Question: Why is it said that due to corporeal pleasure you come to spirituality?

Answer: It means that I try to do all kinds of actions of bestowal to friends or in dissemination to another, to the general public.

Even though I try to carry them out only in order to bestow, without any personal benefit, ultimately I discover that they bring me pleasure and I am ready to do them only on condition that I will enjoy them.

I don’t have perpetual energy in me allowing me to perform actions without any fuel. If I move my hand, I must expend calories, expend energy. But where does this come from? So I must have pleasure to supply myself with energy.

I am not ready to just bestow. The Creator is the source of the energy, whereas I cannot be a source of energy. If I do something, I must get adequate compensation for this so that it will be worthwhile for me to act according to my emotion and intellect according to the calculations of my internal computer.

So even though I perform good actions: studying, dissemination, strengthening the group, I discover that in spite of it all, I am working for my own sake. I clarify that I am not prepared to be a power supply; rather, I always must have the thought of the benefits that I get from it. This is corporeal action.

From this it is clear to me that I am the opposite of the Creator and also perform actions of bestowal for the sake of my gain and benefit. I am like Pharaoh who used the children of Israel, meaning bestowal for my own pleasure. Pharaoh was very happy that the children of Israel were working for him. It was worthwhile for him to hold onto slaves like these.

They seemingly acted in order to bestow, but the ego, Pharaoh, received all of the fruits of labor for himself. What could be better than that? The desire to receive alone, without acts of bestowal, which just works in the form of reception, is called a “beast.” That is how all the animals and beasts act, receiving pleasure directly. The calculation is very simple: How much to pay for each pleasure and how much I will get?

But the exile and enslavement in Egypt is that I already want to approach the Creator, and so I enter into this period. I do acts of bestowal, am connected with the friends, establish Arvut (mutual guarantee) between us, do acts of dissemination, do a multitude of things, invest all of my life in this. But I always discover that I did all of this for personal benefit.

In the end, I don’t want this to be for my own benefit, but I cannot do anything except for myself, otherwise I cannot work. So I fall, lose all my energy and I don’t have the strength to move. Kill me, I will not get up.

So I begin to discover how much I am not ready to work without a payoff. So how can I do acts of bestowal? If the society shows me the importance of bestowal and I see that I am not ready for this, then I feel myself enslaved. And accordingly, I already begin the struggle and I am approaching the plagues in Egypt.

I feel myself as if I am Moses, it is in my interest that my desire receives blows. Only this will allow me to break away from it.
[131427]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Shamati #190

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Question: What does the ability of the person to be patient along this path depend on?

Answer: Patience depends upon preparation, when I know that in the next moment I could receive such inner changes, like an upgrade of emotions and intelligence that I am not responsible for.

Who knows what I will be in the next moment: a complete fool or a world-class genius or a giant Kabbalist. I am just a computer that one touch of a button will change its entire program.

Therefore, I myself cannot prepare anything but only in my environment. The Creator gave me the possibility of controlling and managing my future through the environment! If I want to know who I will be in another moment, I can look at my environment, at my relationship with the friends, and on the commitments between us, and then I can envision my next state.

This is because the Upper Light always elevates me, reveals to me more and more evil so that I can advance. And so according to my connection with the environment, I can be sure that they will protect me and will be concerned for me and will help me to advance.

I cannot come closer and approach the Creator if I do not sign a covenant with the environment. Therefore, it is said, (II Kings 4:13) “I dwell in the midst of my people”. Without support from the environment that I prepared for myself, I will get only additional ego, additional disturbances from the Creator.

I don’t know what to expect from Him, but if you prepare yourself, this backing from the environment, then with their help you will surely be able to develop the right deficiency. In the face of that evil that the Creator will reveal to me, I can develop and create a request to the Creator through the environment so that He will transform the evil into good.

That is how I work all the time: I – environment – Creator, I – environment – Creator.
[131422]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Shamati #190

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Question: How can we want to connect if we only seek what is pleasant for our ego?

Answer: We have to yearn for the corrected state or at least ask that we should find it attractive. You can study out of curiosity, out of a desire to know something, to hear; you are pulled from Above by some bait.

But when you are already in a group, your desire has to undergo some treatment, a change, a new manner. It isn’t just the desire to receive that wants to enjoy wisdom, to know the future, to become stronger and more dominant in this life. This egoistic desire is only the beginning to entice a person, but later it has to change.

