Question: How can we hold love, which is sometimes manifested between us? How do we prevent falling into egoism?

Answer: It is possible to hold love only by mutual guarantee. To do this, you can organize a kind of duty.

In the 16^th century in Padua, Italy, there was a great Kabbalistic group of Ramchal from which notes and diaries of spiritual work remain. The members of the group wrote a schedule for themselves: Suppose now, for a few hours, I support everyone, think of everyone, then you, then he does, and so on, because in our daily lives, everyone has to work, give time to his family or some other activities where he cannot be in the right thoughts about the group. A person has to sleep, to rest, etc. That is why they agreed to keep themselves in the right intention in this way 24 hours a day.

We can do it even more easily because we can arrange a similar relay around the globe, passing it according to time zones; now, the group in this time zone holds the intention, then the next one, and so on. The ocean is not a barrier for us because all the groups of the world will constantly take care of everyone and raise MAN. I am ready to participate in this with everyone. Let’s make it so that each group could be on watch.
[96861]
From a Virtual Lesson 12/23/12

Related Material:
Unbreakable Cycle
Internal Changes: High Frequency Range
What Is Missing To Make A Breakthrough

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Love, Mutual Guarantee, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Each friend must openly show his feelings about the rest of the group, so that everyone sees this.

For the time being, we must “show off,” smile, and be helpful to each other; thus, we awaken the correct feelings in others. It does not matter that all this is artificial; we work artificially until we get the upper quality.

The Light comes to us to the extent of our game, to the extent of the artificial states that we create. If I play as a spiritual person, then the Light influences me and develops me as children who want to become adults. So, less intellect and more simple actions.
[96765]
From a Virtual Lesson 12/23/12

Related Material:
Bestowal Upon A Friend
A Game Of A Higher State: Everyone Plays Off-Key At First
I’m Lying, But Honestly

Filed under: Group Work - No Comments →

The Creator has set immutable laws. If we don’t know how to use them correctly, we feel bad, and if we know, we feel good.

The main point here is to understand that the laws of nature don’t change in all its levels. If this seems to us the opposite, it is because the conditions are changing and the same laws are revealed to us in a different way.

In space, for example, gravity “suddenly” disappears. Have the laws changed? No. If you return to the initial conditions you will discover them again.

Question: But if the Creator has already created us and set clear laws; why do we have to change? Why do we have to work for Him?

Answer: Under the current conditions, you work in order to profit for your own benefit and not for Him.

Question: But we still study the wisdom of Kabbalah. So why is our path full of thorns? It seems as if there is nowhere we can step.

Answer: It is because you have become more sensitive. A small child doesn’t know how to be careful. An ordinary person doesn’t have too many inhibitions. But a clever person already knows the possible outcomes of different actions. So it turns out that you have become more clever and more sensitive. About that, it is said: “He who adds knowledge adds pain.”

You can, of course, lead a simple, modest life without any questions and claims, work in some mechanical job that doesn’t require any mental efforts. But if you want to be “in,” if you want to advance, to develop, you will undoubtedly encounter problems and pressures. There is nothing new here.

Question: But I am an ordinary person, I am not looking for problems. And if there are problems, where is the reward?

Answer: If no pressure were put on you, you wouldn’t be asking about the reward, right? Now you have started to think and you are right.

Well a simple logical answer should be that the “pressure” must be the reward itself. If I make efforts along the spiritual path and to the same extent I receive blows, it means that this is my reward. It really does seem that way, and it requires an unbiased examination, an investigation.

If, for example, I am going through all kinds of tests with different medical instruments: They scan me with different rays and discover numerous problems. There is a phenomenon that is very common among students who study medicine; they discover they suffer from all the diseases they are studying.

So what is the reward for the study? What can we tell them?

– It will pass, everything will be fine.

– What do you mean it’s fine, if it’s time to hop onto the operating table?!

This is the feeling they experience.

Question: But still, will there be some relief along the way?

Answer: It will be when you feel the parental love in the blows. We should understand that the flaws are revealed to us, that’s all. How can we overcome them? How can we see not a problem in them but salvation?

