Question: How can we properly raise a prayer to the Creator?

Answer: I begin from the current animal state, immersed in my egoistic desire, and from there I make the first efforts, although I don’t know exactly what I have to do. First I begin to move, listen to advice, and try to formulate my prayer, my appeal.

At first I don’t ask correctly. I ask for things that don’t lead to correction, but by that, I still force myself to turn to the Creator and I realize that I am not my own boss.

Then I establish my attitude to all of reality: It turns out that even the questions are not mine nor are the problems, the answers, and the decisions. They all come from above; everything is sent to me by the upper force and everything stems from one source.

Eventually I stabilize myself correctly with regard to the upper force—the one unique and special force—according to what it is and what I am at the moment.

After I stabilize myself this way, I am in a more or less right direction, on the right track that I have stabilized by myself; together with the group, while studying and disseminating, I have formatted myself as much as I could.

Then on this new basis, I ask for help. My request isn’t directly aimed at bestowal yet, but it is enough.

After all, the Light that Reforms illuminates me from Above. Once it dwelled in my corrected soul, and then it left it as a result of the shattering and now it is on the outside. I summon the influence of this Surrounding Light and it invokes the state of the shattering in me or in other words the shattered Reshimot (reminiscences).

When they are awakened, I have a new desire, which is deeper and more real. The arrangement of all the parts of creation is revealed in it and I see how everything is connected and that everything has to be corrected. This is how the Creator arranges my prayer and the right desire in the right direction in me.

Two kinds of Reshimot are revealed to me: Reshimo from Light (Hitlabshut) and Reshimo of thickness (Aviut). The Reshimo of thickness reveals my shattered state to me and the Reshimo of Light relates to a higher level.

This gives me the direction. If, for example, I am in a desire of zero thickness and discover the Reshimo, the Light, of the first level, I understand where I have to come with my vessel (Kli). Thus, the Reshimo of thickness indicates its next level, a new depth. I yearn for the Light not the way it is, not for its revelation in the vessel, but for a vessel of bestowal on the first level. This is how the work with the Reshimot is performed.

Thanks to it, I reach the true desire and it depicts a new picture for me: I am in a certain reality trying to feel it, to imagine it, as clearly as possible in a perspective of bestowal, and now I ask the Creator to fulfill it.

Just think about how long we have been talking about the preparation for a prayer, a preparation that in itself is called a prayer. The Creator divides our appeal to Him into these two parts and additional phases appear in each of them.

We actually don’t need anything but this appeal. I appeal to the Creator in the most accurate manner and advance thanks to these appeals. We cannot advance without the appeals. Those who don’t place themselves in this framework of humanity, the group, the center of the group, and the sources, and don’t attribute them to the Creator, don’t close this circle, and don’t do what they are required to do. In the meantime, the Creator performs His work only after our appeal, and we finally establish the right way to Him.
[138426]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/14

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We should always keep in mind that all our vessels are external to us. We can only feel this world in our current animal, corporeal desire. But this isn’t the true reality, it is like feeling as a single cell detached from the body, and therefore feels no life.

Life is metabolism, the exchange of data, so what each of us feels now is real death. There is no spiritual vitality in our current state.

If we try to connect with all the friends who are with us in a circle and also with all the Kabbalists, with the prophets, with everyone who has ever lived in this world and we work on the correction, collecting the parts of his great desire that is in others, we obtain their desires from them.

A person’s soul is external to him; it is in others. To the extent that he listens to that and wants to connect with the parts of his soul, asking for connection, he attains the vessel of his soul. The Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) influences him and connects the parts.

When the Light can be revealed in this vessel that a person has put together, it is revealed. Then it isn’t the Light that Reforms anymore but the Light that fills him with the good and the benevolent.

Everything is done by the Light. It connects the parts of the vessel for a person and fills him, and thus a person advances on and on. A person’s level on the spiritual ladder is measured by the number of vessels that he attaches to himself, and he ascends higher and higher until he connects all the shattered parts.
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From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/14

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The whole world can try to connect but it will not succeed. It will only discover an even greater shattering. This long and indirect path, the path of suffering, leads to reaching the same goal as the short and easy path, the path of Light.

On the path of suffering, we learn from our wrong actions until we understand that we have suffered enough and that we need to find another way.