When we begin to work with it from the outside: through the group, using the Surrounding Light, the desire begins to change and a person doesn’t know what exactly he should do with it. He suddenly loses all interest and doesn’t want anything. The group and his state don’t seem right and he doesn’t like them. He doesn’t see any nice reward for his efforts to come to the lesson every morning and to work in the group. He is not ready for that because in his heart and mind he doesn’t believe that he will get any reward, and so he escapes.

We have to work on changing our desire. You can only receive the power, the patience, and perseverance needed for this from the environment. The main thing in our work is not to ask for or demand changes from the Creator, but to actually establish connections in the group so that you will respect it and see that it is great and sublime, since otherwise you will run away from it.

The Light comes to you from Above according to your connection to the environment. If you are not connected to your friends in the group on its level, then you will not be allowed to advance from Above. If advancement comes from Above against your ego, you will simply run away. But if you are connected to the group and are under its influence on all sides, then the Upper Light can influence you to the same degree and perform changes in you. These changes are unpleasant, but thanks to your connection with the society, you don’t escape.

People who don’t work on the connection with the group usually leave, or even worse, they begin to see that the advancement is wrong and they blame the society. Since they have to justify themselves for leaving the group, they are sure that the group is bad. Because they are not connected to the group, the Upper Light throws them off the spiritual path.

So if you want to advance, you have to constantly worry about the connection with the friends, which is actually the whole exile in Egypt and the whole redemption from exile; it is the condition of mutual guarantee and unity, of being as one man in one heart at the gathering at Mount Sinai, all the forty years in the desert, and then the entrance to the land of Israel. All these states are determined only by increasingly stronger connection with the group.

We don’t have to think about the Upper Light and about the Creator now. All this will come if you connect with the friends and prepare yourself for the changes. They will not be pleasant because you are approaching the attribute of bestowal and detaching yourself from the attribute of receiving, which is totally opposite our nature. So it is possible only if the environment supports you.
[131316]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What is the Tabernacle that Moses builds?

Answer: The Tabernacle is our corrected desire in which the upper force is revealed.

Our attributes gradually come closer and begin to complement and emphasize one another according to the law of equivalence of form. They don’t destroy one another but clarify one another. When they become equal, they will totally resemble each other in the attribute of bestowal and will merge together with the Creator. This is the unity between the created being and the Upper Light called the Tabernacle.

In Perush Gadol (the great commentary), it says that Moses and Aaron account for the use of the people’s contributions for the building of the Tabernacle; that is, for the Lights that descend from Above and the materials that come from below.

In other words, the desire that comes from below and the Light that comes from above merge into one image of a spiritual object, for example the Tabernacle. But the Tabernacle is merely an external means of correction, while the object of the correction is the person himself.
[131197]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/16/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Shamati #41,” “What is Greatness and Smallness in Faith”: It is written, “and they believed in the Lord, and in His servant Moses.” We must know that the Lights of Pesach (Passover) have the power to impart the Light of faith. Yet, do not think that the Light of faith is a small thing, because greatness and smallness depend only on the receivers.

The whole issue of Pesach is that a person receives power from Above, because without it we are certainly unable to do anything. We are always driven by some force: either by the force of the desire to receive that we were born with, “I have created an evil inclination,” or by the force of the desire to bestow, “I have created the Torah as a spice.”

We behave according to the balance between these forces, although we are given freewill, so that due to the environment and the different actions we perform with the environment, we can draw the desire to bestow, which means the Light that illuminates upon me, so that it will give me its attribute. Thus, we acquire the Light of faith, faith is bestowal.

If more Light shines on me, I rise like a flower towards the sun, towards the rain. If the Light doesn’t shine, I wither. Everything depends only on how the Light influences me.

There are special times called an awakening from Above. Sometimes these are good times and sometimes bad times, which means that either Din (judgment) or mercy is revealed. This also depends on me, on how hard I try to take advantage of these times, of these special states.

Pesach is a time of special mercy according to its branch and root, a time of a great Light that raises us above the desire to receive and takes us out of Egypt. We have to try to make the best of this opportunity. Of course, the exodus from Egypt is achieved by great collective efforts.

But when we make efforts, we discover that we cannot do anything, not even the right effort. Although we decide to do whatever we can, the next moment we already forget about it or don’t manage to do it. So we gradually form the right request, about which it is written: “and the children of Israel sighed from the work.”

By making the right request for acquiring the Light of faith, we are rewarded and ascend above the desire to receive. Now it doesn’t dominate us and we are actually the ones who dominate it. This is called the exodus from Egypt. We don’t leave it; we are in it, but we receive the power to make decisions, and from now on, the Light of faith determines everything, not the force of receiving. This is the exodus.
[131187]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/14, Shamati #41

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Question: Will Bezalel, whom the Creator filled with the Godly spirit and wisdom, appear in our world?

