Baal HaSulam, Shamati #19 “What Is the Creator Hates the Bodies, in the Work”: One must especially try to have a strong desire to obtain the will to bestow and overcome the will to receive. The meaning of a strong desire is that a strong desire is measured by the proliferation of the in-between rests and the arrests, meaning the cessations between each overcoming.

Sometimes one receives a cessation in the middle, meaning a descent. This descent can be a cessation of a minute, an hour, a day, or a month. Afterwards, one resumes the work of overcoming the will to receive, and the attempts to achieve the will to bestow. A strong desire means that the cessation does not take him a long time and he is immediately reawakened to the work.

It is like a person who wants to break a big rock. He takes a big hammer and hammers many times all day long, but they are weak. In other words, he does not hammer the rock in one swing but brings the big hammer down slowly. After that he complains that this work of breaking the rock is not for him, that it must take a hero to have the ability to break this big rock. He says that he was not born with such great powers to have the ability to break the rock.

However, one who lifts this big hammer and strikes the rock in a big swing, not slowly but with great effort, the rock immediately surrenders to him and breaks down. This is the meaning of, “like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.”

This is how we test and evaluate our advancement: by watching whether the cessations (interruptions) and breaks between the states, the rises and falls that we go through, shorten, by seeing the pressure and power we are applying towards our advancement becoming stronger. We see if we really jump from one state to another with increasing energy, desire, persistency, and this is a necessity.

This is the criteria that should be used for checking: How much time during a day  have we wasted in empty thoughts and actions not directly connected with the goal of creation, which we made without linking them to the Creator.

It should never happen, because everything is controlled by and comes from a single source and returns back to Him. We are only an intermediary in the middle, which either connects or disconnects the link between the two points: the onset of the action emanating from the Creator and the result of the action that returns us back to Him.

It’s essential to realize that we are positioned in the middle, thus we should always serve as a connection channel through all of creation, which is realized in us. Only we have this special area that is free of the Creator. If we try fulfilling ourselves with His presence, to the extent that He becomes the reason and the final destination for us, it will mean that we return everything there is to the world of Infinity, to the endless Light that fills the entire reality.

We are the reality since everything “happens” inside us. That’s why one can calculate one’s advancement by evaluating how much you try to reduce the gaps between the states and increase the pressure and the strength of one’s exertions.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/14/14

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In the process of its development, the creation goes through three basic states.

The first step is the world of Infinity. The Upper Force, the Creator, made the creation perfect. Perfection cannot be divided into phases; it’s unified. It derives from the initial thought of creation according to which the creation and the Creator are at the same level.

However, the perfection associated with the initial state transforms into the third, final developmental phase only after it goes through the second phase. During this process, the creation descends from the world of Infinity through five worlds; it goes down 125 steps that separate the creation from the Creator. Gradually, the creation “distances itself” even more and thus develops a sensation of its “independence.” Finally, it ends up in this world: the worst, most distant condition from the Creator. It is through this separation that the creation can feel it exists independently.

And then the process of correction begins, an ascent from this world through the spiritual worlds back to Infinity. So man (Adam) begins developing in us; it’s not the body but the soul when we gradually acquire similarity with the Creator, the power of bestowal and love of neighbors.

And “neighbor” is one who is outside of our will to receive; he is the one we cultivate love towards. This sensation is above knowledge, beyond our emotions and intellect, above us, and above our perception of reality. Loving our neighbors is really feeling them, sensing that they are included in us. This brings us closer with them until it reaches love for them.

Thus, love for our neighbors moves us back to Infinity, rises us up and brings us to a state the final correction.

The whole world is entering this process; people discover it within. Why?—because nobody is in control of this tendency.

For thousands of years we never thought about our internal advancement; we simply went ahead, driven by our own desires. Until now, there was no contradiction between the vector of general development and our internal natural impulses. Our advancement matched and complemented our selfish aspirations.

As a result, we came to capitalism and within a short period of time made an egoistic “leap” in science and technologies, and in recent decades began to sink in crisis.

Our egoistic development is coming to an end. Our nature “rounds out”, integrates, and unveils new laws to us. Previously, we used our abilities to take advantage of others to earn money and succeed; now, this approach is winding down. Environmental conditions have changed; we can continue our path only if are consistent with them and adapt to them.