It is impossible to understand the method of connection if you don’t have a spark that is correctly processed and is tied to the source of Light. Therefore, any attempts made by people who don’t know the method to connect will only cause them harm. They lead to complete disappointment, wars, and great suffering.

At a certain point in history humanity gradually advanced by its failures and understood that egoistic connection by new technologies and commerce is not for our good.

This is the reason that earlier forms of connections that seemed to be advanced, like a united Europe, the common market, and international industrial and commercial ties are in crisis today and are the source of many problems.

We feel that everyone tries to be separate, to hide in his corner, and not to take anyone else’s troubles on himself. All the earlier forms of connection now seem to be flawed and this is the real crisis that reveals if a connection is egoistic, it is harmful.

The wickedness of the egoistic connection is revealed to us in every aspect of our life: in society, in the nation, and in the political parties. Let’s hope that people will soon realize this.

Connection is only possible with the participation of Bnei Baruch members, since no one else is connected to the upper source of power, to the Light that can fulfill the connection. It is only the Light that makes us equal, not the people.

All the connections that we make only harm us. It seems that the connection between us will bring about great benefits, but it never ends well. We see this at home, in industry, in the banking system, and various unions. Everything is gradually falling apart and leading this process will be the “united” Europe.

So we gradually understand that the connection between us is vital and that it isn’t done by us but by the Light that Reforms. People will feel that it is vital and possible. It is vital because otherwise we will not be able to survive, and it is possible because it already exists on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, so why can’t there be a connection between people as well? We only need to add our desire to this general integral connection.

Unity is the correct state of human society or people. We can attain it by the help of the Upper Light, but only after we first make the request for it as a whole nation or a whole group.
[138914]
From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/07/14

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Question: How can it be that I receive new vessels from the same friends every time?

Answer: But how do you know who your friends are? They are parts of your soul, but you look at their faces and think that they don’t change. They don’t know anything about themselves either.

You should know that if you encounter certain people in your life, both good and bad people, they are part of your soul. On the whole, all of humanity is your soul, but the people you encounter personally are the parts that are closest to you.

Today I identify parts of my soul from the level I am on in friends from my distant past, in teachers and professors who taught me at the university, in colleagues I worked with decades ago, in a research institute, in a lab, in all the people that fate has ever brought me together with. I identify in them the parts of my soul that I use and will use in the future.

It only seems that you see some physical bodies before you. They are depicted this way to you so that you will be able to connect to them somehow, since you have no other vessels, but later when you have vessels that are a bit more spiritual, you will see spiritual figures in these people and will connect to them on a different level, a bit more internally.

This is how it works. Don’t look at the world as at corporeal bodies. It is only a fictitious external picture.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/14

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The Book of Zohar, the article “Among All the Sages of the Nations of the World, There Are None Like You,” item 161: Among all the sages of the nations of the world and among all their kingdoms, there is nobody who will reach you. We exist within a particular reality. There are two approaches to perceiving reality. The first approach is a scientific research.

According to this approach, through our senses and the instruments that we construct to expand our senses in depth and breadth, we perceive the reality that we can feel with our five corporeal, earthly senses that also exist in animals.

The study of reality as it is revealed to our senses is called science. The foundation of science is philosophy, the approach to the understanding of the human perception of reality. This doesn’t mean the philosophy of today, which has become a bad word since it doesn’t have any real foundation, but the original philosophy, what it once was. From that, degrees in all disciplines are called Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)  as it is the foundation for all the sciences.

In this article, The Book of Zohar speaks about the philosophical approach, meaning the scientific approach of each and every person to the world and life in this world, to his desire to receive, to his desire to bestow, to the Creator, to the creatures, to everything, but in a sound way that a person is able to perceive in his mind and feelings. This is the approach called philosophy. It is impossible to refute it because we feel, see, examine, and measure all that exists in front of us.

However, there is another approach. If philosophy as science suddenly goes beyond its limits and begins to speak about phenomena that are not perceived by our senses, it stops being science and becomes some kind of mysticism, which is what today is called “philosophy.” This means that it is a philosophy without any real basis and without any practical examination.

What is no longer within the limits of earthly sciences, such as philosophy, are things that go beyond our senses: the origin of life, what happens before birth and after death, and the system of management and supervision. It is impossible for these topics to be discussed, since they are outside of the areas addressed by these methods.

