Our desires are divided into two:

• “Animal” desires—related to food, sex, family
• “Human” desires— related to money, respect, knowledge.

In every circumstance, both these and those are related to this world; there is nothing spiritual in them.

Regarding the lower group of this world, it’s possible to say that these are “personal” desires. And the upper are “social” desires. And above, all of us are one family. In any event, we strive for this.

Question: Which of the desires arouse gossip and slander in us?

Answer: In particular the desires for respect and control.

Question: And how do we contend with this in order to be one family?

Answer: In crude language: shut the mouth and the ears, to harden the heart. This is the work. Nobody demands from the other to be corrected, but it’s necessary to understand the need for correction and to want it, or at least to aspire to this desire. You see if the desire is ready, then from the point of view of the Light, there will not be any hindrance. And meanwhile I raise, as it is called, a “prayer before a prayer,” a want to want.

Question: How do my negative thoughts separate the family that we want to build?

Answer: This is the same thing as boring a hole in the side of the shared boat. You see, one hole is enough to sink everyone. Moreover, even if I don’t add my effort, my support, this is already harmful. We need to want with all our powers to be one family. In it there are no beautiful and ugly, wise and foolish, good and bad; the Creator gathers us, and we need only to love one another. All are beautiful, all are wise, all are good, all are loved.

Question: Our group is one Partzuf. Does a similar division of desires exist in it?

Answer: If we already become one Partzuf, then all of our particular desires are mixed together, are included in each other. Overall, we are working with a joint account. And within it everyone receives a different Partzuf, not as it was before. With this merit, those desires in each one are integrated in a new form. Thus we are combined in thoughts and receive an immense driving force towards advancement, negatively and positively alike.

Question: What are the minimal compulsory desires in a group?

Answer: I don’t have anywhere to acquire new spiritual desires from if I am not included within the group and I will not begin to receive a new “model” from the friends. I have no other possibilities. In general, according to the degree of advancement, we gradually build a Partzuf, which includes and covers everyone together.

Malchut of the world of Atzilut in itself is a point in which there is nothing, an empty place, into which we enter and join one another. Everyone strives to work for the sake of the others, and then we have a shared request for correction (MAN).

Suppose, that five people are gathered, each one has a part, a desire, ready to unite with the others. Malchut de Atzilut connects all of these parts, takes care of them, helps them to contract all the rest, and builds from them one shared desire that is not realized yet. That is what rises to receive the Masach (screen) that at the end of the matter, everyone receives. From this Masach everyone gets back what he invested.

Thus, everyone works according to one desire. According to that principle, interaction exists between the neurons in the brain, the cells of the body, the synapses, which build different integrations with every action, and so forth. There is one principle everywhere: to gain a common desire, to process it, and to prepare for the next step. Every state, every moment on this way, is not like the previous moment, and in the end we correct them all.
[102957]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: Can we measure the desire of the group?

Answer: Yes, if it’s really a group, meaning that it has a formed system in which you see the ten Sefirot. After all, a real group is something that exists on its own, a spiritual mechanism, a spiritual structure, a spiritual body.

Question: What stands between us and such a group now?

Answer: A lack of connection. We need to establish a correct relationship between us that is infused with dedication, unity, and support. We need to feel that there is no alternative, that this is our duty; otherwise, we will not achieve the property of bestowal and will not bring contentment to the Creator through the friends and teacher. We will not advance without connection, we will not be able to save the world, and will not be able to delight the Creator.

Moreover, without strengthening our mutual connection, we bring damage, like someone who drills a hole in a common boat. Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Peace,” that society punishes theft, but if a person does not add his efforts, there is no punishment. Meanwhile, he who “prays,” does so for himself and he damages society. After all, the real prayer can be produced only by a community of people who want to bring contentment to the Creator by mutual bestowal.

Alone, none of us is capable because I do not have that “place,” that desire, from which I could address Him. There is no Creator without the unity of created beings who want to mutually bestow upon each other, thus giving Him a “place” to be revealed between them and to enjoy. Once and for all I have to understand that I have no “place” to be filled, no force that will help me to bestow; there is nothing. Everything is only in the connection between us.
[102759]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: Taking into account the role of Germany in the European Union, what is the correct role of the German group in the European Kli (vessel)?

Answer: There are several groups in Europe, although there could have been many more and more strong groups, but what can you do? This is what we have today. We must try to bring all these groups into a single entity so that they will help each other in dissemination, studies, and mutual support. If they study all together at the same time—desirably, together with us—then a connection will develop between them.

