Question: When does a person finally realize that only the Creator can help him and that this help is only in adhering to the group?

Answer: This occurs at the final step before exiting exile. Only then does a true plea, a true need arise. However, this step comes in stages as well: the escape, the crossing of the Red Sea, the mountain of hatred (Sinai), the appeals, and finally, the despair. This speaks of many things.

We keep asking, “When will the work finally be done and the Creator be revealed?” This is correct. He will become revealed, but then more work will follow.Yet, a person will view it as an adventure, as enjoyment since if you love someone, to make effort for the sake of the beloved is pleasure. You enjoy the fact that you are doing something for them.

When you work for self-gratification, you exert labor to enjoy its fruit later on. If you could taste it without having to work, that would be best. But it isn’t the same when you do things out of love for another. In that case, the effort itself brings pleasure. While you are working, you are also gathering the reward.

Try to do something for someone you love such as your son, for example. No matter what effort is required, you feel even better when you exert for it. If you simply bring a present to your child and see how happy you made him or her, you won’t enjoy it. When you love, it is the effort that makes it all worthwhile.
[32266]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/2011, “What Are the Powers Which Are Needed for the Work”

Related Material:
Do Your Work Like A Pro
Step By Step Towards Pleasure And Love
The Diagonal Of A Spiritual Ladder

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Question: Can our efforts be viewed as preparation for the spiritual life?

Answer: Yes, they can. Effort is a broad idea. However, note the following:

1. It isn’t that I run around for no reason like a child for whom running is reason enough in and of itself. Rather, my effort has to be purposeful. I exert it where the breaking occurred, in oneness with others, since from love of others, I will reach the degree of love for the Creator.

2. The effort must be motivated by the Light which, essentially, arranges the next step for me. There, I may have to face greater despair or higher attainment, deeper emptiness or greater fulfillment. It doesn’t matter what it is. This is the next stage of the journey since we move forward between the right line and the left line.

Hence, besides the right place to exert an effort, I need the right source of the Light, the books that connect me to it. Therefore, I have to be in the group that studies the sources.

3. Additionally, I need a mentor in order to learn the right way to work with the books and how to relate to the group.

If a person has all three of these tools and knows how to use them, he is all set. Now, everything is up to him. Time after time, he must evaluate these three components: the teacher, the books, and the group, and seek an opportunity to utilize them in the most effective way.
[32272]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/2011, “What Are the Powers Which Are Needed for the Work”

Related Material:
When Work Is Pleasure
The Upper Governance Is Always Perfect. Am I?
The Method Of Ascension

Filed under: Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

We go through numerous lifetimes, remaining only in egoistic desire. Within it, we live and develop. It is our reality in this world. Essentially, it is only the point in the heart of each of us that undergoes incarnations while the bodies belonging on the animate level simply are born and die.

Finally, after many lifetimes, the point in the heart starts doing its work. After all, the material desire has completed its development and has nothing else to do; it lost interest in trying to fill itself and doesn’t see an exciting future ahead. All of this helps the point in the heart to bring a person to the question of the purpose of life, of a more exalted existence than the material journey from birth to death. This is the beginning of the spiritual process.

In nature, there are two forces: the will to receive and the will to bestow. The spiritual world is the world of bestowal, whereas the corporeal world is the world of reception. How then do we unveil the world of bestowal? How do we enter it?

My point in the heart must face egoism which halts it. Yet, the upper force that expands from the integral network of mutual connection brings me to the group, the studies, and the teacher. Now, I have to work with the environment so that my will to bestow may rise above the will to receive. Having accomplished that, I will ascend to my first spiritual degree. It is grounded in egoism, but its essence is in bestowal.

The stages of ascension are as follows: 1) My egoism is increased to match the point in the heart, 2) I have to trust that even if these forces are equally strong, I can reconcile them by having elevated my point in the heart with the help of the group and having chosen the value of bestowal over the value of reception, and 3) This is regarded as faith above reason.

Later on, the process repeats: I receive greater egoism, which is confronted by the point in the heart that has also grown, thereby ascending to the degree number two. In this way, we climb the ladder of spiritual rungs, step by step.

[32099]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
While Crossing Into Spirituality
Ascending The Rungs Of Bina
Efforts And A Finding

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: Today there are many new students present at the lesson. What advice would you give them to change their egoistic intention into an altruistic one?

