If we wish to attain The Book of Zohar, we must think about how we attain it. We connect our desires directed towards the goal into one big desire and strive to turn it from a receiving desire into a bestowing one.

Even though this desire is for a higher degree, for the attainment of the meaning and purpose of life, it’s still an egoistic, uncorrected desire that strives to receive for itself much more than regular people. And that’s why this desire is the evil inclination, and not the good one.

While the entire world exists in corporeal desires on the animate level, we exist at the origin of the desire that pertains to the human level, meaning the desire to attain spirituality, the Creator, something above this world. But I want it for myself. I don’t care about the entire world, nothing concerns me, I disregard everyone else even more. And other people also notice that I don’t pay attention to anyone or anything; I only care about attaining something exalted. It turns out that in this way I became an even bigger egoist.

On one hand, it’s true that “every person, bigger than his friend, has greater egoism.” But in the end, I am not yet on the next degree together with my extreme desire that already pertains to the next degree; rather, according to the nature of the desire, its essence, I exist in a state opposite to it. It’s because my desire is directed towards “one’s own sake” and does not correspond at all to the next degree.

All my previous degrees (on the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels, where I advanced throughout my life over the course of all my reincarnations) were built on the basis of the constant development of the desire to receive pleasure, and it’s due to it that I kept attaining things, advancing linearly and forward. But now I must change the actual nature of the desire.

I can no longer directly use the desire that arises in me and attain what I want. On the contrary, when a desire comes to me, I must reverse its intention, what I am using it for, and then I attain the desired.

This correction of the use of desire really confuses me. I don’t really know how to use it because correction is not in my hands. It introduces a certain foreign factor into my life, my perception of desire, its realization, and a certain compensation. This factor is the Light that Reforms since I am not capable of changing the desire on my own to make it work for the benefit of someone else.

After all, in my ego I feel that this goodness is not inside me, so what do I need all this for and why? This does not give me strength. I suddenly feel weak, disappointed, and desperate; I’m not able to do anything unless it’s for me. So where can I get the moving force, the “fuel”?

I need to find “fuel” that will also be someone else’s. In other words, a “machine” that works for the sake of bestowal needs a different kind of “fuel” than a “machine” that works for itself. A desire, that works “for its own sake” constantly advances me towards the goal, it sees the future goal and it rushes forward. And here it’s the other way around: If I move another millimeter closer to the goal, I’ll feel even emptier in my desire to receive pleasure. So how can I advance?

This is why there are special actions here called “the Light that Reforms,” which I need in order to feel the importance of bestowal so that bestowal will fulfill me and give me the same fulfillment as reception used to give. How is this possible? It’s opposite to everything I have in this life….

I don’t see that this can be realized as all of nature exists because it wants to attain something, get itself fulfilled. But here I am required to transfer fulfillment towards others, without receiving anything in return, instead of fulfilling myself. But if I acquire love for them, it will be as if I was fulfilling myself, my desire is to express my love for them. In other words, there should be something out of this world here. And this is really the way things are—the quality of bestowal is really out of this world.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/2011, The Zohar

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To see the spiritual system we are now entering (and the entire world will have to enter in the end), we have to reveal a certain “crazy” desire in the connection between us—we must suddenly wish to bestow to one another, as if having lost our minds: “I feel good when I work and the other receives.” In our world, this would be a sign of madness, of the inability to think, feel, perceive, and act correctly.

This is why the upper Light must influence us and bring us this state. This state is different, very strange, and completely separated from us. It is not in our power to attain it, and we do not feel any reasonable need for it that would awaken this desire in us.

Initially we receive a tiny spark, a small aspiration towards this state of bestowal and not more than that. We must attain everything else by starting to convince each other of the greatness of bestowal. From an external point of view, this work is truly unreal, irrational, and impossible to agree with.

So imagine how disappointed we must become in our egoism, how desperate we must be to wish to free ourselves of it, to exit it. It causes us so much suffering that it is better for us to run away from it, even to a state like this. Imagine the suffering humanity must go through in order to wish to bestow, to rise above everything, and to stop thinking about themselves!

In other words, we first must feel that our life is eternal. You cannot free yourself of it and end this entire “detrimental business,” this enormous despair. You have to feel that your state is eternal, that you really have nowhere to run. This is called to “experience eternity.”

And if so, you find yourself in a state when you feel that life is many times worse than death. Then, to counterbalance all these horrible states and suffering within the ego, you will agree to experience the goodness, the freedom in exiting the evil that causes it.

