The correction of the shattering can only be when we connect, of course. Before the shattering, there was one general soul, a general vessel, and one Light that filled this vessel. However, the soul (the vessel, the desire to bestow) couldn’t bear this pleasure and began to receive it in order to receive, instead of in order to bestow, and then the shattering occurred.

Since this soul, this spiritual vessel, changes its form, the Light leaves it according to the law of the equivalence of form, which means because of the incompatibility of the attributes. Because of that incompatibility, the Light drew several Parsa away from the soul. Now, we must perform several actions that can draw the Light closer again.

We actually were thrown into an abyss from the height at which we were to the bottom of the ladder and even lower than that. Now, we must try to do what we can with the tools which we were given in order to correct this shattered vessel and to connect. By doing so, we will draw the Light that Reforms, which will help us connect so that we will be worthy of the Light that will dress in our common vessel and be revealed in it.

When the Light is revealed in us, we will feel in it that we are delighting the source of the Light, the Creator. This is actually the correction of the shattering that we must do. Eventually, we must return to the same state where there is only one soul, one vessel, and that all of its parts are fully and integrally connected. The Light will be revealed in the vessel accordingly, and its source, the Creator, will be revealed in it. We will enjoy the fact that we are delighting Him, like a guest and a host who love each other.

The correction is done by the love of friends, by their unity and their getting closer to the righteous of the generation, which means to the Kabbalists and the advice by which we perform our work. Sometimes, a person has such thoughts that we can isolate ourselves and attain the intention of “in order to bestow” and learn to keep ourselves clean both internally and externally by ourselves, to be holy. A person doesn’t understand why he should get all messed up with others in performing different corporeal actions. He feels it is better to delve into the inner “spiritual” work and to adhere to the Creator by himself.

However, being isolated and performing individual internal work doesn’t bear any fruit. There is no better means of correction than the connection between the friends. We draw the Light that influences us and brings us closer to the truth by the different actions that we perform together.

I hear many complaints like this from people: that a person wants to do this work by himself. However, this is a terrible mistake. A person doesn’t correct anything by himself. Rather, he misses the train and will not have time to connect to the group that is already advancing along this path. It will, therefore, be very difficult for him to join this moving train, and he will miss this current life. So, he should listen to the advice of the great Kabbalists and engage only in the love of friends.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/13

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Question: What is it necessary to do in order to carry out our work correctly: To sow seeds and harvest the crop, and not to cry over a dry field?

Answer: After you have checked that you have reached the right group and the right teacher, you need to go with “faith above reason.” Otherwise this egoistic mind will not let you do anything.

The problem is in this: a person arrives and seemingly agrees with everything, is ready to carry out everything, but agrees to advance in a group only with small steps, with a speed and a manner that the ego allows.

And so he will need 15 to 20 years in order to advance and attain something, if at all. For the rate of advancement is found in the area of his ego. In other words, he advances at a rate to the degree that the ego makes it possible for him and no more. To advance more rapidly is painful! He cannot, only to this limit. It is on this basis that one has to test the depths of his heart: how it fits with this path. You have reached some teacher, some group, and must clarify exactly: Is this for you? Nobody else will help you; you need to answer this question yourself. Is this truly what I have been subconsciously searching for all my life and I want only this?

Question: But in other places aren’t people also sure that this is precisely the right place?

Answer: Absolutely, each one needs to be in his place. “Just as they have different faces, so their souls are different as well”; so are their ways different too. Why don’t you ask and wonder why the whole world cannot be like Rabbi Shimon, the author of The Book of Zohar? Then there would be seven billion Rabbi Shimons in the world; what’s bad about that? But that should not be, because in a perfect Kli, no one is like another and all of them are found on different levels.

You need to check within your heart. And this is why you were given free choice: whether you will cook all your life on the back burner and nothing will be enough and you wait until they drag you to a cemetery, or you attain a perfect life.
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From 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/13, Writings of Rabash

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The “seven years of satiation” is the state when a person still hopes to get everything he wants for his egoism. Although he is willing to work hard for the sake of this and put forth a lot of effort, this fulfills him for the time being and satisfies his egoism. He thinks that there is fulfillment in Egypt and it will all belong to him: all the pleasures of this world and the pleasures of the spiritual world. He thinks that he will be able to reach this on his own for himself and does not set the goal to delight the Creator. He considers only his gain.

This can be assessed by how a person perceives problems. As soon as difficulties and troubles arise, he immediately starts thinking about himself. That is, the “seven years of satiation” are not over for him. He feels that he lacks something; there is some danger to his ego and he suddenly begins to feel uncertainty, to worry about himself.

This is what the “seven years of satiation” is because a person examines everything in his egoistic desires: whether he will suffer, experience some kind of harm. He is still attached to the egoistic result: How good or bad will it be for him? He begins to doubt and considers whether it might be worthwhile to run away from this path. What if he hurts himself? This is the way to check whether he is in the period of the seven years of satiation.