First, it is a good thing that the place of the flaw was revealed to me—after all, the Creator has created the evil inclination.

Now I feel the necessity of the wisdom of Kabbalah as a means of correction. I can use this method only if I am connected to the group, to the study, if I enter the group as deeply as I can.

Then I discover that all the unpleasant “surprises” are revealed only in order to speed up my work. They are like calls to complete the necessary efforts. After all, the incomplete efforts leave a very strong feeling of bitterness.

Baal HaSulam talks about it in Letter 19: “The strong passion that is incomplete leaves great sorrow behind it, to the extent of one’s passion.” In such a case a person has to finish what he has started as fast as he can. Otherwise he is called “a fool who is sitting idly eating his own flesh.” Here the breakthrough is very important and it depends on our unity.
[96762]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/12, “The Peace”

Related Material:
One Good Turn Deserves Another
The Taste Of Spirituality Is In The Feeling Of Gratitude
Ascent But Not Escape

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Suffering - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”: When we first receive the present, we still do not refer to the giver of the gift as one who loves us, all the more so if the giver of the present is important and the receiver is not equal to him.

However, the repetitive giving and the perseverance will make even the most important person seem like a true, equal lover. This is because the law of love does not apply between great and small, as two real lovers must feel equal.

Question: Baal HaSulam writes about love, but where is this love? There are only sufferings and disasters everywhere. Only a few days ago 26 people were killed in a school in the US…

Answer: Has anyone promised you that such things won’t happen in our world? Everything that you see here is taking place inside your egoistic desire. Rise to another desire, rise to the next level, and you will see that everything is different. You will rise to the second floor.

Now you see reality through your ego, which by definition cannot be anything good. Although I sometimes feel something positive, it is in fact bad too, but in the meantime I don’t identify it and accept it as good. We are all in a desire to receive, which is not even real, but “animal.” So, in fact there can be nothing good in our world.

So what do you expect? That things will proceed differently? We are immersed in an ego that is opposite from the Light and therefore there can only be disasters here.

But in order to allow you to rest in between them so that you will at least be able to relax, to calm your nerves, notice the details, and perceive something, then in this world, the lowest level, man lives literally by mercy and not only in pain, despite his nature.

Why? Because he has another destiny, a goal. If it weren’t for the destiny and the future goal, our world would be immersed in the darkness of endless sufferings and pain from morning to night, day after day. This is the nature of the egoistic intention which is opposite from the Light.

A slight illumination still penetrates this world, but only in order to allow us to exist here for a while and to start rising. In every other sense, the Light and the desire to receive are totally opposite from one another. It is to such an extent that we cannot even imagine.

If there were really great sufferings here, we would have no chance to rise above them and to at least think about something. In the meantime, we are being held above an ocean of pain, but if we don’t use the time we were given correctly, the Lights will disappear and we will fall into great sufferings that will “launder” us well, until we cry out for help. Then we will be given a break, and we will be examined to see whether the “shaking” was enough or not.

By the way, with regard to the Jewish people, one “shaking” is usually not enough. Go out to the street and talk to people, they feel that everything is fine. They have already forgotten about the missiles and have not learned anything from last fall.

Question: What about us, those who study Kabbalah?

Answer: You are twice as stubborn. All the others at least don’t know what it is about, but you are truly stubborn. What have you done with what you have heard during the lessons?

Our problem is the shattering. Our correction is the connection. What have you done for the unity of all of creation? First, do you help our friends all over the world to connect? Do you help them be a greater, more special force that wants to rise above the ego and connect the whole world in order to build a place for the revelation of the Creator and to bring Him contentment? When He is revealed, He enjoys more and more, and then we too enjoy what we have done for Him. This is called an equivalence of form. So what else should you know? Only to work for unity and connection, for mutual guarantee, for the integral education.

But you come to the lesson, listen, and then go your way. In this case, the ordinary person on the street is a greater righteous than you. Since he doesn’t disrespect what is important, he simply doesn’t know about it. Much less is demanded of him than of you.

