Question: Will everyone have to exert himself on the spiritual path?

Answer: Everyone. After all, it is even impossible to go through the path of suffering without exertion, without making efforts, without building a vessel, without the necessary investment in developing my deficiency and my yearning. How can I feel spirituality without all this? How can I feel the spiritual world? How can I discover the Creator if I am not adapted to Him, if I don’t acquire an equivalence of form with Him?

I must attain this, but the question is by what means? Through more or less troubles and sufferings, or by yearning that I develop in me. It too brings about blows, but in an opposite form.

One way or another, I have to feel and to go through a certain amount of pain and suffering, detachment, urge, and yearning. There is a desire and there is a yearning. So the yearning is my exertion. I am given the desire, but I have to add acceleration to it. And how? By sufferings or with the help of the group, this is already my business.

We can advance under the pressure of very unpleasant things: wars, disasters, bankruptcies, plagues, etc. And it is also possible to advance differently, under the influence of the right environment. Still the obstacles remain and I still have to discover the thickness of my desire, but I sweeten the path by my yearning for the Creator, by needing Him—pangs of love instead of pangs of hate.

Eventually, no one can escape God’s work, but it is possible to advance under the blows, under the load of “Pharaoh,” and it is possible to yearn for the goal by the help of the environment. According to the absolute value, it is the same thing, but according to the content, these are two totally different things.
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From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12, “Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Before a person approaches the study, he must form a certain intention within him, so that all of his study will be directed to attracting the upper light to himself, so it will bring him to ascend above his nature.

How can he see this? Precisely according to this, that everyday ups and downs, and serious, qualitative and quantitative internal changes will occur in him. He will feel how much he is being shaken all the time, to what extent he is in states of eye-opening, understanding, ascent, and then suddenly the opposite, in states of descent, bleakness, lack of strength, depression; and then again ascent, and again everything illuminates and everything is comprehensible and joyful. And then again the opposite.

But, as far as a person goes through such states, he will become used to them more and more. He will begin to understand that all these states have to take place, that they are natural and desirable. He will begin to disengage from them. On the one hand, these states will occur in him. But, together with this, he will follow them by some point outside and will understand that now he is in one state, later in a different state and so on. Meaning, he won’t completely be immersed in depression or joy like a small child. No, he as an adult towards this small child will be able to understand and grasp his state and draw some conclusions from it.

It’s the same in spiritual development. A person begins to understand clearly in what states he is in, what for, why, and how. He is already not submissive to changes in mood, understanding and recognition.

But sometimes he absolutely doesn’t grasp anything. Generally, he goes through all sorts of states! A certain period of time is required in order to get used to them.

Besides this, we must begin to go through these states from the “side”: I go through them, and I should go through more and at a higher frequency, but I will nevertheless go forward. Meaning, they should not knock us off course. In any case, I come to the lessons, study with the friends in the group, engage in anything that is just possible, it doesn’t matter that together with this I don’t have any feelings towards them: not love, not hatred, nothing, in any case I do it! In each degree, mechanical or more emotional, positive or negative, I must sign a precise agreement with myself: that I in any case am going forward, crawling forward. It doesn’t matter how, but I am inclined only forward.

If a person studies like this, then after a certain period, he really begins to feel all sorts of changes within him, the ascents and descents, suddenly begin to change at an astonishing speed, literally every minute, and then every second. He is going through some inexhaustible storm that carries him. This storm is going in its path; it processes inside all sorts of Reshimot (spiritual genes), informational records, and at the same time the person is in the group, in the study, and doesn’t pay attention to this.

Therefore, the main thing in our advancement is to get ourselves used to this, so that no emotional, intellectual, and psychological interferences will divert us from the goal. They will certainly toss us from side to side, but nevertheless will not remove us from the goal. And here the relationship with the group is very important, everything that Rabash writes about the connection with the group.
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From a Virtual Lesson 11/25/12

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Question: The Kabbalists, without difference, declare the principle of “love the other as yourself” as the most important thing. They all join in this. So where does the division in the Jewish state come from?