If we weigh the suffering we have to experience in our desires because of the ego that gives us the sensation of this life, we will understand that this really is a horrible suffering that does not exist in our world. We suffer because the Light comes closer and closer and displays itself as unified, while we see ourselves as distanced from one another and spread around the world.

It is the distance between the two things—the lack of correspondence, inequality, and imbalance between us and the Light, which shines to us as whole while we are opposite to it, broken, and imperfect—it is this gap, this abyss, between us and the Light that awakens all the disasters and suffering in us.

Kabbalists write a lot about the horrible times that may await us in the future, like the “merciful women boiled and ate their own children,” and so on. It is necessary to understand that only Kabbalah can turn this torment of suffering from hatred into a yearning for love. And then we will be able to begin to add reason to our sensations—to stop advancing only under the influence of suffering, which would gradually make us smarter since suffering softens the body, the desire, just like “blows soften the flesh.”

On the contrary, we can precede the blow with a medicine, that is, begin to awaken the Light that Reforms on our own. Then it will shine for us and correct our mind and feelings, and we will begin to understand more and prevent blows. So let us try to think about this when we read The Zohar.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/2011, The Zohar

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Question: Do we need to acquire some special Masachim (screens) and overcome ourselves in order to reach the spiritual state of greatness (Gadlut)?

Answer: Suppose I live in human society and discover that everyone needs a certain food product. By a twist of luck, I am the only one who can produce it and to provide it for everyone.

I feel everyone’s general need. The desires of billions of people are now felt in me together with their filling! That is, I feel that everyone will enjoy what I am going to give them. The immense desire and filling enable me to feel the “newborn,” meaning the next stage in the development of this state.

How can I resist the temptation and not enjoy this immense pleasure by myself? After all, I took this desire and made it my own. We don’t understand now what a connection with others is, when by connecting with them, I take their desire and turn it into mine. It is like a mother who gives her child a spoonful of food and enjoys when he swallows it. She actually feels this pleasure physically. She receives because he does.

So there is a great danger that I will begin to enjoy egotistically. After all, I have received great desires and I am going to receive great pleasures. I have to create a screen (Masach) over the desire of others, which I have attached to myself and turned into my AHP.

Now I work in order to fill these desires. I perform a union with the upper Light (Zivug de Hakaa) within me, as if it is my desire and also my pleasure. When I receive all the filling in my vessel with the intention to bestow, I am ready to pass on the filling to the lower ones. This means that first I perform the correction for them, and then I fill them.

It says that “an older son receives twice.” It means that the upper one works with the desires of the lower one, which he perceives as his own and values them even more than his own.

There is an extra coarseness (Aviut) in these desires because when he later fills the lower ones, he receives a pleasure that is “620” times greater than their pleasure, just like a mother in relation to her child. Imagine how he enjoys the food and how she enjoys the fact that she has fed him. And for all of this we need a screen.…

This is why the depth of the desire revealed in AHP is so great. To achieve this depth, one needs to cut off the “stony heart (Lev ha Even)” and later perform many other corrections, layer by layer, which is like “many pennies that add up to a large account.”
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From the 4rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/8/2011, TES

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Question: How can we measure our spiritual progress?

Answer: Spiritual progress is indicated by the extent to which a person feels that he can attain the spiritual state only through unity. This means that he begins imagining the spiritual world correctly and understanding that spirituality is the quality of bestowal, which we attain only through practical unification in the group until we totally lose ourselves.

This happens by a person’s own desire, which the Light helps him realize. He assesses himself by how many disturbances he receives while doing this and by accepting them the right away, as help from the opposite side.

He perceives all of these disturbances and resistance as constituent parts of the same system of connection. And when every disturbance connects correctly to support this connection, it operates precisely to strengthen it.

Nothing was created in vain. Any force of resistance or contradicting force in the common system has to occupy its place and assist the unity. The forces can be “for” or “against” in all possible forms and directions, but the system is built so everyone unites in this complex, multifaceted construction. Every element in it acts in its own direction, but they all complete one another, and the system exists precisely by virtue of that.

If we take any complex geometric pattern or construction, we will see many lines in it that extend in different directions, as well as unifications of all sorts of forms. And precisely the size, might, and diversity of these connections creates the rich system.

If there are several systems that are opposite to one another and complete one another, they create the right balance, which is Malchut of the world of Infinity. The more flexible the system, the more highly organized it is. And flexibility is attained by virtue of the multitude and diversity of forces. The sharper the polarity of these forces, the greater might they achieve.