We have to be really fearful. Time passes and there is much more that we can do. We really must feel responsible not for ourselves but for the group, for the world. After all, the disrespect is a result of everyone thinking only about himself and being resigned to fate in advance. Don’t think about what will happen to you; think about the fact that you are responsible for everyone. Then you will have a different attitude. In the meantime we don’t feel the responsibility that chokes us and motivates us. The ego is destroying us…
[96711]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Related Material:
The Crisis Teaches Us To Consume The Necessary
Unnecessary Sufferings
The World Is Suffering Because Of Me

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A, Suffering, Unity, World - 1 Comment →

Question: A prayer, this is what my heart cries. You often give an example of the ten Kabbalists who felt hatred before they discovered love. Actually, at the moment, their prayer was to erase each other, and instead of it love was revealed. How is that possible?

Answer: That wasn’t their prayer. The Creator arranged that. In The Book of the Zohar, it is said that each time, before mutual work, the authors of The Book felt that the hatred helped one another. They had to concentrate together on the intention, to rise above that hatred, to discover the love within them, and within this new level to write The Book. It was constantly this way.

To them, millions of different reasons appeared to separate them from the connection, from the group, not to mention that the hatred at these levels is a terrible trap that is placed there by the Creator.

Question: I understand that with me it isn’t the same hatred. But if, when I feel strong hostility toward a friend, do I need to catch myself in this, stop, and try to rise above the hostility, to understand that the Creator is giving it to me?

Answer: From the beginning, one needs to determine where it is in you, to recognize that it is not you. You are a cog mechanism, in which certain data was now planted, and you feel it within you, and thus you think that it is yours. Where does this implant come from? From the Creator. He implants in you this data so that you will change into its opposite and create a connection with Him so that He will be revealed specifically in the group, specifically in hatred, in alienation.

If the group is indifferent, then it is very difficult to work with it. You need to finish this stage as fast as possible. The hatred gives a kind of awakening, and the state of indifference is, as if, rather foggy. Start working on building the connection between us, and you will see serious forces of rejection.
[96551]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 6

Related Material:
Being Forced To Love
The Flame Of Love Above Seething Hatred
It Won’t Help Us To Play Love

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Love, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: How do we reach collective exertion?

Answer: This is all the work in the group. Without a collective effort, without our connection, we cannot attain vessels of bestowal.

We don’t have desires to bestow; there are only desires to receive! In the desire to receive, there is a point in the heart. So how can I build a desire to receive from it? I have to be incorporated in the right environment, with the initial bud of bestowal, the point in the heart.

I accept this environment as if it is my “point in the heart.” The group is thousands of points in the heart, a billion times bigger than my one point! If there is only one star in my heart, then the environment is like all the stars in the sky. I want to connect them, and by that I build my GE. Otherwise there is nowhere I can get vessels of bestowal.

These GE already belong to the next level with regard to my desires to receive (like phases three and four) and are intended to adhere to AHP of the upper.

By being incorporated in the environment, I build the desires to bestow (GE), and if I am not incorporated, then they don’t exist in me. Then I can say that my desires to receive are my AHP, and to the same extent I am incorporated in the group. If I have brothers in it (my family: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), with whom I am in a conflict now, then to the same extent I am in Egypt.

My whole path is determined by how I am incorporated in the group: First it is Babylon, then the Land of Canaan with all the adventures there, until I find myself in Egypt, right in it. This whole inclination takes place in the group, together with everyone else.

“Brothers go down to Egypt,” means that the desire to receive that separates them grows and they turn it to in order to bestow, which means that the children of Israel multiply in Egypt. During the first seven years, their number grows, and then come the seven years of famine, which is the time to start the correction.

They carry on in the same direction, but now they see that Egypt enslaves them and doesn’t let them attain a higher level. This is called that “a new king arose in Egypt.” But in fact, the same work in the group continues and as a result the states that are described in the Torah are revealed.

