There is a general misconception about the meaning of thanking the Creator. We fall down to our knees and coax the Creator, ready to make any sacrifice, like in ancient cultures, etc. But this is entirely wrong. We should know what it really means.

Praising the attribute of love and bestowal expands our mind and our desires because if we do this, we draw the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) upon ourselves and open ourselves to its influence, although we don’t actually understand what we are doing. In any case, even on the lowest level there is an outcome.

Praising the attributes of love and bestowal in the group among the friends, elevates in our eyes the Creator, the upper force, which is called so because it is above us in quality, and so we can come closer to revealing Him. All the beautiful phrases about love of the Creator, praising the Creator, yearning for Him, bowing to Him, draw us closer to the Creator.

Most of us don’t understand this attribute because we are only in the material world, but now we begin to see that it isn’t matter but actually forces that give us the feeling of matter and of its mechanical movement. We realize that the Creator is the only attribute that exists in nature, the attribute of love and bestowal.

Therefore, it’s necessary in the group to constantly keep and raise gratitude, and the greatness and uniqueness of our work. Then we don’t simply raise the spirit of our friends, which is also important, but attract the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), which acts on us and corrects everything.

We can even take turns in the group so that every day several people will engage in praising the Creator, the group, the study, etc., that is, both the objective and the means for attaining the goal. Taking turns was common practice in the 17^th century in Ramchal’s group and among serious Kabbalists.

When we artificially exalt bestowal and love—although it’s not perfect and the spiritual work exhausts us because it is unnatural for us and we don’t always feel like dealing with it—it is specifically in these states, if we try to praise them a bit, we summon an enormous Light upon us since we yearn for it artificially.

We should understand that it is in these states, when we don’t feel glad and don’t feel the greatness of the friends, the connection between us, the goal of creation, when we feel tired, distant, and detached, they are all guidance! They are all interferences! The spiritual state is continuous and eternal.

If the states we are in change, it is only so we will raise the standard even higher. We actually have to rise above ourselves artificially since otherwise it isn’t considered work. All our work is focused against the ego, against what is revealed in us every moment.

Even if I am suddenly in a state that I laugh with the friends, feel impressed, and a feeling of love and unity erupts between us, I should understand that it is all given to me from Above, so that I should ascend even higher because this state isn’t mine. Like an old man, I should look for: “Where I have lost something? Where I can find an even higher state?” I shouldn’t denounce my current state, but rather look for the penny I have lost here and ascend.

This means that we are never given a certain state so that we should relax and let go! This is clear egoism! The shell (Klipa) immediately begins to operate on us and it is very hard to leave it afterwards. It accumulates like slag, like waste material, which we have to process later, just like we pollute the earth and the oceans and later have to do something about it. Without this we will not reach spiritual life.

In this sense, it is very important not to enjoy what we are given at a specific moment but rather to find pleasure in our efforts! We should get used to this.

All our efforts, all our spiritual life is above the first restriction (Tzimzum Aleph) above the Machsom (barrier). Restriction is a state in which we make our accounts with our ego and begin to calculate only how to exit ourselves and to find pleasure in it.

It isn’t masochism, it isn’t self-beating and self-mutilation but rather accepting an egoistic ascent with great efforts, but this effort is included in the Upper Light. I hope that we will gradually begin to feel this now. Let’s get ready for it.
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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”, Item 48: It is discerned that its 613 organs are 613 Partzufim (plural for Partzuf), unique in their Light, each in its own way.

Question: How can parts of a whole be different in radiance? What does “each in its own way” mean?

Answer: Each cell, molecule, atom, and their parts have a purpose and a job of its own. We are supposed to reveal the nature and purpose of each tiny detail of the creation to the very latest “trivia.” Ultimately, we have to get to the original point “something out of nothing”, to the origin of the desire, and then correct it in the point of its origin.

By doing so, we revoke “something out of nothing.”

All desires are unique and interconnected. However, we get to know their structure not by going deep into their peculiarities as we are used to in our deterministic society, which is fragmented into individual pieces. No, in spirituality, we grasp things through a dynamic integration of all their parts. There desires are not alienated from each other. Each of them is at all times intertwined with the rest of the whole (613 minus one).

