Question: What is the love of friends?

Answer: Love is unity in one common desire. Kabbalah gives us the following example: When Bina reaches the state of Hafetz Hesed (wanting nothing for oneself), it comes down to Malchut, unites with it, and absorbs its desire so as to fulfill it with all the force of Bina.

That’s called love: to absorb someone else’s desire and fill it with whatever you can. It is written that one has to give up his only pillow; it’s the manifestation of love which we need to achieve.

But how is it possible to achieve it? We have to make sure that in the material world each one would have all the basic necessities, and in the spiritual world each one would receive everything there is in our common desire (Kli, vessel).

It’s very important to view all of us as one desire and to do everything to keep it alive. Each one must feel that it depends on him and that it’s in his power to tip the scale for this world from the cup of guilt to the cup of mercy. This way, we create a place called Malchut in which the Upper Light, the Creator, is revealed, but we have to try not to forget that the ultimate goal is to give contentment to the Creator.

But it’s not easy to do it in regards to the Creator; we still lack a clear feeling of His Light. So we should, at least, think about how to bring pleasure to the place where He is hiding, the place all desires for Him have assembled. As it is written, "From the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator." Love of the created beings actually is the most general, unified desire.

The relationship between our souls that we want to restore is called the love of friends. Friends are individuals coming together on the material level in order to reach the inner, spiritual connection. We already know all about it; now it’s the time to just implement it.

An infinite number of words have already been spoken about it, but, each time, they are perceived anew, according to the state a person is in. We only need to absorb them more deeply within ourselves, and the Light will come and develop in a person the entire picture without words. Then it will become clear to us.

Here, patience is needed. It’s not that I agree to wait and put everything away for later, for tomorrow. Have the patience to make every possible effort today, but if you don’t see any signs of success, have confidence that it will happen any moment.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/2010, Baal HaSulam, Letter 13, 1925

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Question: What is the difference between the need to prepare for the lesson before the convention and now?

Answer: It has become clearer to us that we are under the rule of egoistic desire which will never let us reveal the Creator on our own without help from Above. We have revealed our helplessness a bit more, the inability to achieve it on our own, and as a counter to it, we have come to realize that there is an Upper Force that can do this if we really want it.

It’s become a little bit clearer, but that "little bit" is quite a lot indeed! It’s a revelation from Above. It actually is the "illumination of the day," an "illumination by the Light," and that Light makes egoism visible, something Baal HaSulam called the "revelation of the wicked." The convention did its job.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: I believe when you say that all problems are mere effects of my distorted perception. But what should I do if for now, all of this is just philosophizing to me, whereas the problems are real?

Answer: If you connected to the group and became able to receive a sense of security, a guarantee, from them, you would feel as safe as in a mother’s arms. What would you worry about if you knew that you were surrounded by 600,000 souls that will take care of you? Nothing bad can happen with you since Shechina (divinity), the Creator, dwells among them. Therefore, you can worry about only one thing: how to learn to treat others as you treat yourself, and get to see that, in reality, they are you.

We need to stop believing our eyes and egoistic senses, which tell us that outside of us there are other people. It will free you from all your problems! Gradually, by using this method, you will uncover the correct perception of reality; the world will become transparent and behind each object, you will see the force that moves it.

You will suddenly see how everything falls together and will marvel at how blind you used to be! What awfully distorted lenses you were wearing! Truth be told, it all depends on your vision and perception. Nothing changes; I only attune my sight a bit, align the axes of vision, and a whole new picture suddenly emerges.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, ““A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Question: Will there be any positive outcome if we affect other people, most of whom do not aspire to spiritual growth, by our example and thus facilitate good relations and communication in the entire society?

Answer: Yes, when we become an example, we will positively impact the entire society. Baal HaSulam describes it in his article “The Future Generation.” If the entire society decides today that we can’t exist in the egoistic form anymore and must start to consider each other, it will be a tremendous correction.

You may ask: “If a regular person does it without having a goal to reveal the Creator and bestow to Him, won’t it repeat an unfortunate experience of socialistic Russia?” However, in our times, there is a Kabbalistic group practicing bestowal and the dissemination of Kabbalah, and everyone who might wish a greater awareness can join us.

As to all the others, it is enough if they assist and support us, as do people who usually don’t enjoy studying and loading their mind with knowledge. If there is a balance in society, whereby one of its parts, such as the “head” which maintains the intention, draws the Light that Reforms to all through itself, and the other part carries out some supplementary actions, then we can achieve great success.

Let’s hope that we will succeed. The whole of mankind is designed as a pyramid, and according to it, that is exactly how it has to be. Only a few are responsible for the connection with the Creator and draw the Light to the masses (See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Future Generation”).
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, “The Freedom”

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The act of annulment characterizes the entire path of spiritual evolution. At each stage, the creature cancels its desire created as existence from absence and uses it to become equivalent to the Creator.

In the beginning, it nullifies itself as a point in order to obtain an enormous need. What for? It’s in order to have a Kli (vessel) adequate to the Creator. At the second stage, it cancels this need and rises above it.

Renouncement of the desire signifies crossing over the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality). Having ascended, the creature breaks free from desire, and consequently transitions to the next stage.

There, the created being renews the desire and even starts receiving pleasure in it not for self-gratification, but in order to delight the Creator who loves it, thereby demonstrating its love to Him. In other words, during its entire ascent on the rungs of the ladder leading to Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction), the creature renounces itself.

