Question: Are women able to pretend amongst them and should they do so, like the men in the group?

Answer: Yes, women should also pretend amongst them. They should unite in order “to pressure” the men despite their ego. For that purpose they have to pretend.

We all have to pretend because we’re all in the egoistic desire, and emerging from it means playing altruism, bestowal and love, and the universal bond.

These attempts summon the upper Light’s influence upon us. Hence, our whole life is truly a game. This is serious business.
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From the Lecture on Unity Day “To Acquire a Desire to Give” 1/29/2012

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Question: What does it mean that the Creator loves man who breaks his heart in order to reach the “palace” of the King? Who breaks my heart and why? What does a person do at that time?

Answer: Of course, we are not talking about the heart as an “engine” working like a pump. The heart is our egoistic desire. All the egoistic desires are called the “heart.”

To “break” the heart means to attain that same point in which we were once as a single, unified picture of Malchut and then shattered into numerous parts. My feeling of detachment from all the others is called my “broken heart.”

That is the state we should attain. From then onward, a person begins his correction. How? The Creator is called “the healer of the broken hearted.” The Creator is the Light, the attribute of bestowal, uniting our hearts together, and they return to life. He revives them, and then these hearts become one vessel, one desire.
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From the Lecture on Unity Day “To Acquire a Desire to Give” 1/29/2012

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Question: What are we doing wrong if we can’t attain what we desire?

Answer: You have everything you need. You only have to aim yourselves correctly using different tricks and every possible means that will help you imagine the connection between us as a vessel in which we receive the filling.

Look at your life and imagine that everything that you want is attained, not thanks to the money in your pocket, but thanks to the connection. You should feel that all the means for attaining the fulfillment are in the connection: the fork you eat with is the connection, the glass you drink from is the connection, and so on. Otherwise, without our connection, you will get nothing. You need it in order to breathe, in order to live! Life is only possible through our connection; it is the vessel for the filling.

Here the key is mutual guarantee. A minute from now you will forget what I’ve said if everyone doesn’t think about it and worry that others won’t forget. We will be able to eat only if we feed one another.

This is the whole problem you feel about your desire. You really want to, and you are not the only one! Everyone wants this, but the point is that everyone thinks about himself, without thinking about connection. Thinking about connection means to worry about the success of others.

It isn’t like the connection in the mafia where people connect for a collective profit. A Kabbalistic group is not a group of criminals. It is a union for the revelation of the Creator, the attribute of bestowal. Therefore, in this group everyone worries only about others and not about himself. Only thanks to this do we build our “boat.” Its sides are created by my concern for others. The moment I stop worrying about others I drill a hole in the boat.

We forget that, and it is all called mutual guarantee. Let’s hope that we manage to clarify this concept and actually attain it. If we attain it even to some extent, we will already move on to bestowal.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/2011, TES

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We should relate to all the problems in the groups as to the necessary revelation of evil that we should not conceal. So it’s good that the evil is revealed and we should reveal it, but only for one moment. If a person stalls and remains in the evil that has been revealed a moment longer than it is necessary for its correction, he is already in impurity (Klipa or shell).

This is called “the devil’s touch,” which is needed only for a moment so that we could reveal the evil and immediately correct it. We should be prepared for that. Unfortunately, however, I see that it doesn’t always happen that way, and people don’t correct the evil, but rather sink into it for a long time as if enjoying being in it. They don’t understand that such states are given to us on purpose, so that we will grow thanks to them.

The Creator always invites you: “Come to Pharaoh!” But do we come to Pharaoh together with the Creator from the point of Moses, which exists in us like the representatives of “Yashar-El” (straight to the Creator), meaning those aimed straight at the Creator, whom we want to reach through “Pharaoh”? Or are we merely coming to him to demand, to negotiate better conditions for us, like ordinary slaves who argue with their master by demanding more benefits and rewards?

In the meantime we forget what the approach of “come to Pharaoh” symbolizes. Instead of relating to the situation from the perspective of the spiritual goal, we slip into arguments or childish games, starting to deal with corporeal matters (as if there is some meaning in it) and trying to sort things out between us.

I warn all of you that we should leave these states as soon as possible and to be sensitive to everything that is happening with us, not forgetting that there is truly “none else besides Him” and that the invitation of “come to Pharaoh” always comes from the Creator. The Creator begins, and we, together with Him, should relate to Pharaoh from the point of Moses.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/2012, Writings of Rabash

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Malchut is separated into two levels of desire that differ by how quickly they react to the influence of the Light. All of the desire in Malchut needs to be corrected and returned back to Keter. This is called the nine Sefirot of the Reflected Light, the work of the creation. And when the construction of the whole upper system is completed, all the worlds and restrictions, all the examples of the relationships between Keter and Malchut, establishing complete conformity from above to below from the side of the Light, then it is creation and humanity’s turn, in other words, the total Malchut begins to awaken from the state most distant from the Creator.

In this awakening some awaken sooner and some later according to the law of similarity of qualities. The upper Light influences us and gradually strengthens its influence on the general Malchut, which is split apart.

Those parts that awaken before everyone else are called Israel, meaning those who aspire “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El). While those who are not yet awakened due to their great depth of desire, for the time being are called the nations of the world. However, in the end everyone will arrive at unity with the Creator, as it is said: “And there shall be no outcast rejected from Him” and “Everything must return to its root.” However, there is a defined order according to which a part of the souls awakens earlier, and those awakened first are obliged to work on themselves and be a conductor of Light for the rest who are not able to awaken by themselves.

They will never awaken if the part of the souls that is awakened thanks to the Light does not exert influence on them. So it turns out that there is a part of the souls located under the direct influence of the Light and for this reason can awaken, while the other part can awaken only due to the influence of the Light through higher parts of the soul. This is how the Light gets to everyone.

That is why we separate these two groups in our dissemination. There are those, who awaken by themselves towards the Light and their relationship to it is studied by the science of Kabbalah. They need to take this system with its laws and explain it to the others using the language of that earthly system where we all are, using the language of “mutual guarantee.” And the relationships of everyone else to each other will not be called by the terms of the science of Kabbalah, but of the mutual guarantee.

In fact, this is the same science, the same methodology, but on two levels. The level for those who consciously aspire toward the Light is called Kabbalah. The level for those who simply long for a happy life is called mutual guarantee. But both of these parts are moving and getting closer to each other, egoistically (Lo Lishma) at first, and in the end will reach bestowal (Lishma).

That is why the problems and sufferings they experience are also different. Those who are in connection with the Light receive suffering relative to the Light called the sufferings of love. They are constantly judging themselves, searching and clarifying their relationship to the Light, how connected they are to it, and whether they love it or not.

While those who are at the other level will be obliged to check themselves relative to the mutual guarantee, whether they want it or not, whether they love each other or not. This is how the same aspirations, the same stages are realized in a concealed way, only on a lower level, in a somewhat similar way. Then they will at levels more advanced, more conscious and will even reach the revelation.

That is why for those, who are already in touch with the light, the following condition is given: “Be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” Meaning that they must be in complete bestowal, in faith, “Lishma,” in unity with the Light, with the Creator. They are obliged to be the “servers of the Creator” relative to those, who are lower than them and do not have the direct connection with the Light, meaning, they have to be the teachers, educators, organizers of the whole necessary system of correction, to care about others. Thanks to this they will reach unity with the Creator. There is no other purpose of the people in whom the urge for spirituality awakens, besides working with the others and to serve as a transfer buffer for the correction of the world, and only due to this to become worthy of unity with the Creator. After those, who are called Israel, the whole of the world will arrive at such a union. This is how the world is built.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” 100: In other words, there would be no way or inlet for people to attain the Light of the King’s countenance had He not first behaved with them in concealment of the face. Thus, the whole concealment is but a preparation for the disclosure of the face.

Yesterday I spoke with a man who practically knows everything that is in our books. He really made great efforts in his study. His question was simple: “What’s the use of having studied all that?”

The point is that the revelation of the Creator doesn’t depend on the amount of knowledge and the number of years one studies. It only depends on the intensity of the mutual connection among us. This is the whole problem. Our spiritual vessel is called “mutual guarantee” and it depends only on how much we can connect with one another so that each one can depend on the other and trust him. It can even be a “baby,” in other words, a person who just started studying. Seniority has no meaning.

We study the material and “chew” it, but don’t think that if you study a certain additional number of pages you can discover the Creator. If you can’t do it now, you won’t be able to do it later either. You mustn’t postpone the redemption. We should expect the coming of the Messiah at any moment. The revelation doesn’t depend on anything physical.

Baal HaSulam says in letter 17: … when today will become tomorrow, and instead of now you shall say later. And there is no remedy for that except to make an effort to understand this mistake and this distortion, that the one who is saved by the Creator, is saved only as someone who needs help today, and if he can wait for tomorrow he will understand things at the end of his life.

And this is because of your negligence to fulfill my request and to make an effort in the love of friends, which I have explained to you in 70 languages (in every possible way), that this virtue is enough in order to complete all that you lack.

This means that a person didn’t do what he had to do and remained empty. He will only understand his mistakes at the end of his life, when it is too late.

So don’t think that we should study some more, or we should work on ourselves some more. Every person, even the newest student, must see himself as ready and worthy. The Creator Himself built the present situation for us. It isn’t my caprice. Until about a year or two ago I didn’t think about it, but now, when the external conditions have been revealed, when we must fulfill them, it is a sign that we are ready.

