We talk about hatred that becomes revealed between us; however, it does not necessarily mean that we have to hate each other. There is no such commandment. We are going toward love.

But we start with the broken soul that split into billions of pieces. We have to try to re-unite them back together. A contemporary global world is an indication of a great responsibility that has been placed upon us since whether we want it or not, we discover that we are all interconnected.

After we try to unite, we reveal hatred between us. This is our nature. The Creator says: “I created the evil inclination.” When does it manifest? When we approach unification correctly. If you begin to unite incorrectly, you will not reveal hatred, but rather will get partial results, such as indifference and so on.

In order to expose hatred, you need the Light from Above. By attempting to unify with the others, you attract the Light, and it illuminates the breaking, the separation between us. Then you feel your opposition to the Light: This is hatred.

But as a result of it you also begin to feel that you are being pushed to, awakened to, the plea for unity. The same Light that showed you who you are can also help you. Then you ask: “Correct me!” and the Light does.

Hence, we do not intend to hate each other at all. A person runs from Egypt, his or her egoism, in order to rise above it and unite with the others. And then he suddenly discovers the true hatred, Mount Sinai.
[31332]
From Lesson 1, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/30/10

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Question: In order not to lose sight of the spiritual goal, a person has to hold on to something; he needs clues, “crumbs of bread” along the path. What should we cling to?

Answer: Here is an example: Each person feels as though he is a blown fuse in an electrical system. This is what his life represents. He thinks that he feels the others, but in reality he feels only his “burnt” still, vegetative, and animate properties and himself.

But when we begin correcting the system, a person starts experiencing the program, the force of creation, the currents that run in the corrected system. Now, its components are linked with each other and function perfectly, according to the plan of creation, which is, in fact, the Creator. A person starts experiencing his life in the system and all of it as one whole.

In truth, if I am not connected with the others, if I feel isolated from the system, and if I live only “within myself,” then my perception is limited to this world, which is the reality that is projected on the inner screen in the back of my brain as Baal HaSulam describes. It seems broken to me, corrupted, and dependent on my attitude towards it. And only I am able to make a connection between all the others.

If, however, I exit myself and see the external world, I move into the true reality. Then, I see the others not as bodies but as properties of bestowal. Each of them is essentially corrected; however, in order to bring them together, I need a connection, the property of bestowal, and then everything will start working properly.

In other words, the general system is already saturated with the corrected connections, and I am the source of power, a battery for it. Without my energy, the whole system is on hold. It is my duty to become the source of power, and then everything will start working again.

A person has to constantly hold these pictures within, as if everything is exactly this way. Everybody will gradually get accustomed to them, and then suddenly the contours of the system will protrude before us. In truth, the habit becomes second nature; it allows a person to experience even what didn’t speak to him before.
[31135]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, “What is the Flood Water in the Work”

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Question: How do I make sure in practice that all of reality is within me?

Answer: You need to want for this picture to transpire within you naturally so that you will live in it. After all, this is the authentic perception.

By doing this, you primarily realize the principle of love thy neighbor as thyself. There are no parts separate from you. All of reality is within you and only egoism lies between reality and you, as an imaginary obstacle that separates you from your own parts.

By overcoming this obstacle and laying connections over it you correct the breaking. Egoism remains and can manifest even stronger, while you keep strengthening the interconnection of all the parts over it, trying to unite them in you. And then a Kli (vessel) appears that is 620 times stronger and more powerful than it was before it broke.

You use egoism as a resistor, by using its force of opposition. You do not attempt to short circuit around it; instead, you realize its potential but only with the intention to bestow. In this way Aviut (the egoistic thickness of the vessel) begets Kashiut (the firmness of the screen). In other words, the depth and the strength of the desire begets the firmness of intention.
[31244]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/10, “What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World was in Donation”

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The Book of Zohar, Introduction, Article “You Are Partners with Me,” Item 65: …for the righteous, who have already been completed in the upper brightness, constantly going and becoming new heaven and earth, as it is written, “Righteous go from strength to strength.”