Answer: Because of the exile, because of the separation from the spiritual force, from the consciousness of spirituality, from the spiritual force. The people simply forgot the main thing, and this was done on purpose: as if part of the pipeline through which he used to receive spiritual nourishment was cut from him.

A person simply doesn’t feel that another, complete world exists, and that there are forces that direct him. He was left only with those channels that direct him in a corporeal way, and now he only exists in this world, seeing that the situation with others is identical to his. And all the rest of the threads that connect are disabled. From all of the systems, there remains only the operating system of the lower level of this world, which from a spiritual view is not considered as existing. Actually, it simply it not there.

And now we need to unite our spiritual sparks, our points in the heart that don’t belong to this world, in order to create from them a new spiritual reality. This is what we have been entrusted with. It isn’t just to get close to each other, like sheep in a herd. That wouldn’t give us anything. We are speaking here only about the sparks that we need to raise and unite.

So you need to think and worry only about the longing of the friends for the Creator, about sparks that are in each one of them. When we connect them together into one whole, then we will have enough force in order to reveal the Creator. That is what all our work is about.
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From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/12, “Exile and Redemption”

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Israel is a high degree. Every person who has separated himself from material interests and is only directed at adhesion with the Creator, with the force of bestowal according to the law of equivalence of form, and devotes every moment to this is called Yashar-El (straight to the Creator), Israel.

One of the stages on the path is to enter into a pact, when a person integrates the others, those who are also called Israel, into himself. Once they were already united, but the desire to enjoy, the evil inclination, entered between them and separated them. And now, in spite of the fact that they reveal it, they nonetheless work on their connection all the time in order to reach connection, and to provide the Creator with the vessel for the reception of pleasure.

The goal of creation is the delight of the created beings. This is the action on the part of the Creator, so why was it given as the task of creation? Because the creation has to bring itself to such a state to give the Creator an opportunity to bring it pleasure. Our work is to reveal this vessel for receiving pleasure. And the pleasure is to give the Creator an opportunity to bestow.

As is it said about the miracle that happened at Mount Sinai: “Today we have all gathered here,” that is, from this point forward we receive the ability to connect and be worthy to be clothed in the upper force. And now we are called the chosen people; this general vessel is called the people of Israel. And He who fills this vessel according to the law of equivalence of form shall be called our Creator.

Therefore, there is a condition: “Today we have all gathered here,” that is, we should all get together to become as one—one common vessel for the realization of the goal of creation, to benefit the created beings.

It is said: “And the people stood under the mountain,” that is, having broken all doubts (Har – mountain, Irurim – doubts) to achieve unity. We need to take care of our common connection so that none of us forgets about it.

Real mutual guarantee is needed for that. That is what we lack, and this is the reason why we have not yet succeeded in building the common vessel. This is all because of the lack of mutual participation, care that each friend is concerned about connecting everyone into one, so that we “have ALL gathered here!”
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/03/12

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Rabash, “Self Love and the Love of the Creator”: There is self love and there is love of the Creator. And there is the transitional phase, which is the love of others, and by the love of others one arrives to the love of the Creator. This is why Rabi Akiva said: “Love thy friend as thyself; this is the great rule of the Torah.” And as Hillel said to the convert who asked him, “Teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” And he said to him, “Don’t do unto your friend what is hateful to you. The rest is commentary.” Since by the love of others one comes to the love of the Creator, and then all the Torah and all the wisdom are in a person’s heart.

It is very difficult for a person to agree internally that the road to the Creator goes through the love of others and that it is true that it is the same love, but in two different vessels.

The others don’t exist, but it only seems to us that way so that we will have a chance to perform actions in order to expand our vessel. Later, it will be revealed that there is nothing but a person and the Creator.

He corrected, fixed, and connected to himself the desires that he previously thought were the others, all the huge world that surrounds him. First, he found more and more connections in this world. He has seen that he is increasingly more connected and, eventually, he understands that this is all his vessel, and, thus, he connects to the Creator.

So, “From the love of others to the love of the Creator” isn’t just a nice slogan, but the fulfillment of the desire, which is the only place where a person can reveal his upper world.

This path is a result of the “shattering of the vessels” that took place especially in order to allow us to expand our feeling and, at the same time, to be independent and loyal to the Creator forever.

“Love thy friend as thyself” is the great rule of the Torah, which includes the entire general desire in which all the Light is revealed. We can study it “on one foot” (in brief), which means that by just one action, we can acquire the whole attainment. We discover that behind what seems to us, like the others, there is the whole reality.

The only problem is to perceive it internally. This is all our work, and, here, we need mutual guarantee since we can hear about it for many years before we even begin to get close to it. Then, a few more years are needed in order to decide to implement it. Thus, many years go by, and only mutual guarantee, mutual responsibility, pressure, envy, lust, and using all the means a person has, can help him become committed to and to internalize this principle as deeply as possible into his heart.

We have to measure how deeply it enters us and brings us to internal agreement and by that to value our advancement.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/12

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Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”: The Creator will evidently show us that Israel cannot exist in exile, and will find no rest as the rest of the nations that mingled among the nations and found rest, and assimilated in them, until no trace was left of them.

The Light operated and influences the mixing of the shattered vessels. If two liquids are mixed and left together for thousands of years, the heavy components of this mixture will sink and the light ones will float. Accordingly, the Light that shines from Above shines more on the light components, which as a result feel that they want to attain the goal of creation. This feeling awakens in them and so they can find no rest among the vessels of receiving. They can correct themselves, and they are called “Israel” which stands for Yashar – El (straight to the Creator).

The general desire can be divided into two parts: the upper (Galgalta veEynaim – GE) that can easily be corrected and the lower (AHP) that is difficult to correct. The vessels of GE don’t feel an immediate awakening, but a gradual one, first on the level of the “forefathers,” then on the level of the “sons,” and then in the 21^st century, it comes to us. Still the vessels of Israel awaken by themselves, because they have a point in the heart (•), which begins to appear at one point or another, starting from the time of Abraham to the present day to the Bnei Baruch organization (BB).

There cannot be any awakening below. Here the desires to receive are in control, and they cannot awaken by themselves. Only after the first upper vessels correct themselves, they begin to awaken the lower by using different methods. First there were beliefs that Abraham had sent with the sons of the concubines to the East as gifts. Then different religions appeared. Finally we are using dissemination, which Baal HaSulam writes about in his article “The Messiah’s Shofar,” saying that we must bring the world the information about the correction that the Israeli nation has to perform. Thus we act and influence these layers, and in response they begin to join us and to rise.

This means that the order of our correction is as follows: First we correct the vessels of GE (1), then the vessels of AHP of Aliya (on the rise) (2), and then the vessels of AHP in their place (3). Today we are in the first phase when Israel is being corrected.

In general, this drawing shows the whole vessel that was created with its two parts: GE and AHP. In it, the people with the point in the heart are above, and it can be anyone, no matter where he lives. The layer marked in yellow is also divided into two parts: the “nation of Israel in the land of Israel” and the “nation of Israel in exile.” Both parts have points in the heart, but they haven’t awakened in the second part yet.

The upper part of this vessel is the level of the forefathers, and it is already corrected (in red) and below there is a “white spot,” which we have to correct. Then it will be the turn of the “nation of Israel in the land of Israel,” and then the “nation of Israel in exile.”
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From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/12, “Exile and Redemption”

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Our spiritual path is divided into two parts.

The first part is rather difficult since we don’t exactly see what we are doing. But this is precisely what helps us renounce our egoism. If we could see what we are doing, then our egoism would participate in this process and only grow, and we would never be able to break away from it. So since we can only go forth with our eyes closed, that is, through separating from our egoism, gradually severing it from ourselves and transitioning to connection with the friends by exiting ourselves into the property of bestowal, then of course this is difficult for us.