Answer: In our world, we are approaching the moment of truth: We have nothing else to live for. Day by day, the world discovers that its life is empty. In reality, however, we haven’t reached the turning point just yet, and people still manage to confuse themselves and obscure the truth because they have no replacement for their present life.

We have to show them that the alternative does exist, and that we are undergoing a certain process managed from Above. We have to actualize it. It is a unique, benevolent process, a remarkable development, elevating us over life in the body which is approaching death every given second. This is what we should pass on to the newcomers.

We must rise to a new perception of reality. It doesn’t mean that I simply replace “my picture” I see from within the body. No, I don’t “switch the remote” on the external view, but rather I step out into a new reality, cross from one world to the other. I change my attitude in practice, by giving it a new vector: from within myself to outward toward others, or from within myself out to the Creator. In fact, “the other” is a remedy, an intermediary phase that helps me to aim to the Creator.

In general, I can exist in my small will to receive pleasure, perceiving this tiny, frail world. Alternatively, I can break free from it and experience eternal life, the perfect nature, where I live without restrictions in the world of Infinity. The wisdom of Kabbalah gives us this opportunity.

In the previous generations, only a few were able to experience such an internal revolution, the transition from one world to the other. But today, everyone whose point in the heart (or spiritual desire) unfolds can try to actualize it. Starting with our time and on, the entire human race will gradually, step by step, undergo this transition.
[32086]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Teaching Children Spiritual Perception
A Speech At The Alternative Medicine Congress, 10.27.10
True Reality – Laitman Unplugged

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Evolution, Group Work, Inner Work, Perception, Q&A, Spirituality - 1 Comment →

Question: If I have an egoistic desire and a spark of bestowal, then who am I?

Answer: You are the middle, you stand between them as the deciding force which shifts the scale. If you cannot arbitrate bestowal and receiving within you, their conflict will force you to do it, if only by way of suffering, through internal and even external wars. On the other hand, you can use the wisdom of Kabbalah which explains to you how to go through this process quickly and consciously.

Question cont.: What determines my choice then if I am in the middle?

Answer: It is defined by the environment that you have been led to. The Creator, so to speak, “places a person’s hand on the good fate,” but later on, you yourself should become rooted in the group and begin working with it.

If you are sitting at the lesson right now, it doesn’t mean that you have found the right environment just yet. You haven’t found the essential tools yet: not the teacher, or the group, or the books. You received them from Above, but you haven’t shifted the scales yet.

To do so, you must literally dig your teeth into the means you were given and use them correctly. You need to employ them every second by checking how and what else can be done. That is what constitutes your choice.

Egoism constantly pushes you away from it, disconnecting you from the teacher, or the group, or the books, and distracting you with doubt and disdain. And if you overcome these difficulties, you advance.

Let’s see if you are a real man. After all, “man” in Hebrew (Gever, גבר) means "overcoming" (Hitgabrut, התגברות), which allows you to raise one’s spark over all obstacles.
[32089]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Middle Line
Light Through The Cracks In The Wall
Putting Together Your Partzuf

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: What’s the use of my growing egoistic desires?

Answer: Their task is to bring you to failure, to let you feel that you are worthless, that your life is awful, your desires despicable, and generally speaking, nothing around you is worth a thing.

Therefore, the only thing you now need is for the Light to awaken you. It will awaken you to the same desires, showing you that they are worse than they seemed before. Then you really will desire to ascend above them and will start revealing the opposite side of reality above these desires. However, before that, you have to start studying in the group because lectures and live communication cannot be substituted by anything else.
From the lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am” Hall on 1/4/11

Related Material:
When Evil Unveils
How Do You Get Through To The Heart?
Who Will Show Me The Truth?

Filed under: Egoism, Group Work, Kabbalah Study, Q&A, Suffering - No Comments →

Question: How do we achieve “a plea from the depth of the heart”?

Answer: Depth is when from our present state, we dive into more internal, exalted states, where our interconnection gets enhanced, until “one heart” is formed. This is what the “depth of the heart” is since in spirituality, each more inner degree is the more exalted one.

If in our work we strive to get to the “depth of the heart,” we have to find oneness there. And it isn’t just some desirable supplement, but rather a Kli (vessel), our correction. Nothing else is up to us since fulfillment, according to the law of equivalence of form, will unfold in the Kli to the degree that the Kli corresponds to it.

Therefore, we should think solely about unity. It depends on mutual agreement of the group and provides a positive effect even if it lasts for just a little while. Since habit becomes a second nature, it is worth making a deal that everyone will think about unity for a certain period of time during the day.