This whole story is fulfilled only in a person’s connection to the group. It is in the connection that everything the Torah tells us about is revealed. The Torah tells us only about a person’s connection with the Creator in order to bring Him contentment. There is not a word in it about anything else.
[96622]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
In Memory Of The Exodus From Egypt
The World Will Disappear And The Group Will Remain
What Is Darkness For The Ego Is Light For Me

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy“: The reason is that although this love is merely a consequence of the gift, it is still far more important than the gift itself. It is like a great king who gives an unimportant object to a person. Although the gift itself is worthless, the love and the attention of the king make it priceless and precious. Thus, it is completely separated from the matter, being the Light and the gift, in a way that the work and the distinction remain carved in the attainment with only the love itself, while the gift is seemingly forgotten from the heart. Therefore, this aspect of the wisdom is called the “Formative Wisdom of Kabbalah.” Indeed, this part is the most important part of the wisdom.

We are talking about the wisdom of Kabbalah with which I clarify and check the Creator’s attitude towards me and accordingly stabilize my attitude towards Him.

The King is very cunning: He gives me a gift and arranges everything so that in this gift I will feel His attitude towards me and feel shame as a result, since I don’t feel the same towards Him. He takes care that I will decipher it correctly, that I will “read” the situation and will not erase the shame inside me, but instead, the shame will help me resemble Him. When I receive love from Him, when I feel the gap between His attitude to me and my attitude to Him in my shame, I thank Him, although the shame burns like fire. It is this feeling that helps me build myself.

In fact, the shame can turn out to be the right deficiency. If I don’t want to erase it, it is already the right attitude, and now above this deficiency, I have to build my attitude towards the Creator. This means that the shame mustn’t disappear. On the contrary, it should grow, and I should try not to extinguish it, not to cover it, not to cover it up, but rather to turn it into such love, just as I feel it from the Creator and even more than that.

Why is it more? Because love is taken for granted by my ego. Everyone needs to love me. If I receive a gift of $20, I will forget about it after a short while. But if someone takes $20 from me, I will resent it, as if I had lost $200,000. This is the egoistic approach: I always deserve the gift and the harm is unacceptable. If someone says something good about me, I am satisfied until I forget about it. But if someone says something bad about me, I will not calm down until I repay him.

So feeling shame before the Creator doubles the love and helps me build a vessel of bestowal that matches my ego. Otherwise, I will see that only receiving gifts of love from Him is not enough for my ego. I simply must have the shame, the force that doubles the force of love, by allowing me to develop a greater deficiency for bestowal and to fulfill it.
[96715]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Related Material:
Without Feeling Shame You Get Nowhere
I’m Ashamed And It’s Great
Shame As The Means Of Correction

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Love, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

Question: What will make me love the other? Why should I love him?

Answer: First, we are not speaking about love for someone close to you, not about your beloved, but rather about someone who is totally “neutral” towards you to begin with. Then we begin to connect because of a common spiritual goal that cannot be attained without a mutual connection.

On the way to reaching the goal, you feel mutual aversion, until it becomes real hatred. You work on this hatred by feeling the “hardening of the heart” each time, by sometimes evoking love and then hating one another again. You experience constant ascents and descents and what is more, you mainly feel aversion and hatred.

You are constantly trying to enter the “niche” of indifference that allows you at least to keep the external framework, although it doesn’t lead to anything. This is the worst state, the “dead” state, when the friends don’t decide to get close to one another because they are afraid to discover hatred. But without hate it is impossible to advance towards love, and only the indifference remains.

Eventually you decide that you understand that there is no other choice: “I have to close my eyes no matter what and decide to go for love.”

Question: But what forces and motivates me?

Answer: You want to attain the goal. This desire forces you and motivates you if you are not deceiving yourself, of course. If you are deceiving yourself, you are simply wasting your time. So do some soul searching: Do you want to attain the goal, which means the Creator, the attribute of bestowal? If you do, then the friends and group have been prepared for you, invest in them. And if you don’t, then go home.