The “seven years of famine” begin from the point when he becomes indifferent to what he will get in his desire to enjoy; he rises above this feeling. To the extent that he is willing and able to rise above his feeling of hunger, to that extent he advances to bestowal. It’s at this point that the actual serious work begins.

I believe that we are entering these seven lean years now. Let’s hope that we will feel these sufferings of hunger and strengthen each other. The entire work inside Egypt is only in unity. The more critics, enemies, and haters we have, the more we will strengthen at their expense. It’s like wolves surrounding a herd of sheep and forcing them to huddle closely.

We can unite only because of it. Our ego does not allow us to get closer to each other. Only evil wolves running toward us, circling us, trying to bite us, and compel us like sheep to come closer together and unite inside. Israel is like a herd of sheep and strengthened only by wolves. Let’s hope that we are strong enough to ensure that the Creator sends us many enemies who help us become stronger, connect, and through our unity, reveal the need to get out of the bondage of our desire to enjoy to the desire to bestow.

These are necessary states which must be passed on the path. The world demands this from us, and we have no choice, we must do it. We are in a very special state before the exit from Egypt. It’s about this that the entire Torah speaks.

The “49 impure gates” of our egoism are revealed in us and urges us to escape and hide somewhere in a quiet corner, shut ourselves in and become invisible. But we don’t agree with it! We will still come and stand up against Pharaoh to tell him, “Let our people go!” and we will become the workers of the Creator.
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From the Talk during the Meal 10/18/13

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There are a number of checks on the path that are completely clear of material signs by which it is possible to evaluate whether you are advancing or not. The first test is whether you strive to feel yourself in the center of the group. Not at the center of everyone’s attention, presenting yourself as the most important, but in the center of the common hopes, in the center of unity, bestowal, and mutual concern, at the very foundation, “on the one leg,” meaning on the pillar on which unity rests: “What is hateful to yourself, don’t do to another.”

First of all, don’t disturb others! That is, restrict yourself to the state of “Tzimtzum Aleph,” as if you do not exist or use your desire to enjoy, so that there will be a place for others beside you, and you yourself will not occupy any place at all, will turn into a zero, like a ghost. You just provide a place for others, like a manager, arranging chairs and taking care so that everyone has a seat. This is called, “What is hateful to yourself, don’t do to another.”

That is, you occupy no place at all but provide it for all the friends. This is the first condition and that is why it is called “standing on one leg.” Indeed, one must stand on this principle and various actions can happen above it, but as a consequence of it. That is why, if you manage to achieve this feeling, getting up in the morning or before each action, this means that you advance in the right direction.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah lesson 10/16/13

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We constantly encounter different problems along the spiritual path. No one has promised us that it would be an easy journey since we are actually working against our nature, against our ego, and it is very difficult. We don’t understand what we are doing since we are in our ego while the forces that correct the ego are external to it and are called the Creator. We have to summon their influence upon us so that they will correct our ego.

But how can we ask for forces that are opposite from our ego and contrary to it in order to correct it while being in our ego? It is impossible, since we cannot operate externally. In order to do so, we were given a point in the heart, which means minimal contact with the external force, with the Creator. However, this contact is minimal and merely a point, we have to develop it.

A whole system was created in the ego for this purpose: a group, support, and the friends. Thus we can somehow find the connection with the external force that should manage us and sustain us.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/29/13

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Question: It hurts when a person works for years and all of a sudden after 12 to 13 years and even more, he leaves the spiritual path.

Answer: In such cases we should check why a person cannot go on working and what the reason is for his leaving. Perhaps he found himself in a situation where he had to annul himself before the group but couldn’t do that. This is the most difficult thing.

Question: But he has heard about it every day for 13 years.

Answer: He probably didn’t hear it. This can happen even to people who have been with us for even longer than 13 years. I know it from my experience of working with my students.

The main thing is to constantly focus on the goal, to check it every day and to see whether you are using the means that lead you to it. If you do, then you should concede despite your doubts and against your desire.

Question: If a person tries, has searched, has been to different places, and then came back to us, he still has to hold on to something. I know from my own experience that our work is not easy.

Answer: The point is that today this type of work is not so complicated any more since the world is showing you that there is nothing it can offer anyway. This is the first point

Second, there are already hundreds of thousands following this path.

Third, it is a logical path since it develops in your heart and mind on every level that you go through, revealing the whole wisdom.

The most important thing is that today you can start fulfilling it directly on yourself, but only if you truly understand that everything depends on the connection between people, on the law of “Love thy friend as thyself.”

If you come to another place, you have to check this immediately since the revelation of the Creator can only be in the attribute of “love thy friend as thyself,” as we read in the sources. What can we do in order to attain this attribute? Do we follow the instructions of our teachers? Do we actually perform what they say, even if it is merely mechanically? If we do, we can go on checking. If we don’t, then we should immediately leave all that.