In our world, any phenomenon eventually declines and expires because the notion of time affects it. Since we haven’t yet reached a state where time doesn’t influence us, it is advisable to make an effort to hold an unbroken thought of unity for a few hours a day, to the extent that everybody will feel how everything is up to him since all the others are already connected.

As a result, he will unveil new phenomena which will be approaching the Light; it is quite possible. It is very likely that while at it, a person will discover resentment, reluctance, and inability to bond. At the same time, a person can feel that with the help of some external force, he is able to rise above himself and unite, as if rising above matter. If this force comes to surface, he will feel it for sure.

Inside the matter (desire to receive), he can do nothing. But since he desperately wants to ascend and unify with the others, he feels that there has to be a certain force which can help him. Passing through the chain of revelations and sensations, a person feels where and what has to happen. He understands the causes of the events and uncovers them step by step.

Our nature, Pharaoh, sits in us not allowing us to unite. In order to rise above it, we need strength, and we have to ask for it all the time. As a result of these revelations, we will want to turn to the Creator to build a connection in us. The first degree of such network is called exodus from Egypt.
[32205]
From the Talk “Questions about Unity” 12/31/2010

Related Material:
A Brief Moment And Eternal Life
From All Talk To All Walk
From Apprentice To Master

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →

Question: You said that in order to build ourselves we have to use two forces: reception and bestowal. What if instead of two forces, I have only one, the force of reception?

Answer: You have both of these forces except that you don’t wish to use the second one! We start ascending from below, from “zero” of bestowal, until we have covered 125 spiritual degrees and acquire absolute bestowal. But “zero” of bestowal doesn’t mean you don’t have it; you simply don’t employ this force you possess.

We can’t say that something doesn’t exist in the universe; this force doesn’t register only in you, in your perception. And the confirmation of the fact that it does exist is that it can unfold in you in the next instant, only to disappear yet again. This is regarded as a “zero.” In reality, however, it doesn’t exist; it can be so solely in man’s perception.

You have free will to evoke the force of bestowal from this zero. In order to do so you are given an environment comprised of the teacher, group, and the books. Start utilizing it to work on your zero of bestowal and it will be a zero no more.

After all, you can evoke the force of bestowal only when you relate to someone else who also desires to experience it. So start building such relations; don’t get locked in your own self! What other way is there to unveil bestowal?

The force of reception is concentrated within one person, but it takes two to keep the force of bestowal so that it can work in between the two. Therein lies the major difference between the egoistic and altruistic choices: In your ego, you are alone, but to bestow, you need the right environment. Otherwise, where will you actualize it? Where will you find this force and confirm that you indeed possess it?

Therefore, as soon a spiritual spark awakens in a person and calls for development of the soul, he or she is immediately brought to a group and instructed: “Choose it!” This is where the real free will is exercised: in choosing the correct environment.
[32008]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Related Material:
Developing On Our Own
Where To Look For The Creator
The Only Degree Of Your Freedom

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - 3 Comments →

Question: When the connection between us becomes revealed, does it only happen within me or inside the entire group?

Answer: This is an individual revelation of a person in a group. But his friends do not reveal whatever has been revealed to him. This depends on everyone’s individual work.

For example, if one of our friends discovers that he is now ready to connect with his heart and soul with all of us, all the sparks that exist in us from the breaking, then he will immediately reveal the common force called the Creator, which operates in the entire universe. But if we are not on the same level of connection between us or a level higher, we will not feel his presence there.

It is the same in our world: One can hide himself from others by not giving any spiritual information about him.
[31985]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 01/5/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Related Material:
My Work Is Part Of The Common Work
The Bridge Over The Abyss Of Ego
The Root Of The Soul

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Sometimes you say that we only need to cleave to the Creator, and sometimes that the key is to unify with the group.

Answer: Your path to the Creator lies through the group, the medium by which you come to Him; otherwise, there is nothing to discuss. For example, I am told that I have to go to Jerusalem, but they don’t tell me how I am supposed to do get there: by train, bus, car, on a donkey, or by foot.

So do we say: “You have to merge with the Creator.” But when you hear this, you should automatically understand that without unifying with the group, you won’t find the Creator.

In fact, you can unveil Him only as a form clothed in matter. And where is this matter? It is in your mutual connection. In the place where you will first find hatred, you will later discover unity regarded as the Creator.
[31982]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Related Material:
Hidden Connections
Experiencing Spiritual Life
The Spiritual Reference Point

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →