Question: How can we combine the work in unity and dissemination correctly?

Answer: Work in dissemination unites by itself. Precisely in the process of dissemination, many people are brought closer together, stay in the group, do not leave it, unite with each other, and find their closest friends.

I believe that dissemination is a huge gift that fate has given us because it was impossible to disseminate in the past, and you can do it now. In addition to Kabbalah, there is integral education, which is a great place where we can unite.
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From the Virtual Lesson 2/3/13

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Question: Is it typical in the formation of the group to have periods when the need for unity arises from lessons, workshops, conventions, or from participation in dissemination?

Answer: I know for myself that I was involved in one or another. All of a sudden I wanted to further explore the material, or to disseminate more, or to be engaged precisely in spiritual ascent, or in some “mundane” things like making the layout for books or preparing them for publication. A person always has these swings in different directions. We have to go through all of them. This is a natural period of our growing up, and then everything gradually comes into balance.
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From the Virtual Lesson 2/3/13

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Question: In what vessel does a person discover spirituality?

Answer: In the Returning Light, which means in bestowal, when he worries about the other more than about himself, when the other is more important to him than he is.

Question: What does a person have to annul in order to acquire the spiritual vessel?

Answer: Thoughts about himself. How can I, who can only think about myself, switch to a state in which I will totally change myself for the good of others? Where can I get such a desire? Where can I find the powers to make such an effort?

Here the Light that Reforms helps me. It’s called the “miracle of the exodus from Egypt:” I take my feelings (heart) and mind out of the control of my desire, of the caring for myself and put them into the other. Of course, I can’t do this by myself. A prisoner can’t release himself from prison, and you can’t pull yourself by the hair out of a swamp. After all, the desire and worrying about myself are all that I have.

But the Light comes and takes this concern out of the desire and puts it into someone else. Then I begin to care about him like a mother worries about her baby. After all, the same thing happens with her, but on an egoistic level: It’s as if she is hypnotized in her concern for her baby, looking at him all the time and worrying about him. If we didn’t know about such processes in this world we might think that she had lost her mind.

This is also the work of the Light, but a mother is not required to ask to be able to love her baby, she is simply given this love from Above. In our case, however, it’s different. A person is given a choice, “Do you want to remain on the “animal” level? Go ahead. But if you want to rise to the spiritual level, then you need to activate this force.”

You need to constantly improve, become wiser, and, in short, you need to acquire the Creator’s mind in order to activate Him. This is the difference between the two levels—the fact that you activate Him. It’s about this that it says: “My sons have defeated me.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: How is it possible to integrate nullification of yourself towards the group and the desire to understand the meaning of the text being studied?

Answer: One feeling does not cancel the other. I have to yearn together with everyone to connect in one common point. In this point of connection where we are together, we feel some phenomenon that is called Malchut.

First of all, everyone’s yearning to integrate together with everyone else is required. For this, the following components are needed: self-nullification, greatness of the goal, and importance of the friends and of the group. I have to focus all of this together and yearn for that point of general connection.

Other people participate together with me in this yearning. We act together, each one nullifies what he has. We leave this whole world at the bottom and all of us strive forward. Through our connection, we want to form the vessel of bestowal from which our relation to the Creator, the desire to bestow, will be born.

Then, in this yearning to bestow to the Creator, we will begin to feel Him, the upper Light that lands on us and fills us. The more this yearning is clarified, growing according to the thickness of the desire: 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4, the more developed it will become. And to the same extent, the force of bestowal, adhesion with the Creator will be revealed in us. This is in fact all of our work.

The question is: How can this yearning to self-annulment and understanding the material be combined? To understand means to know, meaning to reveal or connect. The Sefira Daat (Knowledge) symbolizes connection, as it is said, “And Adam knew Hava (Eve), his wife”.

When I nullify myself at the bottom, I help myself prepare for connection. Without this, I won’t be able to connect with others. In order to rise to the point of connection, I must nullify myself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“:If one’s intention in the Torah and Mitzvot is not to benefit the Creator but oneself, not only will the nature of the will to receive in him not be inverted, but rather, the will to receive in him will be much more than what he was given by the nature of his creation.

Question: Is Baal HaSulam speaking about us here?