Our path is based on the fact that we draw the upper Light, which influences and corrects us. In other words, I am unable to correct myself, I cannot rise above my egoism, I can’t do anything with it at all, but I can draw the upper Light upon myself.

Therefore, exertions in the wisdom of Kabbalah are very interesting and differ from exertions in our world where I directly affect an object, an area, or the properties that I wish to change:  Here it is different. If I want to change something, then I have to draw the Light upon that object, that dimension, or those properties, so that the Light would change them. Thus, I’m constantly addressing only the Light so that it would change these properties.

How does the Light know which properties to act on?

It’s very simple. If I’m advancing toward the property of love, of mutual bestowal, toward the property of connection with the friends, if I’m trying to unite with them, then I discover that I’m an enormous egoist who wants to exploit them, who wants only personal gain, and who couldn’t care less about everyone else. When I discover this in myself and it evokes enormous suffering in me, then I begin to ask the Light to correct me. In revealing my inner egoism, I begin to turn to the Light and ask for it to change me.

That is, I prepare an enormous uncorrected desire, reveal it in myself, and I feel how disgusting it is to me, how repulsive, how much I don’t want for it to exist inside me; it’s like a cancer that I want to cut out of myself—and then I turn to the Light so that it would perform this surgery on me.

Thus, we have a very clear progression on our path: I’m moving all the time toward connection with the friends, towards the purpose of creation, the property of bestowal and love. I’m always moving towards exalting these properties, parameters, and definitions above myself, to make them my highest values. In the end, I reveal how opposite I am to that, how much I don’t want it, how artificial it all is in me, and so on. And then, from this bitterness, I cry out to the Light.

So there’s a big problem here: People who aren’t capable of realizing this and who aren’t capable of suffering will not be able to go through this path. Moreover, the suffering is qualitative. A person feels it during normal life, even when everything is going really well for him. This is the suffering of love, when I would like to connect with the friends, when I know that it’s necessary, but I see that I can’t. Only this kind of suffering is meant here—no other!

It’s not about whether or not I know the subject well, not that I’m a wise guy or say, impatient—no! The only thing that I need to reveal is my rejection of connection with others. Only this! Bestowal! When I’m repulsed by connection with others, when I suddenly begin to despise it, to not want it, this is precisely the property that I need to grab onto and to ask for its correction. This is the entire secret of Kabbalah. There is nothing else!

Therefore, the first part of our path is a gradually increasing revelation of evil within us, and then, in a single moment it becomes corrected. This is why there are two phases to our advancement.

The first phase is when throughout a few years we accumulate enormous, heavy, and lengthy suffering.

And then, in a single moment it becomes corrected, and we open our eyes and see a completely new picture around us. It turns out that the entire creation functions in the property of bestowal and love: The entire world works this way, while to me in my egoistic properties it appeared that it was built on properties of egoism, conquering, violence, brutality, and so on.

This is similar to how laboriously a rocket heads for its orbit in outer space, but afterwards, during orbit, in weightlessness, a calm suddenly sets in: Everything is quiet, the engines stop working, and you are out in space.
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From the Virtual Lesson 11/18/12

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Question: What turns all our prayers into one prayer? How can we ask for the same thing together?

Answer: In order to do that we have to clarify time after time that it is impossible to raise a prayer alone. Such a prayer is not accepted.

Our goal is that the desire to receive will come together into one whole with one intention, like it was before. There was wholeness until the shattering inserted the intention to bestow into every grain of the desire to receive. Now this shattered intention is under the domination of the ego, but by that there is a connection between the two desires—the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, as if they were mixed and they can be together.

But this connection brings up the question: How should we work? How should we clarify things if we take into account that the desires are in you? Since you have to process your “private” part. The correction is not when the desire to bestow controls the desire to receive, but when after the shattering, the desires to receive are connect by the desires to bestow.

We are inclined to work individually: “I am willing to do whatever the Creator requires of me.” If He wants me to bestow, I will bestow; if He wants me to adhere to Him, I will adhere. I am ready for anything in my private vessels, “Just tell me what I have to do.” But to connect with others by the attributes of bestowal that you inherited during the shattering—no way.