The more different connections there are between the elements, the more complex and sensitive the system is, and the more it opens itself up and is able to accept and process the entire upper Light with its infinite diversity of forms.

The entire diversity of our qualities and desires was created by the Light, by its 613 Lights. Therefore, nothing that exists is extraneous. We must only place every quality, thought, and desire that does not match it in the right place, which the Light had initially intended for it.

Then we will reveal an extraordinarily rich, flexible, and highly organized system that includes such a great number of connections that separate connections disappear and everything turns into one, infinitely connected whole.

This mutual connection becomes so tight and multidimensional that it goes from being discrete to analog. All three lines, Sefirot HBD-HGT-NHY existing in the system, merge into one.

These separate, discrete forms of unification turn into one monolithic whole, which does not divide into parts and does not consist of elements, but becomes one, simple, infinite Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/11, Shamati

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Question: At the December convention, will it be possible to make a huge leap in the inner worlds?

Answer: We do not make a leap at the convention, but we go from our lowest state, which does not even have a name and does not belong to the spiritual ladder, to the first degree on it. This is not a leap.

We have to understand the difference between our preliminary work, which takes place before we step onto the ladder of the spiritual degrees, and work on these degrees. The preliminary work is very group-oriented. I include myself in others, they influence me and I influence them. I don’t have my own spiritual individuality yet. I don’t exist as a spiritual individual yet.

Therefore, if I include myself into thousands of people who are around me, I receive their opinions, desires and forces, and like in our world I use the capabilities that society has, which enables me to reduce my path a great deal. It’s analogous to taking an uneducated person from the jungle and teaching him to be a prince, like in the musical My Fair Lady.

We can all receive support from the common brain and the common heart, from our inclusion in one another. When I become included in the general field that others create and in which all Kabbalists of past generations take part, all souls, the entire common soul, then I receive the forces enabling me to make the leap.

It turns out that others worked for 20 years to attain the spiritual level while I came just a couple of years ago (or maybe 3 or 4 years ago, since every person requires a minimal time period), yet everything depends on my desire. I can become included in this common unity and ascend together with everyone.

There is a saying that goes, “Ask Me and I will render,” which means we can receive the spiritual state in advance and pay for it afterwards. This is possible.

But when a person already starts rising up the spiritual levels, a more individual development occurs there. Even though it also presupposes mutual inclusion with others, there a person starts consciously working with the Light and discerning desires.

Therefore, those who do not have spiritual attainment yet can adhere to society the way a small child holds on to an adult. Everything depends on a person’s efforts: He has the opportunity to participate in the convention and enter spirituality by virtue of the whole system.

Similarly, we also don’t repeat the corrections that the great people of the past generations completed. We are like little children they lift in their arms, allowing us to rise even higher. We are standing upon the platform they created.

And the same thing will happen with the beginners who join us at the convention: They will receive the same kind of support from us, from their “previous generations.”
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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The power of the Light that Reforms enables a person to enjoy bestowal. Then he finally understands what it means to return to the source of the Light, to goodness.

Everything that a person enjoyed in his egoistic desire now brings him pain, and everything he suffered from in his egoism now brings him pleasure. Everything is inverted, as it says: “I saw a reverse world.”

Everything has turned upside down because there is nothing but the two influences: either reception or bestowal. There is nothing but these two sensations: One or the other, where when one increases, the other decreases or vice versa.

So we have to understand that our advancement is possible only thanks to the upper Light that will let us feel that bestowal is good and receiving for oneself is bad. Only then will we be able to advance and not before.

Just as now I work in order to fill my desire to receive, I will work in order to fill my desire to bestow. But when we operate for bestowal, we work in the general vessel, in Malchut of Infinity, in the collective soul.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: I understood that there are laws and forces in our world. What law or force prevents me from attaining bestowal and why? How can I change this in myself?

Answer: Your egoism prevents you from this on purpose. It can be tamed only by an external force, which acts only when you study, communicate with similar people, and teach others because the force of correction is hidden in the connection between us.

Question: If the 99% of humanity can’t change anything themselves, what exactly are we trying to change in them with our circulation efforts?

Answer: We, the 1%, should correct ourselves through uniting in the group and by the force of our unity (Arvut) unite all those 99% who are outside the group. See “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Items 70-71.

Question: Can a man or a woman who studies and disseminates Kabbalah and is in our environment be depressed? If so, what is the reason?

Can people who have a genetic and hereditary susceptibility to depression or mania study Kabbalah?