This is within the realm of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is a science for someone who develops additional senses within himself, and he examines and investigates with these senses. Then from his investigation, he constructs a new science in addition to the earthly sciences that we have developed with the help of our five current senses.

Humanity developed, and through the five senses wanted to discover and use everything possible until it saw that in the end, everything that it attained brought it to a crisis and to a breakdown. This is our life.

And then humanity began to probe and ask. If there was something here that had not been taken into account, with whom we are in contact, who is managing us, why do all kinds of things happen to us, and so on. We need additional data about the situation we are found in. This data is not revealed to us with our five senses. So what can be done?

On one hand various mysticisms, religions, and faiths developed for people who were looking for what might possibly help. And on the other hand, the wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed because it has become imperative, and it invites humanity to become familiar with that reality that we don’t perceive with our five senses.

We can attain it if we develop an additional sense within us, which is not an extension of the familiar five senses, but  another approach to perceiving reality: not that I swallow everything and examine everything within me, but I can go outside of myself and not be dependent upon my body, on my desire to enjoy that creates the body for me. I go outside of it and examine reality as it is. Then I don’t see bodies, and I don’t see reality as it is portrayed for me through my five senses. And so the world becomes Ein Sof (Infinity).

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about this. It speaks in the same way as philosophy, but it defines precisely where the part of science of philosophy exists, as philosophy once was, and not the useless quibbling of today, and where the sequel to science is, meaning the wisdom of Kabbalah that penetrates a field that our five earthly senses cannot discover.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/06/14, The Book of Zohar

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Question: On one hand, Israel has an external problem, constant air strikes, and on the other hand, within the people, there is a split into many factions and directions. Everyone pulls to his side and hates others. How does this internal separation affect our external security?

Answer: The reason is the same: there is no connection between us. Then of course, there is a split between us, and we do not agree with each other.

Only a tiny part of the population has knowledge of the need for unity, of the method of unity. All the rest don’t know it yet, and they are not very interested in hearing about it.

Therefore, it is not surprising that there is such disunity and division within the nation. Everyone cares about how to get personal benefit from this situation. There is only one reason: lack of connection.

So, we should stop blaming those external enemies surrounding us on all the borders, as well as the internal enemies, that is, our egoism that separates us and makes us hate each other for no reason. You just have to start working against it. There is no other means of correction.
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From KabTV’s “The Mission of the People of Israel,” 7/8/14

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Question: In our world we use money and military power in order to changes things. How do we change the spiritual system?

Answer: The system changes when the lower is adapted to the upper. Israel is in the middle and has to adapt the nations of the world to the upper force. This means that Israel has to descend to connect the other nations with the upper level by closing this circle.

This kind of adaptor is made when we organize a group or a roundtable in the middle. Our mission is to draw the nations of the world to such discussions and roundtables, and to bring them to the form of the upper, which means to the force of love and bestowal. We have to bring them as close as we can to the upper force, to bestowal, by making them resemble it.

 If a person goes out to the nations of the world and organizes them in a circle, they take on a form that resembles the upper. This circle is made of several people (let’s say ten) who unite equally as each one sees the other as higher than himself.

Such a round structure resembles the upper level, and according to the law of equivalence of form, the lower circle and the upper level are connected according to the resemblance and the equivalence between them, through Israel who brought about this adaptability and equivalence. Thus the two parts begin to feel one another and the upper Light is poured from Above through Israel into the lower circle.

The more we expand this circle and create more identical circles that connect, the more the upper force can be revealed. Then Israel can become the pipe through which the Light that Reforms pours from the top down and influences the whole world, all the circles. This is how Israel will fulfill its mission of bringing the Light to the nations of the world.
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From KabTV’s “The Meeting of Worlds” 6/18/14

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If I feel that I have no desire, no yearning, no power to move, and I cannot do anything, I must be incorporated in the friends even more, even if I have no desire to do so, and then I will receive this desire from them.

We live in a reality called this world in which we can perform actions that bring us the desire to do so, even if we don’t have the desire for it at first.

This is called a desire without a desire. I simply come to a collective meal or a dissemination event in order to help the friends. It doesn’t matter whether I do it in order to feel their respect or to be proud that we are doing something important.

I can give myself different egoistic explanations as long as I can be incorporated in the friends. I absorb their desire, even when we just sit and have a beer together. Thanks to that, my desire changes, and I already can begin to perform small actions that are related to the connection between us. I receive the friends’ desires, thoughts, intentions, awakenings, and the feeling of the importance of the spiritual path.

