Question: What kind of connection do we need to correct between us, we don’t feel it?

Answer: We must attain reciprocity so that nobody will be working on himself, but only outside of himself, for others. If each one works outside of himself, then with this we create a network of connection between us called mutual guarantee.

Being a guarantor means that I work for you, you work for him, he for someone else, and that one for me. I don’t know to whom what I am doing is going.
[131018]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/14

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Question: What efforts must one make to reach spiritual action?

Answer: Efforts should be applied only to connecting with the group; this is the only thing that we are missing. We are the result of the shattering; we are its shards, so all of our activities are directed only towards connection between us.

There is nothing in any of us to correct! This is a bitter mistake that constantly delve into and blame ourselves. This is a Klipa that sucks all of the powers out of a person. I have nothing to correct in me; only to correct the connection between us needs to be corrected.

This is a difficult and fatal mistake; if we were to refrain from it, we would attain correction very quickly. The whole problem is that we don’t pay attention to the place where we truly must correct the vessel in order to reach Divinity.

We only need to correct our connection. We don’t need to look at ourselves and others: I can be good, I can be bad with horrendous characteristics, but this is not at all relevant to correction. Correction is only  for the connection between us.

It’s like a volleyball net where the main thing is the strings and not the knots. All the knots are egoistic and individual people. They have appeared in our world until our time and are in control by force. But today they can no longer dominate because all of our power has passed to the strings. A completely different approach has begun.

So there is nothing to correct in the person himself, only his attitude to the group. Only there is his free choice and surety realized. Shifting the emphasis from personal correction to general correction is called passing from ethics, from morality, to the wisdom of connection, to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

It’s very important to understand this approach because we still act individualistically and look only at ourselves. But this is not associated with discovering evil or its correction. Therefore it’s said that the opinion of Torah is opposite to the opinion of the masses, that is, even those who want to fix themselves.

This defines our approach to everything in life: education, culture, and politics; this is radically different from the usual. This is a completely opposite attitude because we don’t ascribe any importance to that which everyone pays attention. What sense is there to be involved with things if it doesn’t help?

The whole world is now in crisis because they are paying attention to the person instead of paying attention and correcting the connection between people. Therefore all of the rulers are losing their power and ability to control anything as the world becomes more and more connected.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/27/14

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Question: In our world we clearly see the trend toward separation and isolation. But where is the second trend here, the yearning for connection? I don’t see it.

Answer: The second trend is revealing my dependence upon everyone. It turns out that two forces are acting upon you: on one hand, you reject everyone and on the other hand, you depend upon them. These two poles are constantly in front of you.

If from above they want to advance you then they will always influence you with the help of these two forces. Just as the Creator promised to Abraham, (Genesis 21:12) …it is through Isaac that offspring shall be continued. Through him will be born many grandsons will be born that will grow to a huge family, and on the other hand, He adds, (Genesis 22:2) …and bring him up there for a burnt-offering.

If the Creator had just told him to kill Isaac, it would have been more understandable. And even if he blessed him with a multitude of descendants, this also would have been clear. But, how can the two statements be realized together?

Mankind is in this state now. On one hand, total mutual dependence between everyone is evident and on the other hand, the separation is so great that no one is able to talk with the other. Thirty years ago the relationships between people were much better; today European countries cannot reach an agreement between them.

Question: But where in the world do we see an inclination towards connection?

Answer: There is no inclination towards connection; rather, there is only a discovery of the picture of how much we depend upon everyone. And on the other hand, according to our inner feeling, we want to disconnect.

For example, Scotland wants to break away from England even though it’s clear that both of them would be worse off because there are a multitude of joint enterprises. One has coal mines and the other has coal fueled power stations; one nation has fish and the other restaurants that serve fish; this dependence is recognized by all. Why should they be separated?

If this assured them monetary gain, then it would be understandable, but it doesn’t. They would gain only one thing: quenching their hatred. That is, for the sake of the natural desire that has no material justification, they are even ready to lose economically, provided that hatred will win out.

This inclination exists throughout the world, soon we will return to feudal fragmentation. For example, in Germany two hundred years ago, there were dozens of small principalities. We are returning to those times again because we cannot correct the mutual hatred.

