistic beastly point and immediately rise to the net of forces that is already spiritual. Even though it is not corrected, is egoistic, not for Her sake (Lo Lishma), it is already a net, and that is the main thing.

We do not receive enough pressure from the group; this is the whole problem. Another gathering of friends (Yeshivat Haverim) and another one, it’s only mechanical and it will not help. Rabash did not allow us to have more than one Yeshivat Haverim a week. Everything depends on a deeper penetration inward inside the dominion of intentions.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: If I don’t feel the Creator, can I tune in to you as the goal, since you and your goal are clear to me?

Answer: If that suits you, then you can tune in to me. Actually, I devote all my life, all my time, to studying and teaching, and aspiring for the Creator and helping others do the same. Basically, each one of us needs to do that.

But in the wisdom of Kabbalah, the teacher cannot be the standard because his inner life, his inner development, is not known to anyone. What we see is only his external movements that function on the physical level, the animal level.

For example, the religious Hassids imitate their teacher, “Oh, our Rabbi loves to eat that, and dress like that, and we do the same.”

Of course, this is not a basis for imitation. You don’t receive anything through that because in everyday life I live and exist according to my physical (animal) body. I operate according to what my body demands and according to what doctors advise. I listen to doctors and listen to my body.

There is absolutely nothing here that is connected to the spiritual world. All of spirituality exists deep within and is inaccessible to the eye and to imitation. Thus, there is no reason to look at me.

Think about each one of us reaching the goal. If each one will begin wanting his friends to reach the goal, then that will be the “prayer of many.”
[129887]
From the Lesson in Russian 2/7/14

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Question: How can we logically explain to people that connection is the single solution to all problems?

Answer: Clearly, unity between people gives them strength. On this principle the army, political parties, or any other organization is built. A few people that unite together receive strength, especially nowadays.

Even in the days of slavery, the association of the slaves was feared. Every country is afraid arising associations. If more than a hundred people connect, immediately they are checked to see what is happening there, what they are doing, and what their plans are. It is necessary for the public security.

But by connection between us, if it is the correct connection, we begin to feel that there is some source of force, mind, a new feeling. We need to make an effort to feel it ourselves, but we are neglecting it. If I don’t receive awakening from the center of the group, a lifting of spirit, a feeling of warmth, love, an increase of the feeling of feeling and mind, then I am not connected to it.

Just as I need to eat something every few hours, so I need to feel the appetite and hunger to come to the group and receive nourishment from it. I don’t have to come physically to the group, but I must feel its center, from which from I yearn to fulfill myself.

If you still don’t see and feel what the profit is from the connection, it’s a sign that you still have to work on it. Even the greatest Kabbalist cannot exit himself if he retreats to some hidden place. He must be connected with at least a few students equal to or greater than him so that inside the connection he will find feeling and mind from a higher degree.

Every time he will progress like that, otherwise he will not have life. He will stop in place and die because life must renew all the time.

Therefore, when we come to people and help them connect, we need to teach them how to reveal the source of live water in order to be able to drink from it, from the center of connection between them. As a result of that, they will receive the spirit of life. They will start to feel that they lack it, like a little child that suddenly needs his mother, runs and clings to her, and then again he runs back to his games. Like that we need to show people the source of life.

You should feel at the time of the workshop and different actions that in the connection between you there is a new inner excitement, a sharper feeling of joy, and deeper meaning that makes it possible to reach a new clarification of the current state and the next state that is suddenly revealed.

If at a time of connection with friends such a special feeling is not awakened, it’s a sign that you did not reach any connection. We have to reveal it in ourselves and to teach others, because in it is the source for joy, liveliness, the force of life, and for us it’s also a source for clarification, because only feelings are not enough for us, we also want to clarify these states and participate in them consciously “to awaken the dawn” ourselves.

Therefore, this spring that we reveal in the center of the group is the source of force for spiritual progress. And for the people, it is the source of confidence, pleasant feeling, more correct observation toward the attitude inside the family, children, education, etc., meaning the source of their lives.

This is a very special point. I must find the source of force, the source of life, the source of mind and energy for myself, and suddenly I see that the way becomes clearer and my state stabilizes in the correct direction. I acquire strength and stability. All of this I receive from the center of the group.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/14

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