So in our perception and sensations, in our decision-making processes, we have to comply with nature: “round,” integral, and comprehensive. Without this, we won’t understand what’s going on and won’t find correct approaches. If we don’t comply, we will always make wrong decisions that won’t benefit us.

This is the situation we are in now and why Kabbalah is revealed to us. After all, we are in the beginning of the conscious state of the second developmental phase. Our descent from Infinity to this world is completed; the preparation period in this world is completed, and now we begin the correction, the realization of evil and ascent to Infinity.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The meal is a very important act. In the Talmud there is a story that tells how a group of students who lost their teacher held a dinner in his memory. And suddenly they discovered that they couldn’t arrange the meal, they weren’t able to say the blessing because they didn’t have enough strength for that; the strength comes from Above.

During the meal there is a power that is present because it is compatible to receive the Light that Reforms, the Light that gives life to the body and the soul. Thus the meals with Rabash took place in complete silence. It was forbidden to speak with each other. Each one had to focus within himself and talk within himself.

There was a very strict order that was entirely directed toward inner work. There was such tension in the air, that each person was forced to accompany each crumb that went into his mouth with an intention. If after the meal, he wanted to remember what he had eaten, he had great difficulty remembering. The food, as if, had no taste, because the taste was received from the state itself and not the food.

We are not able to carry out these conditions since both women and children are present at the meal, but still we need to try as much as is possible. Our society is special; it longs for a spiritual goal, so let’s begin to rise up a little.

I want to thank all the friends that are involved with the convention preparations and wish for us to resolve all the problems that appear on the way. You need to feel that you are great. In the meantime, it is not understood or felt who we really are. But when it is discovered, you will realize that you are in the center of the whole creation, and all of the previous generations of Kabbalists and  all of  humanity is looking at you in anticipation of what you are now doing: as you tilt the world to the side of the righteousness.
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From a Talk during the Meal 1/17/14

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You should try to imagine and feel that you disappear into the general integration inside the others. That is, we are all united in this notion of one; one means that there is not one of us us personally. One is not our sum total; this is not “we,” but a single whole that cannot be divided into separate parts. It follows that on one hand, I seemingly disappear there. My “I” disappears, but instead of this, I feel all. So I discover two opposite extremes.

Once I felt myself existing separately, a limited personality, but with its sphere of ownership. But now, having nullified my egoistic authority, on the one hand, I have cancelled my individuality and lost my “I.” But on the other hand, with this I acquired everything!
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14, Workshop

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Every problem can be healed through the connection between us. This will be understood from the clarification of the shattering. After all, before the shattering, there was one desire under one screen. But since it wanted to receive more than was possible for the purpose of bestowal, the collective soul could not hold the immense Light and was shattered.

It was separated into small fragments of individual desires: into money, power, knowledge, and all kinds of things that are in each and every person. All of these desires lost the anti-egoistic screen, because of which, the specific fulfillment in each particular desire was not important to us, but for whom we work is.

This intention was a common screen that comprised all of the desires, characteristics, and inclinations, uniting them into a single whole. But after the screen disappeared, every desire, every inclination, every characteristic took on a life of its own even within the person, but mainly between people. Therefore we feel the separation between us.

It follows that none of us is evil by himself! All the evil is between us, although it is manifested in ways as if it is me or others that are evil. But essentially, that is how the rejection between us is discovered. And within the person himself there is no evil. Rather the evil is the force of mutual rejection that is active between us.

We must try to see that the evil is not concealed in the friends and not in me, but only between us. If we rise above it and connect, then we correct this entire condition. That is my task:  to translate that evil that I see in me or in everyone as a problem of our uncorrected connection.

Therefore we must comprehend our personal problems and our recognition of evil as a discovery of our collective evil. Precisely from this we are able to build and stabilize the collective prayer, the “prayer of many,” and receive an answer from Above, that is, correct our collective vessel and restore its wholeness.

The Creator reveals the evil to us in such a way that it illuminates us a bit more from above in comparison to others. But each one of us feels this illumination in his own personal way and therefore below, we must connect between us in order to respond to Him as one, as if it were a one-on-one conversation. Therefore all personal shortcomings and problems should be accepted as our one common evil. This is the first step towards correcting our vessel.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/14, Workshop

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A person goes through several phases before he reaches his first spiritual correction, the equivalence of form with the Creator. The word “place” is often used in reference to the Creator. Why is the Creator called “place”?

A place is a desire. A place that has received the attribute of bestowal is actually the Creator’s image. So, all the intentions, all of a person’s work, should be aimed at the same place: in order to correct his desires so that they should be in order to bestow. The image of the Creator that is revealed in the corrected place, which means in the corrected vessels, is already the result of the influence of the two lines.

The first phase of a person’s correction is when he stops thinking about himself and already begins to understand and to feel that the correction is fulfilled only though connection. A person already understands that he must be in a group that is considered one with regard to the Creator. Gradually, he understands the concept of connection and doesn’t see himself as a separate part from the group, as being cut off from the general. As it is written: “…for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.”

Thanks to his work in the group in order to attain mutual guarantee, the friends’ thoughts, and the influence of the Light that is drawn by our collective efforts, a person reaches this state when he begins to look at everything from the center of the group. Then, he feels a new hardening of the heart, and he must reach the right “place” over and over again. After a while, he understands that he has undergone a change that didn’t seem important before. The public opinion, the state of the group, becomes very dear to him.

The people in the group become important and dear to him, and he begins to worry about them more than about his own children. It is because he feels the family on the corporeal, physical level, while he feels the friends on the spiritual level. He understands that he has an obligation to his family, but he begins to fully enter the hearts of the friends, wants to live there, and to guarantee them all the best. Eventually, the state of the friends determines and dictates all his thoughts and actions, and determines what he worries about, like a mother who only worries about her baby, and everything that she does is for him. This is how a person begins to treat his group.

Gradually, the concept of the Creator is cleared in the group according to a person’s efforts to arrange and to picture the general vessel, the corrected place, the one general heart and mind, and the pain that he feels at the moment since he cannot reach such unity, and according to such efforts, the Creator’s image starts to become clear to him in this one unified group.

The Surrounding Light influences him through his yearning for the center of the group, for the desire to see that everyone is corrected and delighting the Creator who is revealed according to a person’s efforts in the group. Thus, a person gets closer to the Creator through the group.

At the moment, we don’t understand how a person can lose himself in the group and at the same time, feel that he exists, that he acts and operates. From the perspective of his ego, his self totally disappears, but, from the perspective of bestowal, it actually grows until a person rises to the level of the Creator that is revealed in the group. Baal HaSulam says, “It is natural that, when the Light of the general illuminates, the individual is nullified with regard to his own self and he doesn’t feel himself,” but he does feel the general and the Creator in it!
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/14

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Baal HaSulam says in Letter 5 that he is happy about the evil that are revealed. It is the forces that are designed to help, although they are submitted in such a form because they are not corrected yet. It is about desires that cannot be revealed any other way.

The Lights and the vessels are revealed in accordance to each other. The desires, revealed as good or evil, are the components of the new vessel. It doesn’t matter how I see them, as long as they are revealed. Now I have to work with them.

We mustn’t ignore, negate, or annul them. I cannot close my eyes like a child and pretend that they don’t exist. I cannot detach myself from them, get rid of them, fall asleep, get drunk, or take some drugs. No, I have to confront them, and for this I have all the necessary means to do so: the group, the study, etc.

I don’t ignore any obstacle. I mustn’t think that it would be better if there were no interferences because they build a new vessel, another brick in its structure. If there were no flaws in me, then I wouldn’t discover anything. If something is revealed, it means that it’s time to correct that part of my vessel and put it in the right place.

This is why I am glad. I draw away from the problems a little, look at them from the side, objectively, and then I see the height that I have reached! It turns out that I can correct this too!

It’s hard to understand, but on the corporeal, physical levels what comes to the world is only what is sent to us from the upper Providence, and it’s meant to bring the creature to perfection. On the other hand, it’s all because we cannot advance towards correction.

So why do the righteous suffer? It’s because the world is round and united. They also depend on it and cannot draw it after them, although they feel the problems on the corporeal level. This is part of the general correction.