Answer: It isn’t one person. It is the unity of people who discover their spiritual attributes!

There are no people, animals, or gold, no Tabernacle, nothing. We are talking about the four phases of our ego that are on the levels of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature. For example, gold, precious stones, etc. are attributes that are revealed on the level of the still nature; wood, acacia, and linen all symbolize the attributes of the vegetative. Wool and everything we weave from it are the attributes on the level of the animate, and there are also human attributes.

In human nature there are also different levels that we see according to the hierarchy of humanity.

Bezalel refers to the most sublime attributes in our correction, when we can be completely under the Creator’s shadow, which means in total adaptation to Him. Just like a shadow follows a person, we too have to follow His movements, and only then will we understand how we can properly correct everything.

When the desire to connect and to unite appears in us and we begin to fulfill it, we will discover the attribute of Bezalel in us.

We can reach that in two ways: either advancing by great sufferings when there is no other choice or by fulfilling the unity in a small group of people who can embody this to some extent and show all of humanity an example of moving to a new world. We invite everyone to join the second way and thereby minimize the sufferings. I hope we will be able to explain this to the world.
[131137]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book”10/7/13

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The most common mistake is “eating yourself up” over your shortcomings, and this could continue for years if we are not prepared to be freed from it through mutual guarantee. To do this, pressure is required from the group to influence my mind and free my head from self-concern, from concern about what I did, what kind of damage I caused, what kind of wicked person I was, and what mistakes I have made.

This is a Klipa that takes over a person, and only with the help of mutual guarantee is it possible to be freed from it. The group must influence me so that I will stop thinking about myself, so that it will obligate me to think about it.

All of us pass through the same states—not simultaneously, but one after the other—but everyone must go through this. If you see that a friend is eating himself up and blames himself for his deficiencies, then you need to tell him that there is nothing to be sorry about. Rather, he must be concerned about the group. The spiritual vessel is specifically within the group and not within himself.

In general, regarding everything that happened in the past, it is necessary to say, “There is none else besides Him,” and everything happened according to a decision of the higher supervision. Until this moment, I didn’t do and didn’t decide anything, and from this moment, “If I am not for myself, then who is for me?”

However, the person on his own is not prepared to be detached from these thoughts. The Klipa will always draw him toward that same swamp, in repentance and remorse, and on the higher levels the condition is much worse. Only the power of the environment can strengthen the person and hold him above all the calculations. Otherwise, he will fall into the Klipa and will suffer severely for a long time.
[131080]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/14

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Question: A person who lives in society has many kinds of connections: at work, in the family, and so on. What is the type of connection that he must correct?

Answer: It is understandable that we must maintain and work on good relationships in the family. However, the main correction is among the friends in the group. Through it you get the Surrounding Light. You need to correct the connection with those whom you are building Divinity.

Question: But, I come into daily contact with only a number of people, whereas the rest are not included in my sphere. How can I correct my connection with everyone? Does it follow that it is up to me to correct something that I haven’t felt yet?

Answer: You must ask and pray to feel the connection with all of our friends throughout the world. I need to see people with whom I am building the Divinity, the place for discovering the Creator. Who are those with whom we share an important part in the discovery of the Creator? I think that this is everyone, for otherwise the Creator would not have brought them here.

The Creator gave me these people as a group, so I want to connect with everyone, no more and no less. They always will give me the optimal number of friends, according to external conditions that we don’t understand. I am not responsible for this, and so, I accept it as it is. The Creator brings them to me, and it is up to me to think about how to construct them into a network of mutual connection. This is the spiritual connection and the material connection, as needed, in order to build the Divinity together with them.

It is up to us to connect with mutual concern for each other so that each will help everyone. This is how we build the center of the group between us, a mutual connection, concern according to the laws of “Love thy friend as thyself” and “the one who prays for his friend receives first.” If we act this way, then a network that takes on the form of mutual bestowal is discovered between us.

Even though this bestowal is egoistic, Lo Lishma, it attracts the Light that Reforms. It is not important that we still don’t have an intention to bestow. The main thing is that we yearn to attain it. We want the Creator to be discovered through the connection between us because we yearn to know, to understand, to feel Him, to go out to the upper world.

Our intention is incorrect and egoistic, but we are connected. In our condition, we are not ready yet to not to think about personal benefit. This is called Lo Lishma. Therefore, the Light that Reforms illuminates us from a distance, even though we are damaged. The main thing is that our group becomes like Him, meaning we build the connection between us.

Question: However, what exactly must I correct in relation to the friends?

Answer: What must unite us is mutual concern to discover the higher power in the connection between us, meaning bestowal and love. Mutual concern is a shared desire for the Creator. The desire for the Creator is not found in any one of us, but it is found among us. It doesn’t exist at all; it is up to us to build it. There is no vessel! There are only the personal desires of each, but there is no shared desire called Divinity.

Question: What about the correction of my characteristics, my qualities?

Answer: Only the connection with the friends requires correction. There is nothing to correct in me; I am a beast there, and a beast cannot be corrected. You already tried to connect with someone and discovered your ego. Have you already entered Egypt? If someone just annoys you, this is not connected to spiritual work.

Only if I invest effort in a connection with other people to reach a connection between us called Arvut—within which our concern for discovering the Creator, the characteristic of bestowal and love, is discovered—then I will feel how I hate everyone and am not ready to connect, and this is what is up to me to correct.
[131075]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/14

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Today we are in both spiritual and material exile because there is no connection between us, no Light of redemption shines among us, and the Creator is not revealed in any connection between us. There is no doubt that this is considered exile. The fact that we are in the territory of the state of Israel doesn’t indicate anything. For the land of Israel are a people connected with a shared yearning directly to the Creator (Yashar-El). We are in exile, but in spite of it all, we try to reach redemption, meaning to correct our desires in order to bestow and to discover the Light within them.

The whole world, all seven billion, is in exile relative to the future state of redemption. This is because they are expected to discover the Light of redemption, to discover the Creator, and to see all of the infinite reality, all of the worlds. But in the meantime they are in exile.

There are people like us who feel that they are in exile, but all the rest don’t feel it. As in Egypt, there were people like these and there were others. Some people didn’t find it an exile and wanted to stay there.

The main thing is to understand that we are a desire to receive that is in a ruined state, meaning in exile. And to the degree of the correction and the elevation of the sparks above the desire to receive, the redemption arrives. It’s necessary to interpret these concepts only this way and not to ascribe them to our bodies, to this imaginary world.
[131091]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can we protect ourselves from a fall into material desires when reading The Book of Zohar?

Answer: The study of Torah means that I am expecting the Light that Reforms, as it is written: “I created the evil inclination, I created the Torah as a spice.” To the degree that I feel that I have an evil inclination that I want to get rid of and I know that I have no chance of doing this in any way except through learning together with friends, then I reach a state in which I study and expect the Light that Reforms. This is called studying the Torah.

That is, studying the Torah needs preparation, a great desire to correct something in me that only the Torah and nothing else can do. No remedy from a doctor will help here, no exercise, or excellence in something. This is simply beyond human abilities. I am not ready for this.

I need to approach The Book of Zohar in such a state. Then certainly I will expect that this study will make me healthy, will correct in me what I determine is the evil inclination. It could be that this is still not the true evil inclination, but at the moment I think so.

What is this evil inclination? They are all kinds of desires that hinder me from reaching correction. The Torah says that it is instruction for developing spirituality: If you won’t correct these desires, then you will not reach the goal of creation.

And because these desires hinder me from reaching the goal of creation, I call them “evil.” I don’t delete them; rather, I expect that the Torah will correct them. How? I don’t know. For indeed it is written: “For the light that is in it will turn him to the good.” This means that these desires remain, but they take on a different character.

Question: What do I need to do to reach despair about my own abilities?

Answer: Try to do as much as possible. “Whatever your hand attains to do [as long as you are] with your strength, do…” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). You need to examine what is disturbing you from reaching spirituality, the goal of life. What is the purpose of life? You reach this state at the end of your life or before it and you can carry on.

You don’t see your life as unique and unrepeatable. You see this life as a short fragment of your existence, and in this fragment you want to reach a state with which you enter into the next stage. This is called attaining the goal of life, reaching the goal of creation. For this purpose we exist here for the duration of these decades.

It’s possible for everyone to reach this. What is stopping you? This is what you need to clarify and see for you can reach a state beyond this life solely and only on condition that you are equipped with a desire to bestow.

You must acquire this desire through studying Torah under certain conditions, by advancing with connection, working in a group, disseminating, doing everything in order to reach bestowal. After all, our entire world is immersed in the desire to receive and our entire temporal existence is in this, and the stages that are beyond this world exist in the desire to bestow.
[131006]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/14, The Zohar

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