I hope very much that they will understand this. It is not in vain that Europe was selected as an upper management in the capacity of that part of world civilization on which so much depends, and thus, we need to understand that much can depend on our European groups—in particular, on the German group that is organizing the upcoming convention—and can set an example for all the other groups as the center of Europe.

I very much hope that, through this convention, we give a serious beginning to a united European group.
[103159]
From the Virtual Lesson 3/17/13

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Question: How can we rise above the language barriers and unite at the upcoming European Convention?

Answer: I do not think that the problem is with languages. The fact is that we do not have to talk to each other much, but we need to think about each other and try to feel each other; language is not to blame. For example, many of you have pets that cannot talk, but you feel them and they feel you. So, what kind of language can we speak here? It is sign language, body language. A language is not speech, but the transfer of emotions. So, I do not think the problem is in different languages.

The problem is that we do not think about each other because we do not feel the importance of this. We have not realized, yet, the need for each other for spiritual attainment and do not feel dependent on each other in the spiritual ascent.

There are hundreds of my friends in front of me. If I understood that just by approaching them an inch, I rise up an inch. If I felt this clearly inside of me, I definitely would try to do that and think about how to be closer to them. However, since I do not have this confidence—the feeling that moving upward means moving toward them, and not even upward, but just inside the group, in its consolidation, unity—then I do not do that. I still do not understand that it is precisely internal compression between us that will create that pressure in which the Light will kindle.
[103156]
From the Virtual Lesson 3/17/13

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Rabash, “Steps of the Ladder,” Article 19 “What the Torah Being Called The Middle Line Means in the Work”: A person has to believe that “there is none else besides Him” and that everything that happens to us is done by the Creator. Before doing anything at all, we should keep in mind that all we have is the choice that it is given to us since “if I’m not for myself then who?” In other words, everything depends on what we choose. However, after our actions are over, we have to come to the conclusion that everything is subject to the upper governance and that there is nothing we do ourselves.

We have to believe that it is the Creator who gives us desires and aspirations to make good deeds. However, for the time being, while we still remain unworthy, we are prohibited to sense that it is the Creator who compels us to make good deeds. That’s why the Creator conceals Himself in the clothes of intention “Lo Lishma” (not for His sake).

In other words, the Creator hides Himself in the “clothing” of our friends.

If we don’t want to get up and go to classes, then the Creator hides Himself in the “garb” of our friends and forces us to get up regardless of our fatigue since we suddenly realize that everybody around will see our weakness. The Creator’s command doesn’t energize us enough to wake us up. The Creator doesn’t obligate us and we would most likely stay in bed, but our friends make us get up and go to the lesson.

The same applies to everything: We are not able to stay strong and commit good deeds if the only one who compels us to act so is the Creator, although if we are forced to act by other people, we feel enough power to act with the intention of Lo Lishma.

One has to believe that “there is none else besides Him,” meaning that it is the Creator who coerces him to commit good deeds. However, one is not yet worthy to recognize that it is the Creator who obligates him and that he is still misled by the fact that the Creator “dresses” in his surroundings and governs him through the backside.

That’s why after each action we do, because our surroundings compel us to act, we must conclude that it was the Creator who arranged this situation for us and that He dresses into the garments that are essential to us. So now we should thank the Creator for being a source of our desire to commit good deeds by means of dressing in the circumstances of our lives.
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Question: How can I serve the friends with my thoughts? How can my thoughts support the convention participants in Germany?

Answer: What happens when you worry about someone you care about? All your thoughts are focused on his success, on his getting well and on his succeeding in his mission. Your heart aches for him since it is as if you are acting with him, in his place.

This concern is enough even if we don’t know the mechanisms it operates. The friends all over the world should prepare in advance for mirror conventions so that we will not only be spectators but will actually support the general connection. Here we have to exhibit determination and concern in unity, in genuine exceptional concern. By that we connect to the convention in desperate concern for its success on a global scale.

If we all connect around this convention, then all of humanity will feel a special force of connection and this will change reality. Then our method of connection will be accepted all over the world, and it will be as if we “change rails” so that the train we are all riding will move from the path of suffering to the path of the Torah.
[103091]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: What should I do if, during the study of TES, I feel despair because I don’t fully understand what it says?

Answer: There is no reason to despair. We study about actions that are performed by a person who has already received the power to realize himself. He can be totally independent of himself and doesn’t succumb to the temptation to do something for his own good instead of for the good of others; he cannot make such a decision.

Then he examines and assesses himself. He can feel the needs of others, something that we cannot do at our current state. After all, checking the needs of the other has to be done neutrally and objectively in order to find out what is for his good.