Answer: In our time, depression is the most common phenomenon, and the cure for it is greater involvement in group activities.

Question: I have three teenagers at home, and they absolutely refuse to listen to the wisdom of Kabbalah. How and when can I talk to them about this topic?

Answer: Do not talk to them about Kabbalah until they grow up and desire to hear about it themselves.
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In the group, there is a constant circulation of desire. The key for me is to be more active in analysis and correction. Indeed, my corrected attitude towards others returns to me better adjusted and strengthened. In this way, I introduce changes to the way the group influences me. My weak impetus evokes strong feedback, according to the measure that I value the friends.

Here everything depends on how much importance I ascribe to them. It could be that the group is very large, but I don’t value them at all, or it could that the group is small, but I consider them as the best environment in the world. This is my choice. By building the correct attitude towards them, I change my destiny. Until now everything happened according to the plan of nature: I grew, and they filled me with enthusiasm. But now I am given an opportunity to create an identical attitude towards them myself.

This has become possible thanks to the shattering of the vessels, as a result of which today I see my desires as foreign, isolated, and not dependent on me. Essentially, I have an opportunity to correct them as if from the side, externally. And I myself constitute only the point that the Creator kindled within me.

The entire reality, all the souls are before me. And I am a spark that needs to build the correct attitude towards them and relate to them as the Creator relates to the created beings. This is so because these souls are my spiritual vessel. I was given an opportunity to begin to relate to them consciously, purposefully, and they strengthen me in response. So I gradually discover that I have a connection with the Creator. It turns out that my vessel is Malchut filled with the upper Light.

And here is my only choice. The group, on its part, will give me all that is necessary for me. But if I don’t cooperate with it selectively and specifically want that, the world leads me through the path of suffering, which is called “in its time.”

Thus, if you want to be on the fast and straight path toward the goal, activate the group. Only from it, from the correct environment, will you receive the Light, the force of accelerated development.

Today you perceive Malchut of Infinity as “this world.” This reality influences you, and changes you according to the way you relate to it. Everything depends specifically on your attitude, on the extent to which you create and invite upon yourself the influence from the friends. Turn them to the correct angle in your perception, and they will radiate the Light on you. After all, you deal with Malchut of Infinity given to you for the work.
[60244]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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The sages said: “A thousand people come to study, but only one comes out to the Light.” The studying of the one thousand creates the opportunity for one person to come out to the Light because everything grows in the form of a pyramid. There is no other way.

The entire still level gives rise to one plant, and the entire vegetative level to one animal. Hence, it’s impossible to bring one to the Light without one thousand who begin to study and enter the lower level.

It is the one thousand people who build the vessel so that their work will result in one force that reaches the Light. In other words, they achieve their general unity.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The moment we enter the convention hall, we should immediately connect to the great, collective desire, be ready for connection, and expect that it will happen here and now! We must think that it will necessarily happen here and now (as it is said about waiting for the arrival of the Messiah everyday). This calls forth the action, and it really happens.

It isn’t enough just to come to the convention—we must prepare for it. It is a good idea to study the convention material. Surprising you with new ideas there is not part of my plan. Conversely, the more familiar you are with the material and the more I speak of seemingly known things, in response to our desire directed at what you have read, heard, and studied, I will be able to bring really new explanations.

I would like to see people at the convention who understand, feel the material, and know in advance what I am going to say. The topics of the lessons and sources they are based on can be found in convention preparation material. We have to study it because there shouldn’t be any surprises. All our advancement should take place internally, by connecting and revealing new states.

This is called advancement. The words of the material can be the same, but the impression they leave and the depth they reveal will be new. We will feel them in a new way and on a new level.

Hence, we should study the material and songs by heart so that they are familiar to all of us. This is very important. If having tasted something we then taste it again, it seems pleasant and new. But when we taste something for the first time, we barely sense the taste.

The same is said about a sin: The first transgression isn’t considered a sin because the person didn’t know what would happen and simply tried it. But as soon as one has “tasted” and wants to continue, like Adam who said about the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge: “I ate and shall eat more!”—then this is already a problem.

Hence, we should “taste” the materials of the convention in advance so that at the convention itself, we will “continue to eat” and discover the real taste. It isn’t enough that we read half a page and think we’re ready. We have to build the vessels, our tools of perception, and arrange them just like kneading and warming dough. This is how we must warm ourselves. The general preparation determines whether we will feel something or not.

The more prepared we are, the faster we’ll be able to attain, both in heart and mind. If both are operating correctly, we will achieve revelation.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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