We mustn’t give in to routine, and you mustn’t accept the fact that tomorrow and the day after tomorrow will all be just like today. What do you expect? The upper Light is in a state of absolute rest, and it is only by our desires, in our vessels, that we can change reality. Nothing will happen if we don’t act. Israel has no “fortune.” Whoever follows the path of Yashar—El (straight to the Creator) is actually building his own “fortune,” the Light that drips and pours from Above.
[96704]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Related Material:
Who Is My “Neighbor”?
Commandment To Love
I, The Others, The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Love, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What does it mean to prepare our spiritual vessels?

Answer: It means to prepare vessels for receiving the filling. It is like bringing a plate, a bucket, some kind of vessel. A vessel is a deficiency in which you can receive a filling. It isn’t some kind of a dish, but your desire.

Is this desire aimed at exactly what you deserve to receive according to the order of the levels? If it doesn’t match our goal, then there is nothing you can bring in order to receive a filling. It is as if you bring a sack that you intend to fill with wine. But this is of course impossible; it is a vessel that is not suitable for liquids.

The desire has to be aimed at the right filling, which means at a stronger connection between us. In the connection between us, we create a desire for an even greater connection so that the Creator’s love will be revealed in it and will evoke in us the same love for Him.

The preparation step for attaining the love for the Creator is attaining the feeling of fear. Fear is the correction of the desires to bestow, GE, and love, which is the correction of the desires to receive, AHP.

The vessel doesn’t exist by itself. It is a result of our connection of at least “ten people” needed in order to attain a whole vessel. The vessel will be complete if we yearn as much as we can to connect internally, by wanting to discover in it the attribute of mutual bestowal, through which we can reach the love of the Creator.

We must let the Light work on something. We don’t give it this chance! It is called “I have come and there is no one.” “There is no one” because we have not created this image by our connection. We are not attracted to it, we forget, it doesn’t seem to be relevant, and doesn’t enter our head and our heart. But if we don’t have the right intention, it is a waste of time studying, since by that we will not be able to rise above the level of the holy still.

So we do actually remain on the level of the holy still by repeating the same thing day after day, like dead people.
[96661]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
A Vessel For The Light Of Life
Correction Is Never Individual
You Will Find The Creator In The Group

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Q&A, Unity - 1 Comment →

Question: How should we use the environment in order to establish the right intention?

Answer: It is written, “Every man shall help his friend.” If someone worries about others, it must influence everyone else and awaken their hearts. It works even without words, especially if we can help ourselves by speaking with others mechanically, even against our will, and evoke one another.

If I begin to jump now, I eventually will improve my mood and feel happy. We always start from zero, and it is precisely for this reason that we were given the perception of reality in the form of this world. Thus, we have a chance to enter a state that is inaccessible at the moment.

It gives us a wonderful chance to advance. After all, there are rigid laws in the spiritual world. If you are on a certain level, you cannot change anything. You must enter a level from which you can change your current self.

Thanks to this world, we enter a state that may be mechanical but more advanced. We can sing, hug a friend, talk to him, and be impressed by him when we actually don’t want this at all internally. Thanks to these corporeal mechanical efforts, we begin to wake up. If we were not in corporeal bodies, we wouldn’t have this chance. How else can this be done?

So, this world is very important. On the one hand, it is an illusion that is only in our imagination, a very artificial thing that is external to the spiritual ladder, outside the systems of impurity and Holiness.

On the other hand, it is impossible to manage without it! On every higher spiritual level, even the last one before the end of correction, we wouldn’t be able to do anything if it weren’t for this world.

Therefore, there are reincarnations. We must return to this world, even if we have reached halfway up the spiritual ladder. This earthly reality must exist.

Yet, the question remains as to what this reality is. It very well may be that you were given such an illusion now as if you are living on earth with seven billion people in a big universe, and it is all your reality.

I am also inside you as part of you that you must connect to yourself, and there is another “self” that has nothing to do with you, and who feels his world with seven billion people, the earth and the stars, and that is his reality.
[96658]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
Checking The Match Between The Two Worlds
A Game Of A Higher State: Everyone Plays Off-Key At First
How To Help A Friend

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Perception, Q&A - No Comments →