Question: What forces prevent my prayer from being raised to the Gate of Tears?

Answer: First of all, we have no place to turn to except for the collective force of the group since that is where the Creator is. The “Gate of Tears” means that we break our egoism and unify as one.

This state is regarded as the “Gate of Tears” because when we come to it, we feel neither desire, nor strength, nor ability to unite. And that is when (if we really achieved such a state) we receive the power to plea and cry since we are unified as one vessel with one desire. Our weakness and hopelessness lead to a cry called “tears,” and then the “Gate” finally opens.

This occurs only when unity is achieved, and unification begins at the center of the group. Hence, it doesn’t matter where you are, in Detroit or any other place. The state when you wish to bond together in order to come to love but cannot is regarded as the “Gate of Tears.”
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From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article “What Is the Foundation on which Kedusha [Holiness] Is Built”: When building a building in corporeality, we see that anyone who wants to build a building must first dig the foundations, and on the foundation he builds the building. In digging the foundation, we see that we should discern between having to build a one-story building—that is, only the ground floor—or a multi-story building. Thus, the digging of the foundation into the ground should be according to the height of the building. The foundation is not dug at once. Rather, each day the foundation is built so that it will be deeper, and then one can build a higher building.

The same order applies in spirituality.… And what is digging in spirituality? It is a deficiency, when a deficiency is dug in the heart, since the heart is called “desire,” a heart is called Malchut, and a heart is called “earth” or “ground.”…In other words, before we go and build a building, we must first dig in the ground, that is, take out whatever there is in the digging site.

For the creature to learn the conditions that would allow it to become similar to the Creator and to realize the purpose of creation, it has to include in itself all the properties of the Creator, one by one. That is why all the properties of the Creator and all the properties of the creature are included into each other and intertwined in such a way that the creature is left with a “record” (impression) of what it means to be similar to the Creator. This is achieved by the breaking that extends from above down to the depth of desire, from the zero to the fourth level.

This is how a complete mutual inclusion of the properties of the Creator and those of the creature in the form opposite to the goal occurs. This form contains all the details that are absolutely opposite to the final, fully corrected state. Here, the real creature, “man,” appears, and he is called to become similar to the Creator in the future. From this state, he begins to ascend by himself and to attain the Creator, the true property of bestowal. In this way, man advances from the beginning of creation to its completion, the end of correction.

Everything is built on the desire to enjoy, on the matter of creation. The more we use it, the more we can build, meaning that primarily, we have to delve into the desire to enjoy and feel how much it’s opposite to the Creator. This means that we dig into it at a great depth and aren’t afraid to reveal its oppositeness. This is an unpleasant feeling and usually brings suffering. After all, we reveal the property opposite to goodness.

Next, we come to the necessity of correction and begin to ask the Light, the property of the Creator, to correct the property of the creature. This is called “to build a building.” However, people are not capable of building it themselves—the Light builds. We have to provide the vessel, the desire, and express our request precisely. If we understand and ask precisely for what is necessary in order to ascend one more step, one more “story,” the Light comes and builds it. Thus, we advance further.

The foundation which is used for building the spiritual structure is the desire to enjoy, the sensation of its oppositeness to the Creator. The deeper we dig, the higher we can ascend.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

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When we begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, we think that it will be easy and will continue to provide extraordinary inspiration one usually feels in the beginning. But with time, we have to start digging deeper, inside our own egoism, and then the experience becomes unpleasant.

The body doesn’t really want to get up for the morning lesson, go study, neglect rest, think and feel that I’m distant from spirituality and unwilling to connect with others, or worry about bestowal and knowing only how to receive.

Thus we begin to experience the “foundation pit” being dug in our hearts. And later on everything is determined by how far we can reach into our ego. It can be done with the help of the environment since a person cannot do it alone. No matter how unpleasant it is and how much egoism hurts, the person will be willing to find out how opposite he or she is to bestowal, having none of its properties. And from one’s despair, from all the descents and lack of inspiration, he will advance.

This means that the foundation upon which we build the spiritual structure is not that pleasant. It is an empty “abyss” dug in the heart; it is our digging into the “earth,” our own desire, the darkness, the realization of our egoism and opposition to bestowal. And only someone who is able to bear it and is willing to work so methodically, by having built the supportive environment around oneself, will have the required strength and won’t fear digging deeper into himself and moving forth.

Thereby, he will establish a foundation upon which he will be able to erect his building, meaning that through the group, he will demand the Light that Reforms that will construct it for him. The deeper he will be digging within, the taller the house he will be able to erect. After all, it is written that “the Creator made one against the other.”