It isn’t what a person actually wants; perhaps he wants a gun to shoot himself. Rather, we should check just as we check what is good for a small child. If we give a child whatever he wants, it will harm him. We have to give him exactly what is good for him and this decision has to be totally detached from my feelings and from his feelings.

In order to do that, I need to see what the goal of Creation is, what the revelation of the Creator and adhesion with Him in the current state is, and help the other advance in this precise direction. After all, this is the most important progress that he can make only with my help. By helping him, I also advance in such a way that I reach adhesion with the Creator, an equivalence of form with Him.

If I am incorporated in the group and help the friends advance a little, it means that I treat them like the Creator does. The only difference is that He (the Creator) cannot move them in the right direction, but I can.

He allows me to do so; so this means I am incorporated in the Creator’s work.
[103032]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Baal HaSulam, “The Sages’ Fruit about the Torah,” “It Isn’t Time to Collect the Herd”: When the seventy souls of Jacob spread to 600,000 souls, things went back to the way they were before, that the herd have to be collected, and the stone should be rolled from the well, and when the strength is lacking from one part it causes the exhaustion of the full measure. And this is the secret, that the individual and the general are equal and everything that was included in the general and became an exception doesn’t come to teach us about the exception but rather about the general… and this is what the fable in The Zohar means when it tells about two who came to a boat and one was drilling a hole underneath him and his friend reprimanded him saying, why are you drilling a hole, and the fool answered him: “What do you care, I am drilling underneath myself,” since indeed the individual ruins the beauty of the whole figure.

… and this is the meaning of a prayer for the public, that the individual mustn’t be an exception and ask for himself, even if it is to bring contentment to his Maker, except for the general as a whole… since he who is an exception and who asks for himself, doesn’t build but rather brings about destruction upon himself, since there cannot be an exception without the dress of pride, and alas for the one who brings destruction upon his soul… and every person should be included with all his might in the general Israel, in every appeal to the Creator, in praying and in the work…since this is the nature of the Light of the general that resides on the individual that annuls his individuality so that he doesn’t feel himself.”

We must constantly remember that all our thoughts come as ‘help against” and it is thanks to them that we can get stronger and develop. We have to rise above every interruption and connect as much as we can to the feeling of the general family, “as one man in one heart.”

We mustn’t leave these thoughts, the feeling that we are all part of one family. The general feeling of “one family” is the feeling of the Creator that resides among us, in us, when we constantly yearn for the feeling of connection among us despite all the interruptions.

This is our work. We have to remind each other about this and it is even better to try to do it with our thoughts: to keep this thought and to try to influence all the friends and the whole world by our thoughts and to pass on the emphasis on internal actions. This is our goal at the moment; we have to reach adhesion and to succeed.

This is the meaning of the “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one”—all those who yearn for the revelation of the Creator (Yashar – El) in the connection between them following all the advice of the Kabbalists in order to reach connection in which the Creator will be revealed.

So even the purest prayer with the best intention doesn’t help if it isn’t a prayer for many, for the general as one whole, but is rather a prayer of a person who separates himself from others. Not only isn’t it helpful, but it is actually harmful! We should regard separation and division, especially if it is intentional, as unacceptable conduct. It is the most serious obstacle and we should try to root it out.
[103028]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/13

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Question: How can a person feel that he is not only part of his local group, but also part of the whole global group? What concentrated attention, efforts, and thoughts are needed for that?

Answer: Our egoistic nature doesn’t let us think about real values or to feel true reality. It doesn’t let us worry or think about those that we don’t feel naturally. Some distant group that I don’t quite even know the location of, I can’t feel it close to me and it can’t be the focus of my concerns. I don’t have the same deficiencies and needs that they have, so what can I do?

We have to work on this artificially according to the advice of Kabbalists about the work with the environment. We don’t feel any attraction to the environment either, and it’s only later that we begin to feel that we depend on it. If you don’t drown in the friends and don’t throw yourself into their arms, you will not be able to advance. All your spiritual development depends on them, and it’s only from them that you can receive spiritual bestowal. This understanding comes as a result of years of careful work with the environment.

We mustn’t wait for the feelings of all the groups to reach us on their own; we have to work on it artificially. This is why we were given this Mitzva (commandment): Go and start working, “Go and make a living from one another,” start connecting!

It is written, “Love thy friend as thyself,” a commandment. Is it possible to force someone to love? On the contrary, if you love, then it’s impossible to detach from this. Here, however, you are pushed and told, “Love!” How can that be?