But we won’t return exactly to that past condition because of the mutual dependence. One has water, a second has bread, a third has meat, a fourth has fish, a fifth has cars, a sixth has medical equipment, and so forth. In spite of it all, I depend upon everyone; so why do all of these borders exist?

Hatred obligates me to establish borders and to close them. And life shows us that we are within an integral system that we have reached as a result of the development of our desire. So what can I do if they obligate me to connect with everyone? In this case only war can solve the problem; it will destroy the borders and the entire world. Then everything will be just the way I want it: rigid boundaries, separation, and my hatred could pour out in full. When we have no choice, we will begin to fight. This is the result if we let the ego run wild.

On our level there is no other solution. The solution is found above, above the two opposites. Hatred and convergence are incompatible with each other; there is a short circuit between them. It’s impossible to connect them directly; we must put some kind of adapter between them and transform the hatred into love. Then it will be possible to connect them.

But how do we transform hatred into love? In our world no power exists that can transform our egoistic desire into a desire to bestow. Therefore we need the science of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah. It teaches us how to organize our environment in order to attract the inner power of unity through its exercises. This force will gradually correct us.

And then, from the corrected power of connection, we will begin to feel new relationships, a new perception of the world, because we have been changed. Within this new comprehension, within the relationship of love instead of the relationship of hatred, we will see a new reality. In the previous reality, I pulled everything towards me; my view was to derive personal benefit from all.

But through a change in orientation to caring for the good of society, I discover completely different properties and powers that act in reality that are called the upper world. All this will be discovered within my new relationship with the others.

Just as I now discover this world through my egoistic relationship with the others, I will discover the upper world within the altruistic relationship with the others until all of the worlds, all of the levels, will reach a state of Infinity. Everything depends only on changes in the perception of reality.

It is written (Shabbat 151b): “There is no difference between this world and the next world except how the governments will work,” meaning that everything depends on the orientation of the desire to receive: concern for the self or for the other. The nations have already discovered how much they depend upon one another and understand that it’s impossible to fight against a nation that supplies it with oil or produce. If I eliminate it, what will happen to me? This is like burning a neighborhood grocery where you buy all of your needs. Where will I get all that I need in order to exist?

But the hatred is so great that it doesn’t allow us to think logically, “It makes no difference if I will die, as long as it will happen to my neighbor first!” That is how the law of hatred works, and the intellect is left powerless. Emotion has precedence over intelligence. In sum, the intellect is a slave of desire. First the desire is awakened and then the mind helps to realize this desire.

The intellect helps me to get what I want, not what I planned and decided! This is the whole problem. All of creation is a desire for pleasure and all of our thoughts are directed only towards this. Therefore, I don’t see a millimeter beyond the limits of my ego; it makes no difference how wise I am. Only the science of connection can help, meaning the wisdom of Kabbalah.
[130925]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/14

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Question: Why is the work of fulfilling the desire of the other called an “intention”?

Answer: This is called an “intention” because I use myself, everything that I have, in order to fulfill the desire of the other.

I can work only with the desires. There is work called preparing the Kelim: This is bestowal for the sake of bestowal, the level of Bina. And there is direct spiritual work, receiving in order to bestow.

But I always work with the desire. If I work with my desires, this is called “in order to receive,” and if I work with the desires of the other, this is called “in order to bestow.”

In every case, the work is done with the desires and the intention shows for whose good I am acting: in order to receive or in order to bestow. The intention is my work plan. The intention in order to bestow means that I work with the desire of the other above my own desire and use all of my ability to help him and to fulfill him.

But essentially, his desires are mine. They simply pour some kind of dust in my eyes which makes it impossible for me to see that they are mine and that all of this is myself. So I work trying to fulfill these desires, which are seemingly foreign to me, but essentially I am fulfilling myself. After this I see that all of this belongs to me. So why did I have to work for the sake of such a strange bestowal? This was so that I would need to create a relationship with another and essentially feel the Creator through him.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/14

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Question: It says that love was revealed in the exile in Egypt. What correction is performed in Egypt?

Answer: There are many corrections there: The detachment from Jacob, the detachment from Joseph, the connection to Moses, all this is on top of the desire to receive that constantly grows; the end of the seven years of famine and the plagues of Egypt are all many inner discernments because they are the preparation of the vessel. It says the whole difference between exile and redemption is the letter Aleph (Hebrew), in the revelation of the Light, the revelation of the Creator. In exile you have to discover to what extent you are missing the Creator because without Him you cannot connect with others.

