Question: When we participate in the roundtable discussions, how can we explain that it’s worthwhile to attain connection above all the differences?

Answer: People usually like to argue, but instead of arguments I want to explain to them that connection is above everything. Let’s leave our dispute and not sink into it, but rise above it. Clearly, if we connect, we draw the upper Light upon us, which fixes everything. But how can I explain this to a person who doesn’t even know that all this exists?

The explanation is very simple. There is absolute abundance in the world! There are no problems except for one single problem, which is the fact that people are not connected and cannot get along. They cannot divide this wealth and abundance among them as they should, and so there is such great friction among everyone and the whole world suffers.

We all suffer only because of the human ego. But the moment we connect, we’ll immediately discover the way to fix everything so that everyone will receive what he deserves and equally with everyone else. Therefore, the connection is the solution to all our problems.

If, on the one hand, we receive all the abundance from nature and on the other hand the world is such a bad and painful place, it’s only because people can’t fix it. If they connect they will reach true prosperity.
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From the Workshop in Toronto 6/20/12

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Baal HaSulam, “Messiah’s Shofar”: And because of that, Rashbi permitted himself and disclosed the wisdom of the hidden in his books, The Zohar and the Tikkunim. However, it was with great care, since he only permitted Rabbi Abba, who could disclose with intimation, so only the sages of the children of Israel would understand, and the sages of the nations would not understand.

The reason for that is that if people driven by egoism find something in this wisdom, they will not be able to advance. In another article, Baal HaSulam brings the example of an unripe fruit that can harm a person. Answers that are received without exertion, without self-advancement, only block a person’s way.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed gradually, so that a person would understand more according to his internal spiritual growth, and thus advance. However, if he received the answers in advance, without growing and developing a vessel, it would stop him and not allow him to advance. Then he wouldn’t need to change and to acquire new attributes, and it would prevent him from discovering the way to the spiritual world by himself.

This is why Kabbalists took great care not to reveal things that people are not yet able to understand. The wisdom is acquired according to a person’s readiness. We study in order to summon the Light that Reforms, and when it corrects us, we begin to understand and to feel the material that we study.

The process is as follows: We connect in a group of about ten people, and then by the power of our unity we can raise MAN to the upper force. As an answer, we receive the Light that Reforms, which means the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif – OM). This is what changes us, meaning, truly unites us (∑) and corrects us, and thanks to this correction we discover the upper world in our corrected attributes.

So these are the stages of the process:

1. We unite
2. We raise MAN for correction
3. The Surrounding Light corrects us
4. We discover the upper reality.

If we don’t perform the two initial steps, connecting and raising MAN, then nothing happens. Therefore, Kabbalists wrote their books in stages, according to our advancement in our study. When we read it for the first time, we discover our ego. Then we understand that there is only one choice, to rise to unity (∑), and then we discover that it isn’t enough either and that we have to raise MAN. If we do that then the Upper Light, the Surrounding Light (OM) completes the work.

The Kabbalistic books are revealed to us according to these stages, and it is all by the study. In the first stage, I discover the evil, in the second stage, I see that I cannot do anything and that I have to connect with the friends, and in the third stage, I understand that we will not manage without a request that the Light will connect us because we cannot do it by ourselves. Then the Light comes and completes the work. The first half of the work is our responsibility and the second half is fulfilled from Above and it is called “the work of the Creator.”
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From the 1^s part  Daily Kabbalah Lesson  6/20/12 in Toronto, “Messiah’s Shofar”

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Question: What kind of exertion is the means for spiritual advancement, and can I help a friend exert himself or do I steal his work from him by that?

Answer: Exertion is whatever is above my human abilities. I cannot help another and complete his work, but I can set an example for him so that it will be easier for him to exert himself.

So I don’t steal his work, but rather help him. The more we help one another by setting an example so that it will be easier for a friend to exert himself even more, the more efficiently we will advance.

With this, we exchange the corporeal exertion with a spiritual exertion! Then the corporeal work seems very difficult and the spiritual work seems very easy because you add the force of the group to it. The result is that you have to move a load of a hundred tons and you move it, but you have the aid of a million people pushing the load with you.

You don’t have to feel the weight of the load that is 100 tons. These 100 tons are necessary only so that through them you will attain connection with a million people.

Therefore, there is no need for senseless sufferings; all we have to do is to understand why we suffer.