So what should I do when evil is revealed? If I can draw away from it and see the cause of what is happening, then I ascend above the body and above what it feels. I look at everything that happens to it from the side and I am glad that I am going through these great corrections. What is more, I don’t take the body into account but the soul. I already see a different picture.

On the whole, the solution is simply to make any effort in order to get used to the intention of in order to bestow upon the group by ascending above my body, above this life. On the corporeal level I continue to do everything that is necessary: I worry about the family, go to the doctor when necessary, etc. But at the same time I am above and detached from this level. Everything that I do is in order to ascend.

Thus I identify with the Creator who sends me the obstacles. I understand that His “packages” were meant to help me establish the right perspective to all the states, both the evil and the good, and to keep in touch with Him. I now view this whole life from this perspective.

The Book of Zohar describes how Rabbi Chiya saw himself sitting in the upper assembly as everyone listens to him. He was allowed to see this state, and I too look at myself from above from another state while adhered to the Creator. No, it isn’t a split personality but a realistic view of things.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can a person who has decided to participate in the convention for the first time overcome all the hardships and see the importance of the convention above all?

Answer: He should simply be with us, keep in touch through our TV channel or the Internet. Then in the time we have left things will get better.

There are no obstacles along the way to the convention that cannot be overcome. It’s when a person comes, when he is incorporated with us, that he will see how helpful it is in every aspect of life. By exerting himself in faith above reason, he will be able to solve many personal problems and will overcome many troubles.

I am not afraid to say this because it’s exactly what Kabbalists promise us in their writings. It isn’t what I know, but what they say.

A person who has only seen us on the screen for two years can dedicate two and a half days for the convention because he may have to wait for another year at best for the next convention; how can he not come? How can you miss something like this? What else has he got in life? How does he intend to fulfill his life?

It is said that the soul of a person who passes away is asked two questions: “Did you engage in the Torah?” “Did you expect salvation?” A soul is the vessel that receives the filling, which means the feeling of the Creator. “Did you engage in the Torah?” means did you want to draw the Light that Reforms? Were you drawn to where there should be love?

The Torah is the spice for the evil inclination, the means in which there is the Light that Reforms. This is exactly what the convention is meant for, so that together, everyone will draw the Light for the revelation of the Creator in the connection between us.

This is what a person’s soul is asked: “Did you draw the Light in order to resemble the Creator; in order to reveal Him?” This is called “Did you expect salvation?” This is the principle of “I have exerted and I have found.” The “finding” is the spiritual salvation.

When a person is behind the TV screen can he engage in this? How should he know how to do it? This is why he is invited to a special event in which everything is prepared for his arrival and the opportunity of engaging in the most important thing in his life is served to him on a platter. Then he would certainly have an answer to such a crucial question.

The angel inquiring the soul at the spiritual gate is a metaphor which explains to us how important it is not to waste our life in vain. Especially when you have such an opportunity, as it says: “There is a person who attains his world in one hour.” And you still have different calculations? If he had another opportunity now, he would have no calculations. So we should understand that it is here that the principle of the resistance of the forces of impurity is revealed.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: During the Arava convention, how can we feel as responsible for the friends as a submarine crew who won’t leave their friends and would rather drown with them if only half the crew can be saved?

Answer: They don’t feel that they are about to die since true death for them is being detached from their friends. They are brought to the feeling of an upper level of life and death, although it is a shell (Klipa), it is still in regards to the spiritual connection with friends.

You can reach such a state only with the Creator’s help. You need the Upper Light for that since otherwise you cannot even come close to such a state. If you organized a commando unit in a submarine, you would succeed. If you are going to organize a commando unit of mutual guarantee, you cannot do anything since you are given problems, descents, and interferences on purpose so that you will need the Creator.

Ultimately, we need to deal with Him. The general soul was shattered so that from this shattering you will get to know Him. We look at the broken shards and understand that we have to glue them together, but how can we put this puzzle together?

We try to connect these pieces in different ways, but nothing works and nothing will work! We don’t even know how to connect two parts: 1+1, since the Creator must be inside for these things to connect. This happens only when we reach an equivalence of form with Him in certain attributes.