Question: How do the righteous create this continuous renewal?

Answer: They are constantly trying to support each other. A person who holds the spiritual intention is constantly thinking only of others who are also supporting the same system.

What does it mean that we penetrate into a more inner screen, into a more internal picture of reality? If I am there, does it mean that I join an unchangeable system, and there is nothing more for me to do? No, I join a system which I support, wanting to see it this way, to realize it in this way.

On the one hand, I say that the greatest people of the generation are in it; everyone is in the right intention. The minute I join it, I am sure that I am in mutual guarantee. Everything depends on me. As soon as I add my “lepta” (the smallest coin in Ancient Greece), everything will immediately settle and be fine.

On the other hand, I must be concerned about everyone supporting this system so that everyone will be in it, will realize this connection, as if I am the only one upon whom everything depends, and I “sentence myself and the whole world to a scale of merit.”

Furthermore, there are mutual actions here. From one side, I connect with others, and they are in the state of Final Correction (Gmar Tikkun). From the other, in order to be together with them, I am obliged to be concerned about and take care of them as if they did not have anything and I support them, and their whole correction depends on me.

What is it for? All of this is for me, for the correction of my Kli (vessel) since my desire consists of everyone else. This is called “interconnection.” I include (connect) everyone within me. If I want them to include (connect) me within them, I have to consist of them.

It is necessary to try to feel these concepts. It will not help to simply memorize them in my head as it will escape me in a second.
[31016]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Article “You Are Partners with Me”

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Question: If we have to view the group only as its inner, corrected state, how then does it differ from the rest of the world that also seems only to be uncorrected?

Answer: There is no difference in the inner meaning. But when you look at the group, you can’t help but notice that their aspiration to spirituality manifests externally, that they come to the lesson every day. This means they strive to reach spirituality but haven’t yet.

You have an external screen where you see how they yearn for bestowal while currently remaining in the egoistic system that intends to consume everything for self gratification. However, they already know, somewhat understand, and even feel that there is a chance to come to a different attitude to the world: to replace consumption with bestowal.

They know that there are two forms of experiencing life in the universe:

1. A life where I instinctively try to gobble up everything because I was born this way, which is regarded as “the evil inclination” we are born with.
2. And there is another attitude to life: bestowal, stepping outside oneself, when my “self” per se doesn’t exist unless it is included into all others. And this second approach is the one we wish to achieve.

It turns out that we already have two approaches. Everybody is living according to the 1st principle so far by consuming everything into oneself. This is what we are presently perceiving, “this world.” But we dream to reach another outlook on life and see the spiritual reality which exists in bestowal.

What will happen with the corporeal reality then? Will it disappear? No, it won’t. It will remain for as long as you need it, to the extent it needs to be employed as a necessary component.

So, now you should be able to understand what your material body is: It is a necessary measure that you have to preserve in order to keep consuming for your own benefit and not to bestow. But in reality, there is no body. Yet, to the extent that you need to be present in the egoistic consumption, you continue to exist in this material reality. And to the extent that you step outside of yourself, you enter the spiritual world.
[31024]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Article “You Are Partners with Me”

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All of the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks solely about the acts of bestowal that are realized in our mutual connection. The entire reality except this world exists in bestowal. This world appears before us in the opposite property, where everyone receives for himself as much as possible. In this tendency to “consume into oneself” we experience our corporeal reality.

Imagine tiny little desires scattered on a flat surface. If each of them intends to make maximal profit by taking advantage of all the others, they create a mutual connection that is regarded as “this world,” in all forms of its matter. In this case, people get tied by hierarchy, marry, bare children, unite, and all of it happens according to their intention to derive pleasure from the others. And this is the way they settle among themselves.

This is what we call “our world,” “this reality,” at all of its levels: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking (human). We see the others as close or distant, depend on them to a greater or lesser degree, but all of it is according to our intention to feel pleasure.

We build this reality ourselves, with our intentions to enjoy whatever there is. But if someone says: “No! I wish to relate to the others with the intention to bestow, not to receive,” he will experience his new attitude to the same reality as spiritual world. It is described as: “I saw a reverse world.”

Everything is determined by intention. To switch from the intention “for myself” to the intention to bestow means to cross the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality). In this intention of bestowal, there are 125 degrees, until we reach a perfect intention, absolute bestowal.

The reality we perceive right now in the intention for self gratification is imaginary. It is given to us solely so that we may use it as a stepping stone to the true perception of reality.

We received this egoistic attitude to others on purpose so that we could work on ourselves starting with it and further on, transition to the property of bestowal, and by ascending the 125 spiritual degrees, explore the connection between us ever more, that is, climb the rungs of the spiritual worlds. Only our intention determines what we experience, this or the upper world.
[31030]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar, Article “You Are Partners with Me”

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Question: I sit in the lesson reading The Zohar and exert effort along with the others. Can it be regarded as “sacrificing desire”?

Answer: No, it can’t. How do I know what you are reading? Perhaps you are simply enjoying what The Zohar explains in such easy, attractive, and exciting language.

Why does it excite us, and what does it wish to explain? The Zohar explains that if I wish to be connected with you, I will undergo the states it describes. It’s that simple! What do the author’s of The Zohar say? “We gather while feeling hate for each other; we are separated by a total abyss. And then we start trying to unite.”

At that time, there was no Book of Zohar in front of them; they were just about to write it themselves. What do they write then? They begin mutual work and start searching: “How do we get closer to one another? What can we do to experience any closeness at all?

How can we find connection between us, the network tying us together, which already exists? What relations define this connection and what are its stages? Which internal forces within us are at work: envy, lust, hate, strife for recognition, the right, left, and middle lines? If we correct it, make a restriction, then a screen, and if we rise above our will to receive pleasure (desire), how do we achieve anything? I reject this and that, act this way or the other….”

And so, they started writing The Book of Zohar based on what they underwent in their mutual connection, until they reached such exalted spiritual degrees that each degree was ten times higher than the previous one: from ones to tens, followed by hundreds, then by thousands, and tens of thousands (Ribo). Do you see what levels they reach?! This is the power of their unification. And that is what they wrote about.

Therefore, if you wish to imagine yourself in the same state, then everything they have described will affect you so that you, too, get closer with the others and in your connection with them undergo the same states, until you reach the state where the perfect Kli (desire) is filled with the infinite Light.
[30913]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “You Are Partners with Me”

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Rabash, “What Is A Big or Small Sin in the Work”: The value of bestowal is determined by whom we bestow to. If a person bestows to a small king, it is a small work. But if a person bestows to a great king, his bestowal acquires value and brings him great pleasure.

Question: While trying to imagine that I bestow to a great King, I feel that I am deceiving myself. What should I do?

Answer: It is correct. First of all, value depends solely on you. The Creator exists, and either you do or do not reveal Him. It is up to you. Do you have a “sensor” to detect Him? That’s the problem.

Generally speaking, what does it mean, “to value the Creator”? Rabash cites Rambam when explaining how at the start of his path a person undergoes a process regarded as Lo Lishma (not for Her Name). In other words, I value the King if by being closer to Him, I will gain more. As in our world, I measure His value against the pleasure that I can receive from Him.

What then makes me change my values? It’s the Light that Reforms. If, by way of the group, I keep thinking about the change that must occur in me, looking forward to the Light’s arrival like a rooster anticipating dawn rather than fearing it like a bat does, then changes do come, and I start appreciating the Upper One because He is a Giver, not because I can gain what He will give.

Now I value Him because He gives; I value bestowal, yet not bestowal to me, but the very property of bestowal. I wish to be similar to it. This new range of values changes a person greatly. The Upper One becomes truly Higher for him: exalted by nature, the King, whose value lies in the fact that He is a Giver.