In the meantime, the Creator enjoys your action that is aimed at connection. Because then you are using His power, and instead of hating others you love them. By that you develop yourself towards the force of love, by wanting to resemble the Creator, although you seem to have no relations with Him. You intend to bring Him contentment eventually, but the action itself is fulfilled among us; your unity with the friends is a pleasure for the Creator.

We are made of desires to receive that want to be filled, and also of desires to bestow that are looking for a chance to make a profit at the expense of bestowal upon others, to use others in a more cunning way. You have to turn all this around, in order to connect to others, “as one man in one heart.” If you connect with the friends in order to bring the Creator contentment, and if at the same time you become like Him in your desire to receive, then you are bringing Him contentment by that and thus achieve what is desirable.

The child He created and prepared finally wants to resemble Him, to be like his father; he wants to be independent, to resemble Him in his actions. You cannot and you do not need to do anything but bringing Him this pleasure—growing by the connection with others.
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From the 2^nd part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/12, The Zohar

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If the upper Providence were revealed to us, then all the people in the world would become absolute righteous. They would be forced to obey the law of bestowal, which means that they would be compelled to be righteous and not from their freewill.

This is what would happen if the Creator were revealed to us. We are all waiting for Him to be revealed, but we would immediately lose our freewill. We would be like animals that blindly perform all of nature’s orders, just as we are forced to obey our egoistic nature now. We would carry out the orders of the nature of bestowal in the same way. If there is a law of nature, I obey it like a machine.

So we shouldn’t expect the Creator to be revealed to us before we are independent and have the force of the Masach (screen). Then we will be able to receive His revelation by the Returning Light, by rejecting the pleasure. Until then, the revelation will not be in our favor, of course, since it would force us to be become sacred animals. We have to rise above this level in order to become human beings.

Therefore, the Creator is revealed only to the extent that a person remains independent. Now we are managed by the egoistic intention and obey our ego. Then the point in the heart awakens in us, and we begin to struggle against that dominance, organizing a group that will be on the side of this new force, the point in the heart.

The struggle will succeed if I can diminish the external society, so that I can leave its dominance. Behind my ego there is all of society, and behind the spark of bestowal, the point in the heart, there is the Kabbalistic group. I have to raise and to increase the importance of the spark and of the group as much as I can, and on the other hand, to lower and reduce the influence of the ego and of the external society as much as possible.

To the extent that I do that, I increase the importance of bestowal in my eyes, and the Light influences me according to my efforts. This exertion operates like my prayer (MAN), and the Light that Reforms comes in response to it and changes me.

Eventually my new structure is formed: from Above I have a Masach and Returning Light that serves as my new vessel in which I bestow upon the Creator. From below, under the Masach, there is my restricted desire to receive, my ego.

To the extent that I have performed such a restriction, the Creator can already be revealed.
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From the 1^st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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As a rule, only people with a high level of egoism study Kabbalah. Other than that, nothing fulfills them. Science, technologies, arts, family relationships, jobs, hobbies of any kind, lots of money…nothing brings them contentment. They are torn apart by one question: What is the meaning of life?

They don’t believe in religion since they have already exceeded this developmental stage and lost the ability to blindly follow any trends. They don’t see any value in this world since they regard everything around them as a regular “animal” existence and nothing more than that.

Naturally, they don’t have a desire to hug everybody, dance, or do any childish things like “sitting in a circle, drinking and eating together, singing songs.” They consider it weird and odd, and they are right.

Their egoism is above average. Thus, they strive to reveal the upper; however, they are forced to behave “immaturely” and childishly. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about it.

They join a group that is already in the process of advancement and has more or less revealed and understood the methodology of growth. They enter a group that feels, recognizes and acknowledges (at least studies) the necessity to bond in order to discover the properties of the upper world through the connection among friends. This is because the qualities of the upper realm can only be revealed in unity.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/6/12, Lesson 4

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