But we don’t have these attributes. We don’t have the attribute of bestowal! This is why we cannot advance by even one step. We see that in the outside world people do organize commando units in which everyone is ready to sacrifice himself for the well-being of his friends. We cannot even think about this. After all, we need the Creator with us in every thought in this direction. This is the whole difference.

This is why the shell (Klipa) is so proud before holiness: “See what I can do! Everything is fine with me, everyone is happy, everything is nice, and what do you have?” After all, the egoistic connection is based on the mind, on confidence, while bestowal requires faith above reason. So a person who wants to reach true bestowal encounters great problems.

We can reach unity like in a submarine, but in order to do so, we need to reach a real demand for the Creator. This means that connecting is not the goal; the goal is to adhere to the Creator, and this final action must be in the initial thought. This is why we act and connect.

We need to check whether all our actions and connections between us are necessary for the revelation of the Creator, which should be the goal in every request, in every action. We can’t be confused and think that we need Him in order to connect. We actually need to connect in order to reveal Him and to delight Him.

We must properly build this formula each time, not forgetting that everything is for the sake of the Creator, and not for the sake of connection itself, neither is the raspberry ball, or the correction of humanity. We must constantly focus on the Creator.

So during the Arava convention we must constantly aim at the Creator, since this is the head of the Partzuf. We must constantly hold on to the same one thought, to the same intention, to the same plan that is aimed at the Creator.

Every question in the workshop is like a riddle that can be solved only when you build the sentence correctly, when the Creator is the goal, when everything that is aimed at the revelation of the Creator will reside among us. We need the Creator not so that he should glue us together; we want Him to glue us this way so that we will reveal Him and thus delight Him.

Everything should end with Him, in delighting Him, since the guest wants to delight the host. The Arava convention is the connection between us for His sake. Next there will be the integral education convention: The connection between us for the development of integral education. Then we will fulfill the integral connection in practice with the help of The Book of Zohar in the final great convention: The World Zohar Convention.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 32: The third period is in Torah and Commandments Lishma, that is, for the sake of bestowal and not for receiving a reward. This work purifies man’s desire to receive for himself and turns it into the desire to bestow.

Everything depends on the awareness of importance. I can develop this awareness in me relative to anything. If I constantly think and take care about something, the object of my care becomes so important to me that I cannot forget about it. I am attached to it physically, emotionally, or intellectually, no matter how. The main thing is how much effort I give it.

We know how it happens: A person learns a profession or begins a fine meticulous project, and he gives it not just time but his entire heart, he invests in it so much that it becomes extremely important to him.

The same thing happens in the spiritual work: The awareness of the importance of the goal is the key to everything. I become included in the group, participate with the friends in workshops and other events, and if I exert myself fully, then suddenly, without knowing why, I begin to appreciate the property of bestowal, the ability to give. This feeling, this aspiration, is awakened in me and gains importance, in some “supernatural,” inexplicable way.

I, myself, am amazed by this inner change. Indeed, in the past, always and in everything I thought about myself and how to use others, how to arrange them so I would feel nice and comfortable, so everyone serves me. It is a natural approach.

But suddenly, I begin to care for others around me; they gain importance in my eyes, become as the people closest to me. I look for opportunities to bestow upon them, to benefit them, just as I want to bring happiness to those I love, I enjoy that they enjoy.

Then, I wonder: Why do I bring them good? For the sake of this pleasure? Or is bestowal itself so important that it motivates me to act? How can I distinguish one from the other?

In short, I suddenly embrace new phenomenon that possess me and I do not know where they come from.

This is accomplished through the incessant connection between friends. Another workshop, another lesson, another festive meal, one more effort with a bit of intention, which we are able to connect—even artificially, it does not matter—nonetheless, we thereby awaken the Light that Reforms and its influence produces in us these “supernatural” changes that lie below our nature.

I can recognize in myself only the results of this process when I discover that something strange happens to me. Then I understand how the Light that Reforms acts. Today, we have entered such stages when everyone has to “delve into himself” to detect the changes that occur in him.

Thus, we move forward through the process of “purification,” cleaning ourselves from the egoistic intention to the level of bestowal for the sake of bestowal. Then, we enter into the process of “sanctity,” purity, in reception for the sake of bestowal.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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