Answer: Yes and no. First the desire to receive must be revealed to its fullest. This is because a person can only correct the flaws that are in him. But until one acquires a Masach (screen), the desire grows in different manners: either by pleasure or by pain. In the second case, it grows wanting to avoid pain, and this pressure directs its growth in a certain direction, in the direction that is “anti-sufferings.” As for the pleasure, it grows by “swallowing” them and always remains in a double deficiency.

Then, during the time of preparation, when we yearn for connection and love, the desire grows in an opposite direction in order to constantly supply material for correction. On the whole, the growing of the desire doesn’t stop or retreat, it always moves forward.

Question: What is the difference between desire that grows opposite to the goal and desire that grows in a goal oriented manner?

Answer: Suppose that there is a nice place where everyone is given presents. There is a railroad that reaches this place and I can get there by train.

I may be moving backward while I believe that it is good (!) until I hit something and discover that I have chosen the wrong way. By discovering a minus (-), I am left with a question (?): So what should I do now? Then I gradually begin to move forward. This is the long path of suffering. After all, I make a detour before discovering that I have been going in the wrong direction. Yet in the process, my desire to receive grows.

I may be drawn forward meter by meter through the 125 degrees; again my desire to receive grows making the road increasingly harder. Let’s say that it isn’t a flat rail track anymore but an ascent up a mountain that becomes increasingly steeper. There, at the top of the mountain, is the King’s palace, and the road to it may be difficult, but it moves straight to it without any detours.

Question: So with what parameters do I check myself? How do I know that I am heading up the mountain and not in the opposite direction?

Answer: The parameters are the group, and, within it, self-annulment and connection. Practically speaking, there are no other means by which you can surely check and measure your steps.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: What does a person’s ability to win the war against his inner enemies depend on?

Answer: First, we may be speaking about people who have already awoken to search for the truth and who feel the need to find the King and return to Him. The point that awakens in a person’s heart is the same point of sorrow over losing the “shield and the sword” that at a certain point were given to us as a gift by the Creator. This means that a person once had a Masach (screen) over the vessels of bestowal and the vessels of receiving on the thickness of the root, first, and second phases, and now this Masach is gone.

Only a spark of this Masach is left in a person, a feeling that once he had this power and that he may have the power, may be able to bestow and that he wants to bestow. This is the “posterior,” Nefesh of Kedusha; I don’t attain spirituality but feel that I can attain it; I have a kind of unconscious yearning for it, strong longings.

A spark is the smallest, most shattered and corrupt part of the “shield and sword” that were once given to a person by the Creator. The spark includes both the Light of Hassadim and the Light of Hochma and Masachim (screens) over them. It is like the Reshimot (spiritual genes) that include all of reality.

So if such a spark exists in a person, he can attain spirituality. He only lacks the means that helps tie his spark to the Light. This is done by the group: The group makes us feel the importance of the goal, and nothing but that is required of a person. The main thing is that a person should constantly feel the need to demand the Light that Reforms in order to identify with the Creator.

We have to get the feeling of the importance of spirituality from the group since we are in a state of concealment. The group adds the necessary conditions to our state that seem to enable us to leap above the concealment as if we feel the Creator’s greatness. It is clearly only imaginary, not real, greatness, but you approach this lie consciously, understanding very well that this is a game and that you have no other choice,

These are the conditions that we were given during the time of preparation and it is about this that it is said, “You have labored and you found!”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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Question: Isn’t our game in the group regarding the greatness of spirituality like a toy sword about which Baal HaSulam writes in Letter #6 that we use instead of the real sword that was given to us at a certain point as gift by the Creator?

Answer: No, it isn’t a toy sword since you are connected to the truth, only the means that you have for attaining the truth is artificial. The group artificially creates an atmosphere around you of the Creator’s importance, as if it really knows that. In fact, they don’t know anything, just like Rabbi Yosi Ben Kisma who was much greater than his students and knew everything much better than they did, but they added their impression to him. Through his students, he discovered the importance of spirituality.

It depends on a person’s attitude, and we need to work on this. There are no concessions here since these are the laws of the world. We see on the screens how there is sometimes an awakening in the groups around the word and the classes are full during the lesson, and then how suddenly there are only several half-asleep students left.

We must wake up! There must be electricity in the air because of the greatness of the goal! If this doesn’t happen, then we will not have enough power to attain it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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Kabbalists tell us that the created being has a goal and this goal is to adhere with the upper force. In any case, I am obliged to adhere to it whether I wish it or not. There are two ways to realize this: the path of good and the path of suffering. As a rule, we advance along the middle path because we are unable to choose just the good and most of the time we slide to the negative, so we try to keep at least in the middle.

However, I don’t know to where or towards whom I am heading. It’s true that I am driven by an internal impulse, but I have no idea how it works or where it drives me. In fact, I don’t know anything; everything is hidden.

What happens is that an unknown desire burns inside, and I can’t put it out. “Life is not sweet; everything is bad; I need something else…” An incomprehensible urge restricts my chest, and I can’t find a place for myself, I don’t know how to forget or how to disconnect from this life.

These distressed people come to the wisdom of Kabbalah. But as soon as I come to it, as they say, the Creator “puts my hand on the good fate.” In other words, it’s not my decision; He has chosen it for me. The game is sold. He set up my entire life and seemingly tells me, “You see, I have arranged everything for you. Here is a group—the best place for you. Here are friends—the best people for you. And you just have to strengthen your relationship with them.”

It’s not me who decides where to stay or what to do. My only choice is to strengthen. This framework also includes my relationships with my family and the external conditions but only in order to focus me on my connection with the group. I have to provide myself with basic material needs and devote the rest to the Creator, to adhering to Him. Now I have to relate to the group in the appropriate way; the family, children, work, and daily life are only necessities, and the rest is among the friends. “I have already chosen the best for you,” says the Creator, “Just take it and carry out.”

Another thing is that it’s impossible to carry out. Why has the Creator made it all in this way? It’s in order that we don’t forget about Him. Only by attracting Him, putting Him between us, can we unite. Each one with the group and we together in the group will be able to make some movements towards correction, unity, the goal, even if the tiniest steps, only if the Creator is our partner. This is the only way to move forward, provided that we remind each other about this. After all, no one can recall this by oneself. That is part of the changes that a person must go through. And it is in his power to organize everything properly.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Sometimes when we start new projects we are unable to come to an agreement. In such cases we organize a roundtable in order to solve the problem together. Is it worth setting up such general meetings from time to time?

Answer: We should organize discussions on any occasion. All issues should be resolved precisely this way, but we need to stick to our principles at the same time. This means that we should not act like “angels” who make all decisions only from love and do not accept anything else. If everyone annuls themselves before all, then you will not solve anything. Therefore Kabbalah teaches us to follow the middle line. A clear and rigid decision for the problem means the left line. The absolutely opposite way, in love, means the right line. As a result the middle line appears.

You have to make a real decision by doing it all together.
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From the Virtual Lesson 1/27/13

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It is said that the upper Light is in complete rest and we lack only the vessels, the appropriate desire in order to reveal it. The desire must fit exactly to one of the five degrees of the upper Light: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida. In the same measurement that the desire changes from one degree to the other, it reveals a new fulfillment.

The desire must match the filling in quantity and also in quality, and this is all our work.  And in the Light itself, there is no change. It doesn’t have the Light of NRNHY (Nefesh Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida.). About the Light that did not clothe yet in the vessels, one cannot say anything. This is an abstract form that nothing is known about it. We are able to talk about only what is clothed in us and not even on the one that clothes us, but only how we feel the clothing in us.

We already feel it according to our deficiency, to our desire, and this phenomenon is called “Ohr,” Light, similar to the light of the sun as some kind of pleasant feeling. Therefore, all our work is in attaining the deficiency that is called “the gate of tears.”

This is a deficiency that I don’t have any control of. I invested a lot of effort, I did everything possible, I achieved a size of a great desire, and I see that its fulfillment is not dependent on me because if it weree dependent on me, this would not have been called deficiency, I would simply continue to work. A strong deficiency means that I don’t have any ability to realize it.

I want very much to realize it 100% and I know 100% that it is not in my powers. This point where the desirable and the actual meet is called the gate of tears. One despairs 100% from his own forces, but is not able to leave the desirable goal because it is the only thing important for him in his life.

All our work is to reach this point. Certainly, we are built in a way that everyone is included in everyone. Therefore, without mutual work and integration, it is impossible to attain such a state.  Only intensive work in the group, in one direction, will bring a result, and then this gate will be opened. And all the rest of the desires in their form and in their qualities do not fit the spiritual revelation.
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Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/13 

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