Question: According to your description, we should be real geniuses to…

Answer: It is said: “It is not the wise who learns.” We get to know the world through “tastes, flavors” (Ta’amim). A chemical formula that precisely describes the properties of a substance doesn’t tell us anything about its properties; whereas, if we sense the substance, we immediately understand everything about it.

That’s why knowledge in spirituality is tasting. You can write a long novel about some flavor, but I still cannot imagine it. However, if I taste it, I will immediately resolve the problem and know what exactly it is. Just knowing the taste is sufficient because a flavor includes and reveals the origin of the substance, its properties and nuances. Then, when reading an appropriate name of a thing I have already tried, I will already know what it is about.

Spiritual attainment doesn’t need anything but nullification before the group, humility of the will to receive over the will to bestow.

Question: Then, who are the ones who collect the data and how do they do it?

Answer: A completely new form of HaVaYaH emerges in a desire, the four discernments of the direct Light. There is nothing but them. That’s what we actually attain. All worlds, actions, partitions, and corrections are built into the original, non-variable structure of HaVaYaH.

The key to attainment is the unity of friends reinforced by the Light. Only unanimity provides us with knowledge and wisdom. After we leave a state of detachment and re-assemble broken parts, we penetrate into their nature, thus reaching attainment.

This is the only reason why the shattering took place: detached fragments formed a shattered picture that is totally opposite to their own nature. By collecting them back together, we get to know reverse forms of unity, thus we “re-assemble” the Creator. However, we don’t re-assemble Him in the sense of the internal fulfillment of the vessel; rather, we do it externally. Nevertheless, because of this process we attain Him.

Question: Consequently, it means that unification influences everything at the atomic level of this material world. Can it really be so?

Answer: The world that we see currently is a picture of our own flaw,  as if we are X-rayed and see the outcome on the screen. We see our own corruptness, the belly of our egoism that continuously strives for more self-fulfillment.

That’s why when we change, the entire world changes with us too. It is said: “And I saw an upside-down world.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: When I work with the right intention, I feel that it is like a flash of lightning that I cannot hold on to for more than a moment. I keep forgetting the intention although sometimes I have an insight like a flash that is immediately extinguished. What should I do so that the intention could burn all the time?

Answer: You need mutual guarantee for that. There are no friends around you who think about you. Everyone is thinking about himself and so you have such flashes every couple of hours.

If you thought about each other a bit more, you could keep the right intention permanently and feel as if you are riding on a pillow or a flying carpet. I don’t even have to think about you or him but about us, that it is a spiritual vessel.

Question: But I see that the friends are trying to do that! Why don’t we succeed yet?

Answer: If you see that the friends are trying and that you have tried with them and sustained yourself and that you still fell, it is a good thing. Such falls are already for the sake of the next ascent so that you will grow stronger. You are on the right track; you are intentionally thrown from the right intention as if you have totally forgotten everything, yet it isn’t loss of consciousness but the way you advance up the King’s mountain. There is a great difference.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Does love awaken automatically when we attain the fear of God?

Answer: We should constantly work on love. The levels by which we approach the goal of creation are called the four phases of love. It says, “love thy friend as thyself.” It doesn’t say that you should fear your friend first and then feel that you love him.

“Love thy friend” means that we always advance towards unity, whereas fear doesn’t lead to unity. We are always attracted to connection and love, and so we are in the process of attaining its four phases.

We speak about the proper attitude towards the Creator, towards the upper system, which responds to us thus helping us start our mutual work with the Creator, and not about corporeal fear that the Creator should give us health, money, success, and a happy life in this world and in the next world. It is only about acquiring the force of love and bestowal. Fear constantly leads to that; it is the fear of not attaining love.

If I already attain a certain level of love, I fear that I might lose it and not advance and not reach an even greater love. We must always yearn for love on the part of mercy and not on the part of Din (judgment).
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/14

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Question: Where is it possible to find the border between where I need to make personal clarifications myself and when I need to turn to the group to receive help?

Answer: There is no border. It is best to do it in the center of the group. But of course not hammering them with petty questions: which potato to take to peel or which cucumber to buy?

Question: So a group discussion and decision is higher than a private clarification?

Answer: As long as you do not personally put into the collective opinion, then you are accessing the collective wisdom of the group. And afterward, it will pass through and begin to live within you. Then you won’t need to turn anywhere else.

Question: Let’s say that a friend comes up with an idea to come to live in Israel. Can he go to the group with this idea, and whatever the group decides that will be the real criterion?