Even if I don’t understand and don’t feel what Kabbalists say, it isn’t an obstacle. When a person feels that he is empty, then it is the truth and is good. This is because our spiritual vessel is not in any of us at all, but only among us. Everyone feels the spiritual world outside him, in his mutual connection with others.

If we calculate things now and check how much more effort and preparation we need, then actually everyone thinks about his own deficiencies, and with himself one cannot have any calculations. No matter what is inside you, it has nothing to do with spirituality. This is your “beast.” The spiritual world is among us, in the space of our mutual connection. It is there that my spiritual vessel is found. Actually it is all of Ein Sof (Infinity).

You may ask: “So what have we done until now?” We worked in order to understand this, and not more than that. The understanding takes years, and all the rest is practical work when a man’s soul teaches him. It is written: “Love will cover all the sins.” “Will cover” means that it will complete everything. You don’t need anything more.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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The upper Light is absolutely still. We are in an ocean of Light, like in an electrical, magnetic, or some other kind of field. It does not matter what kind of Light we have here. It exists; I do not need to create this second force, I just need to reveal it.

It turns out that every time we need to achieve a connection between us to form a detector, an instrument for revealing the field in which we exist. This detector is a desire, a need, which is sensitive to the field I am going to reveal: the quality of bestowal.

In other words, I must feel a need, a desire, to reveal the quality of bestowal. This is the only thing we lack, nothing else. As soon as we together reveal the need for the quality to bestow, we reveal it. That is, we must calibrate ourselves in relation to the quality of bestowal, to manage to reveal it without being in it, but only through an idea of what it represents. This is exactly what we are asking: to know what the quality of bestowal is, to be able to connect with one another the right way for the desire, the need, to bestow to appear in the connection between us. And that is all! This is the Kli (vessel) for revealing it.

We please the Creator with this attitude toward the quality to bestow, this field, the Creator. This is not that difficult and not so far away. All the effort needs to be in the thought: What is the detector of the quality of bestowal? And there is nothing else.

Baal HaSulam wrote in the book The House of the Gates to Intentions: There is a Creator and a creation, and he continues to explain that the creation’s entire problem is to reveal the Creator within which it exists. There is nothing else.

For this reason, when a person concentrates on the question: “How do I build the vessel for revealing the Creator, the quality to bestow, so it would reveal in me?”—he understand that this quality cannot reveal in him because he does not have a vessel for it, he lacks sensitivity for this quality.

Sensitivity to the quality to bestow can only appear from our revealing the desire for it together in our connection. My vessel gains sensitivity to the extent of our simultaneous rejection of one another and the desire to reveal the quality of bestowal between us. So I increase the extent of its sensitivity. And that is it.

Question: Why do I need to want to reveal the need for the quality of bestowal instead of revealing the actual quality?

Answer: There is no point to my revealing the actual quality to bestow: It exists. There is a treat in front of me, which contains everything. Everything in the world is in front of you. But you do not have an appetite for it and you cannot taste it. For example, if I am sick and have not eaten for two days, what do I think about? Revealing tastes? No I think about my need, my desire because, in fact, this is what I lack. Everything else is ready.

The upper Light is absolutely still. We are inside it. Increase your sensitivity, from opposition to it, from the negative, at least make it zero, and keep increasing it little by little until you reveal it.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/12, The Zohar

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The Creature is the force of our shared desire to enjoy, standing opposite the force of bestowal. These are two opposing forces, like “plus” and “minus,” the north and south poles of a magnet. The entire universe is the result of the interaction of these two forces.

And if these two forces meet and unite to carry out the work, to receive energy, it results in the form of the still, vegetative, and animate levels in our perception as they create the reality that is called our world.

But if, as a result of our development, we begin to feel the need to use these forces not with the force of reception ruling over the force of bestowal, but with the force of bestowal taking precedence over reception because the possibilities in this case are limitless, then our development will raise us to the level of the force of bestowal and we begin to feel the higher system, the upper world.

But instead of this, we still see the picture of this world, feeling the power of the egoistic force, and instead of forces, we imagine the material world. The egoistic desire paints for us the pictures of still, vegetative, and animate nature, which we call this world. From all this, it is difficult for us to imagine a spiritual reality.

The one who has experienced this revelation explains that it is not necessary to wait for natural development to occur, which will be achieved eventually by everyone: all parts of the desire to enjoy. But we can accelerate our development to reach the desired state in a matter of days, months, or years. As it is said: “You will see your world in your life time.”

Everything depends on how we try to reach unity, and not to reach unity in order to gather a greater collective force, but in order to achieve the force that is above us.That is, we unite not in order to add together the forces of all the participants, like in a sports team or military unit. In our connection, we want to reveal a new quality, which none of us has and which is called the property of bestowal.