Therefore, this world is the most important level of all. It is outside the spiritual world, but we begin every state, every level, from this world.

When I was near Rabash, I used to wonder how this man who is always so happy, cheerful, and inspiring with burning eyes sometimes fell to a state of feeling totally dead, especially in the morning when he woke up and got up and walked around, looking at everything stunned, not understanding what was going on.

He was totally disconnected from spirituality. However, we are so small that we have nothing to lose, and our detachment from spirituality is as minor as our connection to it.

Rabash used to move slowly. He would sit down to have the cup of coffee I had prepared for him. I would read an extract from “The Study of the Ten Sefirot” to him,  usually from chapter 16 that speaks about Adam HaRishon and the worlds of BYA, and then he would gradually wake up and begin to ascend.

We should understand that every level, until the end of correction, starts from absolute zero from our world, like Rabbi Shimon who fell to the state of Shimon from the market, and it is from this level zero that we must grow until the height of the end of correction.

We must collect material, which means desire for this level, from the state where we are outside the spiritual world, entering it each time anew. This is how it works.
[138484]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/14

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Question: What is the meaning of the term “time?”

Answer: Time is the number of actions that we must perform in order to attain a predetermined goal, which is the final state of the end of correction in which we are all connected into one system called Adam (a human being).

The time of evolution is a certain number of changes that we must make. We can hasten time by preparing ourselves for going through these changes in a more condensed manner. We cannot skip these steps, but they can be tightly condensed.

Suppose that I prepare myself at home so that I can perceive and understand one lesson from the teacher at school, while my friend prepares himself in a much better way by reading extra material and thus can perceive five lessons at once. This means that he hastens time and skips above it.

He doesn’t skip the steps. It only seems that way since we don’t see that one action can include many actions. Time is measured by the number of actions, whether it is long or short, since in the spiritual world there is no astronomical time connected to the revolutions of the planets around the sun.

We cannot leap above the steps, but we can condense them. It is impossible to leap over or to skip the steps because then you wouldn’t perform the necessary corrections, but we can prepare ourselves for that so that these corrections will be condensed into one. Everything depends on our preparation: on our readiness to listen, to perceive, and to join an even greater effort.

This is possible only by connection with the friends. If I connect to the friends, my vessel becomes bigger, and it can include more, and then I can perceive many actions at once since all these actions are actions of connection, and if I advance toward them by myself, I can draw more Light.

However, if I advance by the natural pace of evolution, in its time, I must wait until I am awakened for every action and then I respond. I shorten time only by rushing toward connection.

The concepts of pleasure and suffering change according to my advancement and whether I value the Light of connection that is dressed in me as most desirable, and this also depends on the influence of the environment.
[137507]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Why do we naturally want to receive the Torah as a kind of good, which we are “supposed” to receive?

Answer: And who said that the Torah, the method of correction, is perceived as good?

It is said: “I created the evil inclination, and I made the Torah as its spice.” The Creator created, on the one hand, evil, and on the other hand, a “spice,” against it, the force of correction. But what good is in it? What is good if I have a damaged car that needs to be fixed?

Look at the world. Who envies the Jewish people because they received the Torah? Except the people who are attracted to the purpose of creation, to correction, others can bring a variety of definitions of the Torah, and no one would name the Light that Reforms. No one will say that the essence of the Torah is the correction of evil in oneself and that we need to immerse ourselves in this process.

Our definition of the Torah as the Light that Reforms does not seem to bode well. We are talking about the force of correction which confronts all the evil that should be revealed in us. Revelation of evil is always very unpleasant, uncomfortable, and not gentle. This is something terrible: a grave illness and a cure for it.

It is no coincidence that children live through some diseases that will ensure their continued immunity. We need to experience every state on the path, discovering evil in each, suffering from it, and then correcting it.

So, who needs this? In the correct definition of this word, the term “Israel” promises sweet life to no one. If you look at the history of the Jewish people, then there is nothing to envy. Only a handful of people in the world are attached to Israel to share its fate. Perhaps they may have inherited their attraction from the Reshimot (reminiscences) of the lost tribes.

It is difficult to expect a mass influx there where we are working against egoism.
[139172]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/14, “Unity of the People”

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