If you feel difficulty, pain, rejection, and sorrow in a certain place, it means that it isn’t the right exertion. As it says: “Thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob.” If with great effort and sweat you carry the load that was given to you by the Creator, it means that you are not exerting yourself correctly, and this burden belongs to someone else and not the Creator.

The pleasure from work is knowing for Whom we are exerting ourselves.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/12, Shamati #117

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Question: What are a deficiency of the individual and a deficiency of the general?

Answer: A deficiency of the individual doesn’t exist in spirituality because it isn’t about the ordinary corporeal desires. In spiritual desires, a person has only one point in the heart, which he still hasn’t realized.

A general deficiency is the ability to detach from oneself and to connect to the general. This means that a person already understands and feels from studying, from being part of the group, and from disseminating that the spiritual world is revealed only in a whole deficiency.

A whole deficiency means that it is connected, at least minimally, which enables a person to perceive several spiritual discernments. Until then, one doesn’t see anything, like in the evening at twilight when everything becomes blurred.

There is a saying that it is evening time when you cannot recognize the face of your friend from a certain distance (four Amot) as everything blends together. However, if I can recognize my friend, it isn’t evening yet.

Evening symbolizes the fact that I can see something, but that I don’t understand exactly what it is. Thus, we gradually begin to come to the understanding that, instead of a revelation, there are several discernments in which we can recognize, similarly to the way we recognize a friend’s face from a distance of four Amot, which means in the four minimal phases of the desire to receive.

In order to do that, I need to connect my desire with the desires of several other friends so that there will be a connection among us, and, from that, I will be able to discern good and evil, light and darkness. I need to clarify what receiving and bestowal means for myself and for others, or for everyone together, among us.

In the connection between us, I already begin to see these discernments: what “in order to receive” means and what “in order to bestow means.” In this place, built by me, in the deficiency by incorporating with others, I already understand to some extent what in order to receive and in order to bestow mean. This is an initial, minimal understanding, but I already can see the difference between the two.

A deficiency is formed in me, a vessel of perceiving by which I can see the spiritual world, to feel it and to see different discernments. Thus, my spiritual introspection opens up, which is different from the external perspective that I have in this world now, where we imagine that we see something.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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In the article “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Baal HaSulam tells us under what conditions the Torah was given to people. First, it must be a group of people who want to be as one man in one heart. The sufferings they have been through leave them no choice and they see that they must escape, but they must escape consciously. It isn’t a blind escape from pain, because the sufferings come from a special force, from the Creator, according to His plan, and within it there is a specific goal.

The Creator brought about the sufferings on purpose. It says “I have created the evil inclination,” which means I have created Pharaoh who brings the children of Israel closer to the Creator. The evil inclination is called “help against,” since it evokes and pushes a person to know the force that manages him. A person asks himself: “Where does all this evil come from? Why am I suffering?” Eventually the searching brings him to the main question: “What is the meaning of my life?” And further: “What is the meaning of life?” Then a person reaches the wisdom of Kabbalah.

So he comes to receive the Torah and begins to understand that there is a need to change something. Instead of changing the world by trying to “bend” it by himself, a person understands that the world is a replica of his internal attributes. Change yourself and the world will change.

This is what we say to everyone: We should correct the person and not the world. Of course, we don’t talk about the perception of reality, about the fact that the external picture is determined by our internality. This cannot be explained at the moment, although there is already some scientific evidence for that. On the whole, a person already understands that today he has to correct himself. Then he is ready to receive the Torah as a spice “to spice” the evil inclination by this method so that it will taste good.

Eventually we have to put the form of bestowal on the original desire to receive. If a person is ready for that, he receives the Torah, meaning the method of correction, and begins to work. Then he understands the essence of the condition that he was given: what mutual guarantee means, what general unity is, and what the final goal of “Love thy friend as thyself” symbolizes. On the way to reaching this goal, a person discovers his mission, which is defined as “a kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation.” In other words, he has to fulfill what it says not only regarding himself, but also being responsible for the whole world. By judging oneself and the whole world to a scale of merit, a person applies his potential correctly for the good of others by doing what he has to do, which means to disseminate the method of correction all over the world.