If we reveal this property between us, not within everyone, but in our yearning towards others, which is called the Reflected Light, Hassadim, then in it we will discover the force directed at us, which is called the Creator. Inside the Light of Hassadim, the Light of Hochma is revealed; in the force of bestowal, coming from us, we discover the higher force of bestowal.

Thus, it all depends on how much each of us strives to exit himself and rise to the level of bestowing on others. You shouldn’t delude yourself that we are able to exit ourselves, unite with others in order to bestow, and reveal the upper Force in our aspiration to exit ourselves. It is impossible because we do not have these qualities in us, and none of my efforts can extract from me what I do not have. I do not have bestowal!

And what is inside of me? It is the directly opposite property, a consequence of the breaking, which was created in my root before my creation for this purpose. All of this was in order to reveal this contrast in me, for me to demand the real property of bestowal. I must demand it from the upper force because only It is able to turn my egoistic force, my ego, into bestowal and love,so the hatred will turn into love. But most importantly is that in the course of this work, I establish connection with the correcting force—with the Creator.

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From the 1^st part of the Daily Lesson 2/22/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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From the lesson before the Arava Convention, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Igrot, “Letter 17″: …there is he who walks, who is worse than he who sits idly. It is he who deflects from the road, for the path of truth is a very thin line that one walks until one comes to the King’s palace.

One who begins to walk at the beginning of the line needs great care so as not to deviate to the right or to the left of the line even as much as a hair’s breadth. This is so because if at first the deviation is as a hair’s breadth, even if one continues completely straight, it is certain that he will no longer come to the King’s palace…

But how is it possible not to err? Of course we will err! Imagine that we are playing a game where you have to shoot and hit a target, like from an electronic rifle or on a computer. But this game is arranged so that you cannot manage to aim, and the sight is always veering off the target, as if deliberately. You place it on the target, but it suddenly jumps to the side. You place it there again, and it runs away again.

This is, essentially, our nature. There is no doubt that I cannot aim precisely at the center of bestowal. After all, in reality, there, at the center of the target, is where the Creator is, the quality of bestowal, love for the neighbor, which is 100% opposite to me. I am unable to go towards it directly, without adding some kind of error, at least a small deviation. And it’s never aiming straight at the target.

Even when I am already rising up the spiritual levels, I am able to achieve the intention of bestowal only in a small part of desires, like in a “very thin line.” And the rest of the “circle” is my huge “stony heart” (Lev HaEven), which I am unable to correct for the sake of bestowal. At every level there are desires that I can correct for the sake of bestowal and advance with them, while being unable to do so with all the other ones. So how can I advance precisely towards the goal? After all, what is required of me is something that I am definitely unable to do!

That is when we are rescued by the notion of the group. Every one of us, with his “sight,” meaning from the very depth of the heart (from the Light of Hochma dressed into the Light of Hassadim, by virtue of which “the heart understands”) aims at the goal. And no single person hits it precisely, because each one has some kind of error, a deviation in some direction from the central point.

But if everyone unites together, each one with his error, then we mutually correct the errors of others. That is how it is arranged. And then we aim precisely at the very center. By virtue of our efforts to unite together, even if they are not sincere, it’s as if we step over the breaking.
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From the 3rd part of the Lesson in the in the Arava desert on 2/23/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Igrot, “Letter 17″

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Question: What is the problem with learning Kabbalah in our time?

Answer: When a person comes to Kabbalah, becomes interested in it, it seems to him that it speaks about things that are outside of him; he feels like the material that he studies is somewhere above, far from him, outside of him, disconnected from this world, outside of this world. Even though he learns about the need for the group, he does not seem to hear that attainment happens in the unity of students.

But then, it is explained with more perseverance how to use his knowledge to practically attain the spiritual world, perceive it, enter it – and to do this, he needs to work on the connection between himself and his fellow students. But if a person stays in the group, sooner or later he experiences a breakthrough in his realization of the need for connection with his friends on the journey, to reveal the upper World in this connection.

And then, as he unites with his friends, he needs to start uniting with all of humanity. And he is not able to accept this. All of his egoism pushes him away from connecting with people who do not study Kabbalah. He does not understand how the upper World might be connected with these folks.

At this stage many leave or become delayed in their spiritual development even though they continue studying; they do not advance because they do not realize their connection with others; they only gather theoretical knowledge.

So, the first complication is switching from yourself to the connection with the group, the 1%. We gradually begin to comprehend that spirituality is revealed between us, in the correction of our breaking.

But the second complication is switching from us, the 1%, the group, from being on the inside, to others, the masses, the 99%, to being outside of us—and to start enlightening them without Kabbalah, but only directing them towards integral unity without the attainment of the upper One. It is difficult to understand the importance of this; it is very far from the “personal interest.”

Today I see the difficulty in switching from working in the group to working with humanity in many groups of ours. But these are growing pains, and they are necessary for the realization of the structure of the upper world.
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