Question: A person still looks for some mechanical support in the Mitzvot (commandments) that he observes.

Answer: That is his own business. No one forbids him from doing that. But if we work for the whole world, we cannot afford doing so in the form that exists in the religious environment and we cannot necessarily observe the Mitzvot so scrupulously as they do. After all, when a person engages in internal work he is more inclined to put an emphasis on the inner work rather than the external work; it is inevitable.

If a person knew the people who seem to be observing the Mitzvot from the inside, it would be easier for him to understand that their actions are empty. But he only sees the externality and believes that there is something there.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/29/13

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Question: When will we really reach the level of “love thy friend as thyself”?

Answer: Right now. Who is stopping you? First man discovered this path; the other Kabbalists adapted it for us, and today we have everything that we need. Many have reached the level of “love thy friend as thyself” throughout history. All of Rabbi Shimon’s students were on this level.

Question: But according to their writings, there was burning hatred between them.

Answer: That’s true. In the same manner, the Israeli nation was in the state of “49 gates of impurity” before the exodus from Egypt. So how could it be that they could exit such a terrible state and enter redemption by one leap?

The whole point is that “He who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than his friend’s.” If I try to reach the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) then my desire to receive becomes bigger and stronger on every level that I reach. The bestowal in me is faced with receiving, with the ego, the shell, the evil inclination each time. This is the reason that the Creator, the King of kings was revealed to the Israeli nation in the “49 gates of impurity.”

On the whole, the children of Israel advance along the middle line. The Light was felt in the shell as darkness and revealed the evil in them (1). To oppose it they asked for and received the Surrounding Light, which is the Light that Reforms, which means the Torah, the method of correction (2). As a result they reached the middle line (3).

This is the whole process: the recognition of evil in the left line, the request in the right line, and the transition to the middle line. Thus the evil grows each time and as a result, the goodness also grows, and then the middle line appears, which is the average of the two (S). So I promise you that the more you advance, the worse you will become. But this is the negative side. The left line will be balanced each time by the positive side, the right line.

This is a great problem for a person and it requires great work. First he despairs and doesn’t know what to do; he gets tired of it and doesn’t see that it leads to anything. He cannot justify the advancement along the left line in any way and he doesn’t understand that these new attributes actually have to be revealed negatively. It is because a person corrects only what is in him…
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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When a person studies the laws of the integrated system, it becomes clear that he can’t change anything. The whole calculation carried with him is based on the fact of whether he is able to take upon himself the law of mutual guarantee.

And if one can’t, then the difference between the way the system works in the state of mutual guarantee and how he was supposed to activate it independently feels to him as suffering, pressure that comes to him from that system. There is no mercy for an individual here, just a calculation of the overall system.

If a person doesn’t comply with its laws, to the extent that he would have to carry them out for the benefit of the whole system, it receives negative feedback from the system. It seemingly stops, waiting for him to put it into action. And that is what he feels like all kinds of misfortunes and suffering.

But if you know what the system is, you can even see in what form and way the problems and troubles will come to a person. It depends on the connection between the souls and the extent to which he has to bring them into action.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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When we are in a circle, it means that we remain in the general system of nature, which includes the entire still, vegetative, and animate nature and the human souls in the system of Infinity.

A line is when we take on the function of bringing this system into action instead of letting it be launched from the above, by nature.

A circle represents the condition of absolute mutual guarantee from the above, and a line represents the extent of our ability to realize the mutual guarantee on our behalf.

When we observe the law of mutual guarantee, the still, vegetative, and animate nature also join this process because it is included in our “human” degree. This way the entire system on all of its levels participates in the mutual guarantee.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We are all linked to each other, like organs, sinews, and cells of one body. Our body is an interweaving of infinite links between minute parts, systems, and cells. That is also how we are interwoven between us and linked to each other. We are apparently found in some sphere which is entirely filled with all kinds of threads and types of connection that link us into one. There are billions of links and every link acts at the “speed of light,” really with infinite speed.

We don’t need to arrange and stabilize these links in ourselves, they are revealed in us ready-made. This is revealed to us from the state of Malchut of the world of Infinity; this passes through a shattering and these parts are revealed before us as apparently far from each other.

But in fact, this distance between them is required for us to create a “sensitivity,” to focus the “resolution,” making it possible for us to see them and the links between them. Otherwise this is impossible; we can distinguish the details of the picture only on condition that they are separate, only in the gap between them.

Therefore, in order to see the entire general system and to be included in it, we must realize the principle of “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” For “your friend” is not some stranger; rather, this is myself. And no matter what I look at, I see my parts that are found outside of me and seem distant and remote, opposite me, so that in this manner I will better discover the concept of the shattering. The stronger the shattering works in me, the more the world seems fragmented and unattainable. This fragmentation testifies to the intensity of the shattering in me.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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