Answer: First of all, the real point is to make the collective above the personal. These kinds of questions constantly come up. We certainly don’t object to a person moving here, and it doesn’t matter where he is from. But the principle is that he, first of all, needs to ask himself, “Where do I bring the most benefit?”

You know how it used to be in Russia when a person would complete the military academy, he would be asked: “Where do you want to serve, comrade?” and he would answer, “Wherever my homeland sends me.”

If a person is guided specifically according to this condition, according to this standard, to this level, then certainly he is really a valuable friend. But if he wants to move because of the weather or because it will be better for him here, then that is doubtful.

Thus, you need to clarify in your group and in the central group where you are of real benefit and afterward decide if you physically have the possibility to move here. But the main thing is where you will really bring the greater benefit. This is the criterion of truth.
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Question: Sometimes we feel bored, fall asleep during the lesson, or are carried away by foreign thoughts. Why does the Creator prepare things this way? What does He want to show us? How is it possible to keep the same level of intention all the time?

Answer: When you listen to my lessons you should try to feel every word I say to its full depth. Everything is built on your identification with me.

I don’t say anything before I create some images inside me that I then convey verbally to others, hoping that they can hear them and accordingly build that same image inside them. When our images correlate, we start a dialog of inner clarifications of that image: what attributes, merits, and movements are in it.

If you don’t form an inner sensory image inside yourself from what you hear from me, you probably are sitting without your incorporation in me and my incorporation in you. This is the problem. So, after a while, you surely fall asleep, lose contact, and the meaning and feeling of the necessity of this lesson.

There are people who cannot operate this way because they think they know a lot. What’s important for them is to hear me in order to dispute me. I am not offended by them since this attitude is naturally imprinted in them and it is very hard for them to perceive the material correctly. I identify with them, but they should overcome these states because if a student doesn’t form the image that the teacher conveys inside him, he doesn’t learn.

On the other hand, when you have a dialog with your friends, it is certainly easier, simpler, and better for you. Everything between you is built especially on sympathy and empathy. It is much easier for you to communicate with the friends because their language is much simpler than mine.

We try to convey the lessons in the form of workshops. This method helps people feel and connect to the text and the one who wrote it much more deeply.
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All of creation is in a fixed, unchanging state, but we perceive and discover creation according to the attributes that are revealed in us, just as a person can look at the same thing without glasses, with glasses, with binoculars, or with a microscope. That is, it all depends on the vessels of our perception through which we look at creation.

Everything is assessed only with regard to a person. We are actually in the world of Infinity. I remember hearing a lecture of a local Rabbi in Rehovot in the 70’s who amazed me when he spread out his arms and said: “Here is the next world, here is the spiritual world.” I didn’t understand what he was talking about and what he was looking at. He was a Kabbalist who had attained spirituality.

I couldn’t understand what he meant then; how can the next world be right here? He hardly explained anything more than that, but it really impressed me.

So we are in the world of Infinity, in the only state that was created, and we have to discover these vessels of perception. This is all our work.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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As a result of the shattering of the vessels we understand that we have to return to the state that preceded the shattering. By raising MAN from the shattered state, we exert ourselves and expand our vessels 620 times. Then we reach the corrected state equipped with such intensity, as a result of our exertion, that we can reveal the Light in all its NRNHY, which is the goal of creation.

The Creator wants us to reveal His attribute of love and bestowal, and not just that we will taste only a drop of His filling. It’s like a baby who receives 100 grams of porridge from his mother and at the same time actually also receives all the love and care his mother feels for him.

Since we were created with a desire to receive, we cannot taste anything more than a tiny spark, “a thin candle,” of all the Light. This is actually enough in order to be in contact and somehow connected to the Creator. But all the rest is the Light of love, the Light of bestowal, our attitude towards one another. According to the law of equivalence of form, we have to reach the same attitude towards the Creator in order to reveal His attitude towards us.

For this reason we were given the shattering of the vessels so that we will discover and reveal this shattered state and from it discover the corrected state. Then we will be able to understand the Creator’s attitude towards us. So all our work is focused on the connection between us, and so that, above the shattering, we will discover the right relations of love and bestowal instead of separation and hate.

The Creator is the attribute of love and bestowal that is revealed inside the vessel, in the desire. This attribute is revealed between us because love cannot exist in one person but has to be directed to someone. We engage in the revelation of this attribute and have to establish the same relations between us.