We start with the state regarded as “zero” and first, we take one step down, in order to later rise one step up. We take two steps down and ascend them again. Thus, we go through them all: 0-1-2-3-4, until, finally, we arrive at the end of correction having undergone four “exiles” and four “redemptions.”

We have reached the last state of exile now; therefore, what lies ahead of us is the last, total redemption.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Daily Advice for the Week

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Question: What should we expect from the upcoming conventions? What intention should we build?

Answer: We are approaching very powerful changes due to our unification and I hope that the upcoming chain of conventions will help us to keep the intention together for a whole month without leaving it. Work, family, children, personal problems—despite all of this, unconsciously, in some corner of my mind, I leave a place for the most important thing and constantly worry about our unity, about how we advance from one convention to the next, from one day to the next, in our intentions and our inner solidarity—until there, inside, we will reveal the Creator.

We have been studying this theoretically for a long time already. So let’s truly wish for Him to be revealed. We have heard about this thousands of times—so let’s make the effort.

We cannot fall into doubts, “Again? How many times have we been through this?” We are at the threshold of a breakthrough. And the world is also demanding this. After all, it doesn’t have the slightest chance of finding any solution. In the Internet we see what kind of “solutions” are being offered in response to the modern crises, how people are trying to conceal and silence them because they don’t see any way out.

In a form that’s comfortable, clear, and close to the people, we must inform the world that there is a solution, and the faster we start realizing it, the less suffering this will cost us.

Therefore, our intention at the conventions is to start “permanently living” in the group that is bringing the whole world the solution to the crisis. There is nothing more important that we could possibly prepare or do for the world.

Right now we are at a very important point: There is a sick patient lying in front of us and his illness is almost fatal, but we can create a medicine and cure him. Then he won’t just be healthy, but will rise to the Creator’s level, to a new, eternal dimension.

Therefore, we must attribute the greatest possible importance to our efforts and our status—the ascent we are starting during these days. We have to hold ourselves accountable for what kind of task we are carrying out. Who are we to receive such a great mission—to actually participate in correcting not only the world, but all of reality?

We need to be a little bit prouder; that will help us to feel our responsibility.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/11, “Peace in the World”

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Question: There many groups and communities in the world which pursue all kinds of goals. Does a connection without the points in the hearts help people rise above egoistic desire?

Answer: The point in the heart is a desire to reveal the root; it is a part of the Creator from Above. I have a black point, the need for something that I can’t even define. In this life, I lack a sensation, an understanding: What is this life for? Why does it exist? Where is it from? What is its purpose ? Who is controlling me?

I start having questions about the purpose of life. It’s as if from Above, there is a thread wired to me, a channel of forces and the upper management, and I wish to attain it, to know the reason to live. I ask questions which a regular person is scared to ask, embarrassed to raise.

These questions eventually merge into one: “What is the meaning of life?” Without answering it, I don’t see why I should live at all. I need to break the lock on this “jewelry box.” And if my question digs into the very essence, the source of life, it means that I do have the point in the heart.

A person with the point in the heart comes to the group that studies this specific question: “How do I find the purpose of life, its source? How do I uncover the upper governance and join it with all that I am?” A person cannot quit half way on this path for his desire is toward the very essence of creation, and nothing will stop him now. He is ready to face the Creator and doesn’t succumb to any limitations. No matter how hard others may try to hold him or her back, no matter what they may say, the person just doesn’t care.

Such people come to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

There is another kind as well, those who are still thinking. Their point in the heart has also woken up, but it is still “wrapped” in all sorts of covers. So, they are satisfied by mysticism, holistic practices, eastern philosophies, meditation, vegetarianism, naturalism, and so on. All of these trends start with the same question, and this is why they are so popular in our times. On the subconscious level, man feels that it’s time to transcend somewhat, it is time to change…

Thus, gradually, we do advance. We have to wait until people check these directions. In the meantime, their desire grows, so little by little, they will quit their quests and come to the source, to the method that can reveal it to them. Such is the path.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: How does the reading of The Book of Zohar help me to feel our collective desire?

Answer: The Zohar tells us about the corrected system of the connection between us. If I feel my connection with the others as uncorrected and desire to have it reformed, I study The Book of Zohar and in so doing wish to get elevated to its level, the level of the corrected connection.

I don’t know what the corrected state is and how I can ascend to it. I only know that I must reach the state The Zohar describes. I don’t understand what is written there; I don’t even have to know the language, it doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that I strive to be corrected. To be corrected means to unite with the group, the society, the others, and come to loving the others as I love myself. After all, love means oneness between us, when desires of the others and my own are one and the same. Then, we are unified.