Then he corrects himself, since he has no need for anything but that. It is enough to live by working for the general correction, which is called “a kingdom of priests.” Priests have no corporeal estate, “God is their estate,” which means the pure level of Bina. A person should also see himself on this sublime level where the good of others is his only concern above all the other concerns, and the only goal above all the other goals. Although different unwanted desires come up and although the interruptions are global, it is all so that above them he can be responsible for the whole world. Otherwise he will have nothing to work on.

By fulfilling the mission of a “kingdom of priests” and “a holy nation,” a person fulfills the idea of mutual guarantee. The point isn’t that we will be responsible for each other and hold on to each other on the way to correction. No, we are advancing towards mutual guarantee with the whole world, we are responsible for everyone, and unless we correct them, our work cannot be complete.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: Why does it seem to a person that he can advance on his own without the help of the environment?

Answer: People prefer to rely on themselves, since they are used to implementing their habitual egoistic approaches. Because of the egoistic desire, one doesn’t appeal to the upper Light that Reforms, but thinks that he will earn everything by using his own knowledge and efforts. We tend to think that we are clever and strong enough to overcome all impediments and get a reward without outside help.

We think we don’t need the upper force, the Creator. When we feel powerful, we neglect to maintain connection with the upper force, even if we presume that it exists. One begins to imagine one’s association with the upper force only when facing threats in this world or fearing punishment after death in a future world, that is, only when one can’t cope on their own.

If a person is confident that he will succeed and fill his egoistic desires on his own, he won’t strive to attain the upper force. But, when the spark that is part of the upper Light awakens in a person, he feels that it cannot be fulfilled unless he is connected with the upper force, which gives him additional fulfillment.

The spark is not just a particle of Light from above that was cut off and placed in me. This spark is the faintest illumination of the Light, the Creator that descended within a person: the beginning of the revelation of the Creator in me. This is the beginning of man (Adam) within us, similar to (Domeh) to the Creator.

The spark needs to be connected to the desire to enjoy, so they are brought into harmony by establishing the correct connection between them. This is what we have to work on until the Creator completely reveals Himself to us and not just a tiny spark; in other words, instead of a small desire to be pleased, we should find great aspiration, and both should reach complete adhesion.

A tiny part of the Creator is disclosed within us: This is called a spiritual awakening, a spark. A small portion of the great desire to enjoy wakes up all my earthly passions for food, sex, family, wealth, power, and knowledge.

The difference between my natural desire and the spark is that the desire to be pleased demands that we fulfill ourselves for our own sake, whereas the spark requires fulfilling others, bestowal. They contradict each other, and so a person first loses his head when he first senses the spark.

A person feels the split because the desire to be pleased pulls him into this world with all its egoistic pleasures, while the spark of bestowal carries us in a completely different dimension, although we do not know where or what it is. At this point, we stop caring about this world and become totally attracted to something more lofty and unearthly.

Eventually, the spark leads us to a special place where we can realize it, that is, to the place where the Creator’s desire reveals itself with greater force. The place is called a Kabbalistic group.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/12, Shamati #21

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When spiritual insight is revealed in us, we actually begin to see and gradually understand more clearly that everything depends on the “place” (the Creator), which means on the number and the intensity of my discernments that reveal the spiritual reality and that show me to what extent I am connected to everyone else. Everything depends on the number of discernments and mainly on their intensity and the intensity of the connection.

Each of us suddenly discovers different discernments of his egoistic perception, but gives up his ego in order to connect with others. It turns out that a “dent” appears in my desire opposite a “bulge” in the desire of the friend, and a “bulge” of my desire opposite his “dent.” Thus we connect, as each one gives in to the other.

It turns out that I have given up my interests in order to connect to the friend, but he, in his perception will discover these “bulges” of my ego and will annul himself in order to connect with me. Thus, we don’t annul our ego, but constantly use it through more “bulges” and “dents.” Our sensitive and fine perception and its intensity depend on the amount of such connections in which we discover more and more discernments.

This is how the general vessel is built for the interest of the public. The more common needs I discover, the more I can annul myself and connect with others. But then I have to think about the reason I am doing this for—for the revelation of the Shechina (Divinity). Here I have to attain one more connection that is more internal and for a higher goal by discovering that it is the Creator.

The Creator isn’t some personality, but a discernment that I revealed as a result of my clarification. It is the upper Sefira of Keter, which I discover after having clarified all the Sefirot that precede it. Just like the commandment of love, which we must reach, but which we actually cannot. It reveals to us by itself if we perform all the commandments that precede it.