It turns out that self-annulment is a means, act, and outcome all at the same time. With its help we advance on the ladder of values until we reach the ultimate value when self-annulment reaches such a high degree that it results in becoming equivalent to the Creator.

Paradoxically, it is through the act of renouncement, when I nullify my point of existence from absence, that I reach the status of the Creator. Using it as a foundation, I constantly grow, affected by the Light’s impact on it.

In our corporeal life, we don’t feel the Creator, nor do we perceive spiritual forces or understand the purpose of creation. Before whom, then, can we nullify ourselves? I nullify myself before the group, meaning the teacher, Kabbalistic texts, and people who aspire to the same purpose as I do. I cancel myself in relation to them, not in relation to the desires of this world that are not connected with spiritual development.

I dissolve in the group as if I don’t exist. I keep only the second part (Ain, absence) of my point of “existence from absence” (Yesh mi Ain) and copy their thoughts and feelings, disregarding my own. By doing so, I enter the spiritual system and start receiving the Surrounding Lights that promote me to the spiritual world.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Self Annulment” 12/6/10

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The Light is a certain occurrence in the vessels (Kelim), their reaction. The Light, per se, does not exist, as Baal Hasulam explains to us in the article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.” We experience only the Kli’s (vessel’s) reaction to something. The vessel’s reaction to the stimulating factor is called the “Light.” It’s namely a reaction.

We do not attain the Light itself. Its essence is out of reach. We get to know only the forms acquired by the Kli after the Light’s impact. We perceive each other in the same manner. Are you truly familiar with and understand me? Do you know who I am? Actually, I am not familiar even with myself; it’s impossible.

Only the following is possible: Everyone perceives another in their own way, putting his image together from their own inner reactions. Therefore, as it is written, “Everyone judges according to his flaws.” Based on this, we can understand that the best we can do is come “to the place.” But what is this place?

Our uncorrected desires face an example, a visual illustration of the corrected Kli. It is called Elokim (God) or ZAT de Bina (seven lower Sefirot of Bina). We are speaking of the desire to enjoy that has emerged in the second phase, Bina, and wishes to bestow, to become similar to Keter.

This is what we call the beginning of the creature, “the Creator’s presentation” which demonstrates what it means to be in bestowal, to receive in order to bestow. This is what the lower part of Bina does by generating bestowal in relation to the others. We wish to reach it, learn from it how to receive pleasure from the Creator, and pass it on.

We can bestow only what we receive from the Creator. To whom do we bestow? We bestow to the others. Thereby, from love of others, we gain love for the Creator by way of that very “place,” ZAT de Bina.

All our actions on the way to it present Mitzvot (commandments) which define the relationship between man and the Creator (“Makom” in Hebrew, lit. the “place”). This is the place of revelation, bestowal, unity, and guarantee.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “Mother Lends Her Clothes to Her Daughter”

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Question: What should every person’s concern be at the lesson: The purity of his own spiritual work or just unity?

Answer: It’s not enough to be schematically concerned about unity in general. As Baal HaSulam writes, we have to build the unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.

We are in a state where every person and all of us together decide everything. Every person adds his “penny” to the group’s common desire and from it receives the right aspiration to prayer. Then his personal prayer once again pours into the unity of the common prayer.

The individual work always combines with the common work: A person completes the whole, and also completes himself with the whole. As a result we form a single prayer, about which it is written, “The sons of Israel cried out from the work.”

In order to achieve this, the goal must be extremely important to us so that we wouldn’t trade it for any “achievements” or theoretical knowledge. We are not satisfied by the calming rhythm of the daily routine because at the current rate we can keep “advancing” for another thousand years. We are not satisfied by success in dissemination because this is obviously just a means. No matter how great our achievements are, we cannot consider them the goal of our lives, not even a temporary, intermediate one.

We cannot calm ourselves by the results of our work and efforts, hoping that they will do the job with time. Instead, a person must immediately shift his gaze to the most important thing and place the true goal in front of him: the revelation of the quality of the Creator, the quality of bestowal inside him. We should demand this unequivocally and tirelessly. Any break harms the person and his connection with the Creator. Therefore, this is where the common prayer is necessary, which is able to be constant.

We have to understand that it takes very great efforts to enter the spiritual world, but they are not so difficult to make in the group and depend only on our agreement.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/10, The Zohar

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Question: You said that the first action of correction is to discern all of my desires in order to understand which of them are subject to correction. Can you give an example of these desires? How do I make the clarification inside me? How do I know what is subject to correction?

Answer: You have to discern this in the group. Start to tune into the group with all your qualities, desires, inclinations, and inner sensations. Then take a look and see: Which of them is for and which is against? What helps you in this work more and what helps you less?

Don’t pay attention to the “taste” you feel in the process, if it is “bitter or sweet,” even though that might help you. Rather, first and foremost pay attention to the “truth and falsehood”: What can you use to connect with friends, and what can’t you use?

Then you will discern it. You will start to reveal qualities and desires inside you that you did not notice previously and did not even suspect existed. These are the desires from the breaking. We do not work with the broken desires or Kelim in our regular lives because we do not aim to unite with others.

Desires from the breaking are only those that helped us be “as one man with one heart” in our root, which then broke and are now present in us. Start uniting with the friends and you will start to reveal that these desires are present inside you. If you don’t feel them, it means you haven’t started uniting with the group yet. That’s why you still don’t feel how many desires you have inside you that oppose unity, or in other words, are in a broken state.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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