It is written that if you have one pillow, you have to reach a state when you give it to the other. Why? It is because his desire has become more important to you than your own. Why is this regarded as loving the other as you love yourself? Since previously you loved yourself more than him and now you must love him just as you used to love yourself, it is more than yourself. And this is what we call the property of bestowal that dwells in man.

It seems unrealistic, appalling, and undesired. I have no idea what we are studying it for. And that’s how everybody thinks. But there is no choice. Gradually, the importance of the property of bestowal sinks deeper and deeper in us. We start seeing the highest and unique value in it and gradually, agree to live in it. This is how the Light affects us, especially when we are reading The Zohar. It descends and reforms our attitude to bestowal.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, The Zohar

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My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

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In every state of ascent, you should immediately imagine a state of descent. If you are able to do so, you remain in an ascent longer than one instant. And that’s enough!

You already received this impression, made a “record” (Reshimo), and if you continue it further, you start to enjoy this state egoistically. It turns out that you not in control of it any more, you don’t finalize or aim it correctly as you did before, when you entered it. Instead, you simply start receiving pleasure from it, turning it toward your egoism.

If a state of ascent continues longer than one instant, and you have acknowledged it and are not going to add anything to it, you should view it as a descent. In spirituality, if you do not add, but stay in the same timeline, the same momentum, at the same height, you turn into zero. In spirituality, only acceleration counts, rather than speed.

And spirituality is in the group, the place where unity is achieved, since within our unity, we reveal the Creator. So, we need to constantly examine ourselves in reference to this unity. If I contribute in the group the impression of the importance of the group compared to my own lowliness in regard to it, the value of the goal, spiritual work, and the Creator being revealed in our unity, then I act in the right direction.

Suppose I’ve exerted effort in this direction and managed to reach a certain awareness pertaining to spirituality, the property of bestowal; I got to feel and understand something in my current state. But I cannot remain in the same state longer than an instant after I have experienced it emotionally and mentally. After all, the next moment, by realizing that I did understand and feel, that I achieved something, I will start feeling selfish pleasure. It will be serving the ego from that moment on.

Hence, at the very next moment, you have to immediately add more desire yourself and seek even more! But where does one get this kind of need to constantly strive for more? How can one not descend into to his desire to enjoy, by letting himself rest and delay and gaining pleasure from what’s been accomplished?

Rabash writes that if a person has felt a state of ascent, he must immediately seek explanation for it in the books and articles, dive into them with this newly achieved current desire, and attain this state deeper and deeper. A person does so in order to receive from it an additional desire that will allow him to continue ascending further.

In fact, if we don’t ascend, we fall! It’s impossible to crawl on the “straight path”; in spirituality, it doesn’t exist. It is written: “No instant is like another!” I must make it so that the next one is more exalted than the previous one.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If we ascend to Infinity, then it looks like we will never get satisfied and will constantly desire more than we have, won’t we?

Answer: It isn’t an endless but a clearly defined ascent: 125 steps, the Light of Nefesh-Ruach-Neshama-Haya-Yechida (NRNHY), desires of Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, Malchut. There is a limit to which I am supposed to unify with the others, until we become as one man with one heart, which is regarded as Malchut of the world of Infinity, where we attain the Light of NRNHY, the Light of Infinity.

Everything lies within its borders; everything has a measure. When we hear “the Light of Infinity,” it means that the vessel and the Light are completely equivalent to one another and there are no restrictions. From the desire’s point of view, it is the infinite fulfillment by the Light.

If I fill a glass with water to the top, it means that it is infinitely filled. There are no restrictions: As much as the glass can contain so much liquid was poured into it. It is an infinite fulfillment since it isn’t limited by a certain level, above which it’s impossible to go. It received everything it could possibly receive.

Thus, at times, we experience a sensation of total fulfillment as if there isn’t a greater pleasure! This means that you have reached total fulfillment. There were 10 ounces of desire, and all of them are filled. If you don’t need to grow further, then you have reached your infinite fulfillment. But someone else might need the fulfillment valued at 10 tons, and until he has gotten them, he will feel restricted. Once he is filled, he will experience infinity.

Infinity doesn’t get measured by distance since there is no distance in spirituality. But when we reach unity among ourselves and all of us link together in the integral, ideal system, the upper Light, the property of bestowal, can be completely revealed within such perfect connection. This is what is called the Infinity. It is a quantitative notion, rather than a qualitative one.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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