In that case, I look up to the Upper One not because I receive from him but because I can become like him. I want Him to give me His attribute, allow me to become similar, closer to Him since closeness is determined namely by similarities of qualities, not by how much I can gain from Him.

The entire difference between corporeality and spirituality lies is our attitude toward the Upper One. Do we ask Him to reform us?

The Creator is at absolute rest, and everything is up to us now: If we wish to change in His Light, we will. If we wish to become like Him in our properties, we will, to the point of complete adhesion, absolute love.
[30935]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/10, “What is A Big or Small Sin in the Work”

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Question: How can the Upper Light reform me if it is at absolute rest?

Answer: Speaking about the Light coming in and out, I refer to changes within myself. The Light is the phenomena within the vessel (desire). There is no Light without the vessel. Some of these phenomena I call “the Light” and I attribute various changes to them.

Everything is within. Some inner experiences I ascribe to an outside, external cause, while others I attribute to my inner causes, myself. After experiencing changes within, I relate them to either personal actions or the Light that seems to have brought them about without my awareness. These are our definitions.

A child says: “It broke by itself,” as if it weren’t he who broke it. So do we, due to the lack of spiritual awareness and revelation, take responsibility for some events upon ourselves and attribute the other part to some hidden factor.

Question: Is this hidden factor what we call “a miraculous force” (Segula)?

Answer: Segula means that I perform actions but cannot see direct connection between them and their outcomes. For instance, I am told: “If you hit the wall ten times, water will start running from the faucet in the backyard.” I don’t see any logic here; but meanwhile, there is a hidden mechanism in the wall, which responds to my hitting the wall and it turns the water on.

It is really very simple, but I am not aware of this mechanism. So I was told: “This is Segula. If you do this, you will get that.” Hence, I connect one with the other albeit I do understand the cause and effect logic underlying the events. Therefore, Segula is a law, but it’s concealed from me for now. There is nothing supernatural here: I just don’t know how this works.

I enter the group and hear: “Jump so many times, hug the friends so many times, sing this many songs, take part in this many conventions, and you will see the effect.” I have no idea how this is all connected, but Kabbalists gave us recommendations which do work. How they work, we will see later on; and for now, at our level, it is called “Segula,” a hidden law.
[30922]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/10, “What is A Big or Small Sin in the Work”

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Rabash, “Which Degree Should One Achieve so He Will Not Have to Reincarnate?”: This is the perfection that Adam HaRishon had prior to the sin. Only after the sin did he decline from his degree and his soul was divided into 600,000 souls.

Question: How does a sin appear?

Answer: A sin appears as a result of the influence of the Upper Light. For example, I want you to find your own mistake, but I want you to do it after you’ve understood its essence and only then corrected it.

My participation in this process is inconspicuous; I remain “behind the scenes.” How unnoticeable can I be? I only serve as an eliciting factor that is not even felt in the matter of your desire, similar to Sefira Keter.

A person experiences sudden weakness or becomes immersed in bizarre thoughts that are given to him from Above, although he thinks that he is the one who produces them. This is his first sin.

Then, he starts to struggle with himself instead of asking the Creator to correct him. This is his second sin. The Creator gives a person choice and balances out his perception by enlightening him; He gives a person “a hint” that there is something else behind it.

However, spiritual systems are built in a way that we are unable to address the Creator directly since our properties are opposite to His, and the law of the equivalence of form doesn’t allow us to do so. That’s why we observe an external system of objects and bodies (this world) which gives us a chance to take the first steps toward the correction.

If I take these steps, apply correct intentions to them, and plead to the Light for help, I manage to connect both worlds and instigate the influence of high souls upon me. Through them, I get help. The souls of the righteous bring me the illumination from Above, start working on me, and raise me up. This is what is called “sin and its correction.”
[25667]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, “Which Degree Should One Achieve so He Will Not Have to Reincarnate?”

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