Only when you accumulate and collect all these desires, passions, the sorrow of not being able to reveal the Creator, which means the attribute of bestowal among the friends; when you regret that you cannot connect with them and you still make an effort to discover love, the connection without any account of yourself, and you cannot do so; you reach the ten plagues of Egypt by which you already detach from Pharaoh. Before that you couldn’t detach from him.

Moses in you is ready to do so, but the people of Israel are not. To the last moment your desires only hear that they should come out of Egypt, that they should prepare themselves, that these corrupt desires will receive blows, and that the desires that are focused on the Creator will be able to differ. It’s very hard work, but this shouldn’t stop us since this is the work in Egypt. Otherwise, we will not reach redemption. We will not be awarded with the Creator’s help, whose “strong hand will lead the Israelites out of Egypt,” until we reach the end of our exertion, by trying to overcome all the problems, failures, and the heavy feeling.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/26/14, The Zohar

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The Torah, “Exodus” (VaYakhel), 36:4-36:6: Then all the wise men that were doing the work of the Holy came, each one from his work, which they had been doing. And they spoke to Moses, saying: “The people are bringing very much, more than is enough for the labor of the articles which the Lord had commanded to do.” So Moses commanded, and they announced in the camp, saying: “Let no man or woman do any more work for the offering for the Holy.” So the people stopped bringing.

Question: What should we make of the fact that the people give the Creator more contributions than needed?

Answer: It is about our realization that there is a limit to the self-restriction on every level.

We gradually begin to create a general vessel (Kli), a general desire that is aimed at bestowal, mutual love, and incorporation into one another. Here, we should know how to work with our mutual incorporations since there are small, medium, and large states of each soul and of all together. The correction and the assembly of the corrected parts are gradual, and all the parts are not mixed together, only in certain measures.

All the work is fulfilled above the Masach (screen), which means that a person must limit himself in spiritual bestowal, despite the great pressures and yearnings. That’s the interesting part.

Question: However, it says that Moses limits the nation here.

Answer: Moses is my part. I must learn to manage both the attributes of bestowal and the attributes of receiving and to work with them like with two reins in order to advance correctly. It is because I cannot work only in order to bestow since my ego doesn’t disappear. It turns out that I exist between bestowal and receiving. Only that way! I create myself from these two attributes.

I don’t dissolve in the Creator and don’t fall into egoistic darkness, but exist in the correct state. I hold the two reins and, thus, advance toward wholeness and eternity.

The two forces stem from the Creator. He is the right line, the attribute of bestowal, and He created the left line, the egoistic force. If I adhere to one line or the other, I am totally under His control, but if I hold the two reins and perform the right mutual actions between them, it is as if I build the middle line between them, and that is me.

By receiving two opposite attributes from Him, I reach the correct combination of the two inside me on every level of my ascent. By incorporating the two properties with the right combination between them within me more and more, I grow, and from a small human being turn to a bigger, more mature human being until I become equivalent with the Creator.

This spiritual movement seems very complicated at first since the two opposites must support one another and not negate each another. Now we cannot compare this inside us because we are on one line: either in total bestowal or in total receiving. After all, our world is absolute egoism and the spiritual world is absolute bestowal.

We may imagine something but it is very difficult to exist in the middle between these two properties. But this is actually what we have to do. Then, we will be free from the Creator since that’s what He wants, just like we want our kids to become totally independent.

We can reach that only if we receive everything from Him and focus ourselves on using all the forces in the creation correctly,

By attaining the levels of the ascent where all the forces cooperate in harmony, a person begins to understand to what extent it is between them that we actually begin to feel the outcome of their correct mutual connection, which is called Adam (a human being), the middle part, which the Creator cannot create by himself.

He created a future image of man and we create man which is the image of the Creator. It is a totally different phenomenon when we sculpt ourselves into the Creator, thus we have some properties of Bezalel, which are already in us. All we have to do is reveal them, collect them, and gradually develop them.

When we speak about the joy in the spiritual advancement, we refer to the joy that we feel in the connection of these two lines.
[130966]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/7/13

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The Torah, “Exodus” (VaYakhel), 35:30-35:34: Moses said to the children of Israel: “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. He has imbued him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, with insight, and with knowledge, and with [talent for] all manner of craftsmanship to do master weaving, to work with gold, silver, and copper, with the craft of stones for setting and with the craft of wood, to work with every [manner of] thoughtful work. And He put into his heart [the ability] to teach, both him and Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.”

Bezalel is the attribute that understands how to collect all the separate parts of the soul and make them parts that are connected correctly: where to glue them, where to weave, where to cut, where to connect, and where to match. It is the work of a sculptor.

Today, humanity is in a state of terrible contradiction and is antagonistically controlled in a rigid system. It is impossible to bring it back to zero and to start fixing it from there, like a poorly running machine that you stop and begin delving into, checking its separate parts, disassembling and reassembling.

After all, the system of humanity constantly is working and constantly changing! As it changes, we must constantly perceive which changes we can make during its wrong movement in order to gradually fix it. However, it constantly rejects this.

Can you imagine what would happen if we began doing something with humanity now, with the banking system, politicians, the infrastructure of pedagogy and education, with problems of different religions and beliefs, with everything that exists in society? If we do something somewhere, others immediately would want to put everything back on the egoistic track.

So, we should approach this system when we understand how we can begin doing something with it because it continues to roll ahead egoistically. How can we make changes in it so that the ego will not manage to control and use them for its own good, and the small corrections that we make in the system will manage to change the ego, although it controls the whole system?

This is a totally new approach! How can we move to it, even if you were given the opportunity? But no one gives you this chance. After all, you are not a king and not the Creator of this world! You simply understand that it must be changed somehow, but how?

Therefore, we have a property called “Bezalel’ (baa–El, purpose), meaning “in the shadow of the Creator,” when a person wants the Creator to work and that he should be His shadow. This is actually why he follows the Creator, so that He can create, weave, and glue all the parts of the general soul correctly. It is total self-annulment and full adaptation with the Creator’s shadow. It is as if the Creator operates inside a person by making his heart wise.

In other words, it is such self-annulment, convergence and adhesion with the Creator, that, thanks to it, a person can begin to change the world and create the corrected center of the world around which everything else is built.

Thus, by merging in the center of the group, we find the attribute of Bezalel there, by which we can continue to act by gradually filling the general collective vessel we have created until the illumination, the Creator, is revealed in it.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/7/13

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Question: If clear and absolute laws are working in a system, how can a person take the system out of balance? Unless the person is outside of nature?

Answer: The entire system is connected and works according to absolute laws. But within this integral system there is a unique layer that begins to grow, and this is called “man.”

This layer has the ability to shake the system up, to take it out of balance and each time to restore balance, and again to take it out of balance even more and restore it to greater balance. For this layer called “man” there are constantly such possibilities. After all, this is the way this layer acquires a feeling and intelligence of the entire system, by taking it out of balance and restoring it, again and again.

Certainly this layer doesn’t do this with its own powers: The system goes out of balance through a unique program for that layer called “man.” There are unique powers and formulas that take the system out of balance with respect to humans. The upper world is not changed, only its image in regard to us, in regard to the bubble in which we are found, changes.

This is done so that we will become familiar with the system and will require it to return to balance. Through our becoming aware of the lack of balance and demand it to return to a state of balance, we acquire intelligence and emotion, we become familiar with the general program of the entire system. And then we begin to shrink and expand, to inhale and exhale, and in this way we become familiar with the system.

Question: So does a person have free choice or not?

Answer: The free choice of the person is in gathering with people like himself in this system and together demanding balance, wanting to return the system to balance. This is a person’s unique freedom. This is only through work in a group with people like himself. He can gradually expand the layer and include all of humanity, connecting with them and demanding balance and harmony. This demand is called a prayer or raising MAN.

We must strive for change. To the extent that you balance yourself with the system, you will begin to feel it. To the degree that you can shrink your “I,” to this degree you expand and extend the “we,” and in this area you will feel the balance and harmony of all the forces that are working there in real nature. Only then will you be able to understand what is happening.

There is no greater joy than the resolution of difficulties. Precisely by your inclusion in a state of balance and harmony in which everything is balanced, Light comes from above and fills all the Kelim, and this produces true joy.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/14, Writing of Baal HaSulam

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If I yearn for faith above reason and make efforts to get closer to others and ask for help from Above in order to do so, I receive the hardening of the heart each time. The exile and the redemption arrive alternately. Exile is a descent and redemption is an ascent, so I am constantly either in a state of ascent or of descent.

Kabbalists explain that both the ascents and descents help us advance, as it is said: “The Torah will come out of Zion (stemming from the root “exits, descents”).” Redemption means that I adhere to someone else with all my heart ready to connect to him. And it is all above the repulsion and the hatred; I don’t try to erase anything, but advance along the middle line.

When I manage to reach a certain connection, I immediately feel the chilling cold in our relationship with any person or group, and they become indifferent to me. But I should understand that this indifference and the hardening of the heart already belong to the next level.

The faith and the inclination to connect, I had previously, turn into an inclination to separate. So I have to work on returning to connection again with the help of the group, with its support and mutual guarantee and the Light that Reforms, but later I will cool down again.

We know that in the descent from the top down Malchut of the upper Partzuf becomes Keter of the lower. So the moment I ascend, I attain my Keter, which is the maximum bestowal I can only imagine and want, and it immediately becomes Malchut of the upper, egoistic receiving. The ascent occurs according to this principle.

We can explain this only from the perspective of the Reshimot (reminiscences): if there are Reshimot of Aviut (thickness) of the root phase and Reshimot of dressing in the next level, then on the next level it is already phase one and two and on an upper level it is phase two and three. Thus, there is a constant reversal: exile and redemption, exile and redemption, like inversions as one develops at the expense of another.

The main thing is not to be impressed by the descents and ascents but to constantly be impressed by the pace of the changes. The more changes there are the better! Israel are those who hasten time, who sanctify time. Time, which means the pace of the advancement, is the main thing for Israel.

We don’t need to pay attention to the changes we go through. We don’t need to delve into a state and sink into it. On the contrary, the main thing is to go through as many changes as possible.
[130931]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/14

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The Torah, “Exodus” (VaYakhel), 35:22: Men and women, all whose hearts moved them, all who would make an elevation offering of gold to the Lord, came bringing brooches, earrings, rings, and pendants—gold objects of all kinds.

A donation refers to tearing what is dear to our ego from ourselves. These are the “jewels” that we have to sacrifice in order to make from them the common part of the soul that the Light can enter.

The word sacrifice stems from the root “close” in Hebrew, getting closer. This means that on the one hand, we tear it from our ego and on the other hand, we get closer to the Creator.

Our mission is to prepare the condition for the Light to be revealed between us in the central part where we are all connected. By rejecting the ego we come closer only by our altruistic parts, by our willing heart, which means only by the part that can come in contact with others.

Since the central part is above the ego, it turns out that we have separate egoistic parts and a common altruistic part where we merge. On the seventh day of the correction it becomes one general whole and thus the correction is completed.

Question: What do you mean when you say: “Think about the center of the group, connect in the center of the group?”

Answer: It means that you should give what is most precious to you and pass it to the center of the group. A person doesn’t feel sorry about spending anything, but when he has to give a donation to the collective pot so that it will become everyone’s property he feels that he loses something; he cannot bear it! He can, for example, easily spend a lot of money in a restaurant, but when he has to give a small part of that money for a joint business his hand shakes.

Different forces operate here. It isn’t about a person being stingy but that he simply cannot do it since giving to others is against his basic nature! It’s only under the influence of the Light that he gradually changes, but on the whole it’s very difficult! I see my pupils go through this and I also felt it myself.

The higher you ascend, the more and more difficult it is to give the maaser as your part so that it would melt in others. On the one hand, you seem to understand more, you are more aware and you already have some nourishment, some confidence, but on the other hand, it becomes more and more difficult. It’s because the ego doesn’t disappear. You constantly work on it and it keeps on growing more and more.

Thus we gradually reach the attribute of a priest, when we are left with nothing. This means that we have the whole world and we have to give all of it! These are very high levels.

Question: What is the meaning of the seventh millennium with regard to the connection in the center of the group?

Answer: The seventh millennium is the general connection, when everyone merges together as the gold jewels that are melted in the vessel. They bubble and sparkle and become one whole. Then above it we begin to attain the Creator, the eighth, ninth, and tenth millennia.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/10/13

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