It is the same when it comes to connection. If I with my point in the heart work in the group and connect with the friends, then within this connection, in all the four phases, I discover their inner root called Shechina. Shechina symbolizes the revelation of the Creator.

I cannot build this last phase, the Keter, the one who bestows, by myself. It is revealed since I have taken the four steps towards it.

I did everything that was in my power, I revealed the four phases and the forms of connection by myself, and then I discover the phase of Keter on which I cannot work by myself. This is the Shechina. On my part, I complete the work and then there is a discovery waiting for me, as it says “I have labored and I found.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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On one hand, the commandments “between a person and his friend” are more important than the commandments “between a person and the Creator,” since from the love of the created beings one reaches the love of the Creator. But on the other hand, we mustn’t forget the final goal: We must build the mutual relations among us correctly only in order to connect with the Creator.

Otherwise, we would simply demonstrate “idealism” trying to overcome the crisis, to improve the educational system, to become better and happier people… All this is fraught with evil and leads to an even greater collapse. After all, by that we divert humanity from its internal part, leading it to a side road. Then people would feel even greater suffering trying to leave these attempts, no matter how wonderful they may seem.

We want to stop the hunger and to make everyone healthy, to fill everyone with joy. But if at the same time we don’t aim at adhesion with the Creator, with the goal of creation, if we don’t intend to bring the Creator contentment and to enable Him to reveal Himself, then instead of the direct path upwards, we are choosing a side road, and then more sufferings would be needed in order to get back on track.

Thus, by our seemingly good actions, we would summon negative results, so as it says: “It is better to sit and do nothing.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/12/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: How do I work with the group in order to clarify correctly everything that happens with me?

Answer: First, try to connect with the friends. Leave the clarifications for now; you don’t have the right tools to clarify things. First you have to acquire the means, a spiritual vessel with which you can clarify what is happening. At the moment your attitude to life is distorted.

Today you have to build a new vessel in the group since the clarification and actually everything depends on the mutual relationship a person has with the environment.

Question: We are trying to do it in the workshops. How can we correctly clarify the questions that you are presenting?

Answer: You have to want to connect on the basis of my questions. The question itself isn’t as important as everything you are saying in the discussions. The words are necessary so that we will rise above them and constantly think about how to connect with the friends. No matter what nonsense the friend may say, I rise above it wanting to connect with him. I have to see the friends as the greatest in our generation, and on the other hand, I bestow upon them my part of the general bestowal.

The work takes place on two levels: below—hatred and coarseness, and above—love and purity. If these two things exist, it is already a certain type of vessel. If you attain such a great gap between coarseness and purity then the Light, the Creator, is revealed.

Until then, you constantly work in workshops, in connections and in studying in order to attain this gap, which for us is the goal called “Mount Sinai.”

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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/08/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: Where does faith above reason come from to us?

Answer: Everything comes from above, and the only thing that depends on a person is how much he can rise above his sensations in order to achieve understanding, clarity, unification and connection.

This awakening can take place through suffering, which is called “in due time” (Beito). But if a person receives this awakening from the group, it is called “acceleration of time” (Ahishena).

If a person awakens through blows, then he goes through all of these states again from the very beginning. But if the awakening comes from the group, it already includes the screen and Reflected Light. That’s because by becoming included in the group, he already carried out his work, made efforts, and attracted the Reflected Light to himself.

There are four phases of HaVaYaH which a person carries out himself, and therefore the path of Light and the path of suffering are two completely opposite paths, like Direct and Reflected Light.

“Acceleration of time” is when we become included in the group, which instantly begins building the right instruments or desires in us for understanding the Creator. Whereas the natural path, “in due time” merely lays the preliminary conditions in us to begin this process. There is a huge difference between the two.

After all, by receiving suffering, I have to repeat everything over and over again in order to understand where the suffering is coming from and why. This is an extremely drawn out process. I only run from one place to another as I receive the blows, but I do not advance as this does not give me understanding. And only after many blows and suffering like this do I finally begin to see their purposefulness and causality. Then I already begin to understand that apparently, they are coming to me in order to teach me.

People often come to me asking, “Why was I the one to receive this punishment from above?” This is called the path of suffering.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/12/12, Shamati #121

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