At first we don’t feel anything between us, neither good relations nor bad ones, but we begin to work on them by evoking one another. We understand that a person will never awaken to love, bestowal, and connection by himself. He has to be awakened; shown an example; envy , lust, and honor must be kindled; he must openly respect those who relate well to the friends and show their love, giving and concern for all.

We should really envy those who behave that way in the group, should want to be like them, and should respect this behavior. It turns out that a person begins to awaken, and from Lo Lishma (not for His sake) and different actions with the right intention, he should simply learn from others and reach Lishma (for His sake). Despite the hardening of the heart, he should always be above any disagreements, different problems, and conflicts between the friends by showing everyone how strongly he yearns for love and connection. All we attain by the Light that Reforms are the levels of connections, states that existed before the shattering.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14

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There are no weak or strong when it comes to the spiritual work because we all are absolute zeros. We must understand what an integral system means. None of its components have any meaning by themselves. Instead, they all totally depend on all the others.

Question: However, it is said that only the strong and the heroes will reach the King’s palace.

Answer: They are strong because they constantly work on building the system between them in order to discover the source of the upper force in the network between them. They must “hunt” for the Creator!

Question: How can you stick to the spiritual work if there are thoughts that distract you all the time?

Answer: I don’t need to account for what happens to me since I don’t know the upper plan, how it shakes me, and what obstacles it may send me at any given moment or, conversely, what different forms of advancement. My mission is to accept all of this and grow stronger.

I climb the mountain to the King’s palace. However, suddenly, the guards appear and push me down and I roll to the bottom again. Should I calculate how they pushed me and why? These are desires that have been revealed from the next higher level that I can’t clarify. It is only later that I discover that it all stems from the mercy of the Creator who is benevolent. In the meantime, I simply accept what I have, which means that I justify every state above reason, above my heart and mind, and believe that it advances me in the right direction.

This is how I regard everything up to the current moment. From now on, everything depends on me, although nothing depended on me until now. So, how I can I be sure that from now on everything depends on me? If I adhere to the Creator, I can determine the manner and the speed of my advancement. However, the actual levels and the states I go through depend on the Upper Light and on my shattered Reshimot (spiritual genes).

My place on the spiritual ladder, the states and the levels I must go through are predetermined already. The only thing that is unclear is the manner by which I go through them and my ability to want to actually advance in order to bestow upon the Creator, which is the only independent factor that I have. We stop each step of the way until we establish the intention to delight the Creator in every state and on every level.

The levels themselves are predetermined already, but the extent of their revelation depends on my preparation. How I fulfill them and the pace of my advancement depend on my work in the group. This determines how I accept the next level when it is revealed, how I accept the Surrounding Light, whether I will want it or not. It may illuminate and reveal my terrible egoistic desires, but I will accept it gladly.

However, it also can be the opposite: that I will not want this revelation when afflictions suddenly hit me. It is easy to talk about that, but when the full ten Sefirot approach you and you find yourself in a dark world surrounded by different problems and troubles, everything already depends on your preparation.

This preparation enables you to change your attitude to problems and see them in the exact opposite manner. On one hand, the world is simply terrible, and this is actually what is revealed on the next level, which adds more and more new Aviut (thickness) to my desire. Then, I discover the world of “the good and the whole,” and I realize that all the afflictions were given to me only so that I would ascend.

When some difficult state is over, we realize how much we have gained, although it seems very unpleasant at first. It is impossible to “awaken the dawn” if we don’t reach a state in which Light and darkness are equal. I don’t care which states come along, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant. I agree to stop half-way and not attain anything as long as I delight the Creator and perhaps, without even being aware of it.

Even this is too much! It is enough just to think that I care about Him a little. This is the thin line between this world and the next world.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/14

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Question: Why does it say that a person should hate himself and love others? Why should I hate myself?

Answer: Hatred refers to the inclination to be separated, to drawing away from the hated object. It is about our egoistic attributes that disturb us from reaching the Creator and from resembling Him; attributes that disturb us from attaining love and bestowal and which disturb us from attaining connection between everyone.

These attributes disturb me from surrendering, from annulling myself, from losing myself, which means from leaving my corporeal heart and mind and from trying to acquire a heart and mind of bestowal and to live outside myself.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14

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