It means that there are certain actions that we have to perform in order to attain the love of others. This commandment has nothing to do with your emotions; you are not obligated to love, but to perform an action by which you will attain this love. This action has to be performed against your will. If they were compatible with your will it wouldn’t be necessary to command a person to love.

Suppose, I serve you gefilte fish, which is a traditional Ashkenazi food, and I tell you “love it!” However, you are used to Sephardic food and you are disgusted by the cold tasteless fish. But if there is a commandment, then you have to start getting used to this against your will so that a habit will become second nature.

So you force yourself to eat this fish, although you feel like throwing up. But you try again and again together with a prayer. You curse the fish but you eat; you start from totally mechanical actions. In your emotions, you curse me for having given you the fish. Clearly you have no control over your heart, but you curse me and eat the gefilte fish again and again because you are obligated to love it.

The commandment of “love thy friend,” is worse than any disgusting fish. This commandment includes all the strange and hated dishes, but after you exert yourself enough, the Light that Reforms influences you and the unbelievable happens! You suddenly begin to get used to that fish. It seems that it has a different flavor and that it’s not as disgusting as it used to be. You are not repulsed by it as you were before and you begin to accept it.

This is thanks to the performance of physical actions above reason, against your will, by following the advice of Kabbalists. By having fulfilled their orders and in general the orders of the Creator that were passed on to you by Kabbalists, you receive the Light that Reforms through them. Thus, you receive new attributes and begin to love gefilte fish, the friends, others, and the Creator.

The commandment “to love” has nothing to do with emotion but with actions. Now we have a chance to perform such actions in the form of an attack! There is always an option for such actions, but especially now, when the European convention and Passover are approaching; it’s a special time that we can attack. In the next two weeks, starting today, we all rush to this attack.
[102954]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/13, Shamati #38

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Question: How can you contain it if you suddenly feel the Creator’s love for you?

Answer: It is indeed very difficult, there is no greater problem than to feel the Creator’s love; it simply breaks a person. So we have to be equipped in advance with the vessel for that attainment of fear by working with the friends in the group by developing mutual guarantee.

It’s for this reason that the vessel was shattered into many parts and we have to put them back together again against their will. They resist and don’t want to connect. Then as they adhere to one another we acquire the attribute of fear of the Creator. By working with the friends on the connection between us, we attain the fear of the Creator.

This is what we have to add to creation by ourselves and this is for what we live. All of creation already exists and the only thing missing in the king’s treasury is the fear of the Creator. This mission is recorded in our Reshimot (spiritual genes), and as we begin to fulfill it, we discover that it’s worthwhile to be in the attribute of bestowal and that we have to live in fear. I have to fear and to start enjoying my bestowal so that it will be completely external to me and so that nothing will return to me.

Even if I bestow and know upon whom I bestow and how much I bestow, by making an accurate calculation, I don’t need to feel any compensation. I don’t want to feel any pleasure in it, but only the actual action. Then I decide that I also want to feel pleasure and the action itself but I convey all that to the one I bestow upon. This continues until I reach phase four, which is the last phase—complete bestowal.

Everything is already complete in creation except for what a person has to add, which is fear. Imagine that you are in a big world now that is totally dark. You have to switch on the light that is made of your fear and by that you illuminate all of creation.

This fear is not to receive pleasure from my bestowal, of the fact that I manage reality instead of the Creator, of my closeness to Him, of the pleasures that He gives me, and of the fact that I suddenly discover that I am the most important person in the world.

The Creator comes to me and tells me, “I have chosen you of all the people! There is no one like you. You are the only human being in all of creation, in all of reality.” You have to be ready to accept this attitude that can make a person explode and you have to not be bought by it.

You have managed to bring the Creator contentment and feel what contentment you are bringing Him. Everyone will feel that he is special in his point and that there is no one except him out there. So we have to prepare for that in order to receive this revelation, the adhesion. Here it becomes clear that we will never receive anything in the vessels of receiving and that we have to annul them completely.

The vessel of fear annuls the vessels of receiving and is totally focused on the Creator, like a projector. Then you begin to work with the vessels of bestowal in which enormous Lights are revealed; you move to the other side and become the one who bestows instead of the one who receives: You bestow, bestow, bestow…

It’s as if the Creator appoints you to be the manager of his treasury so that you will bestow upon everyone. It turns out that now you appear before the created beings instead of the Creator. Imagine what pleasure there is in that on the part of the one who bestows that he has a chance to bestow goodness upon everyone. This is already the real work, and from this point the work with the real Masachim (screens) starts when you become like the Creator with regard to the whole world. The fear never disappears; it constantly accompanies you just like the basis of the desire to receive that remains.
[102951]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/13, Shamati #38

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