Question: Why didn’t the Creator walk Moses through the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality) at the last Convention and leave the Pharaoh to stack the chairs?

Answer: Where was our Moses when we had to plea for exiting Egypt? Where was our cry to the Creator? There was no one but Pharaoh.

We did not demand from the Creator to break the wall between us. Everybody was waiting: “When on earth will He reveal Himself? I want to be filled!” We were still ruled by Pharaoh. Moreover, we got to see what was in our way, what blocks our unity.

It wasn’t accidental that I immediately threw to the audience the words about the necessity to think about our mutual connection, submerging into it, and finding the torn strings in order to tie them together. No dancing, no talking, just let everybody look within themselves and think solely about how to unify with all the others.

And what was the result? We got stuck. It turned out that I am unable to do it. And it’s good because I got to see something important: I am totally disconnected from the others; there is no link. All strings and channels are cut. There isn’t a tiny impulse. I’ll do anything but unify with the others, absorb their thoughts and desires so that they, God forbid, become like my own.

This is the power of Pharaoh. But where is the cry? Yes, we are cut off, isolated from each other. But where is our plea to make us unite? Why aren’t You coming to unite us?!

We don’t have the need for such a plea yet. We still think that we can unite by our own will: “We will make an effort and succeed.” But how is it possible to achieve this with our egoistic qualities?

The need for the Creator must be born from our mutual work, when the group will obligate everyone to use this method and convince them that the Creator will correct the situation. We need the Creator’s labor, not Bnei Baruch’s. We must provide only the plea. When we achieve this collective, world-wide demand for His correction of us, we will ascend to the next degree indeed.
[27268]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “Questions and Answers”

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Question: What criteria of advancement do we have? A month goes by, then a year…. How can I tell that I’m not standing in one place?

Answer: All of our work is done in relation to the group. As a result I have to be convinced and agree to see it as the place of the Creator’s revelation.

This understanding awakens in me and I can measure it. If it becomes increasingly clearer to me that only in our common, single desire will we all reveal the Light that Reforms, the Creator, unity, and the end of correction; if I feel that this is so with my whole being, that means I advance.

You can almost check it using a ruler. That’s how clear-cut everything is in this endeavor.
[29131]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/10, The Zohar

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The most important thing that all of us and each one of us have to try to do, using all the artificial means (meaning against our desire), is to evoke a “need” to be included in the group. Each of us has to convince himself that the group, or its inner spiritual part, is in a completely corrected state, and this is the “place” where the Creator becomes revealed.

This place is already ready and waiting for you to be included in it. To the degree you do include yourself in it, you reveal the Upper World in that place.

Every person who tunes into it will receive everything: the spiritual world, eternity, perfection, and the Upper Force. All of this is there, inside it! This “place” is in the state of the final correction, Gmar Tikkun, and all the friends exist there as the greatest people of the generation, above everything. However, in order to make it easier for me to become included into that place, I ask everyone to influence me, and that is called an environment.

In other words, there is an environment and there is a place. The environment has to push me so I will get inside that corrected place. Moreover, the environment can be lying to me at all times, and that doesn’t matter. After all, they are not inside yet either, but are somewhere along the way. I am being deceived in Lo Lishma as if I aspire to bestowal and love.

However, the environment constantly makes me believe that this is necessary. As it “works on me,” I suddenly acquire the force to carry out this action and enter that “place.”

This place is already prepared ahead of time. We are already in it, in the third, final corrected state. Therefore, all we need is this:

1. Every person has to look for ways to convince himself to become included inside the group, into the “place” where he will reveal the Upper World, the Creator, the entire true reality.

2. Everyone has to “play” the corrected society for one another, which invigorates everyone and pushes them to become included in it, cancelling themselves before it.

From the 4th pat of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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We need each other in order to overcome our ego and be truly able to bestow to the Creator. This is what He expects us to do. However, you will be able to delight the Creator only when you unite with the friends.

You will not succeed if alone because when you do it alone, it isn’t true bestowal. It won’t work. When you are alone, it doesn’t mean that you bestow; you deceive yourself.

The entire system is designed so that there is a certain filter on your path, and it doesn’t allow you to arrive at that sort of bestowal since it isn’t authentic.
[28286]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 52, 1928

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As we read in The Book of Zohar, Introduction we should be more concerned with the intention, rather than with understanding the text. Our main concern should be to keep ourselves attuned properly. Why are we reading The Zohar? What happens to us meanwhile? What affects us? What do we wish to achieve as a result?

Only then do we turn to the text itself, trying to penetrate into its meaning. Only by “cleaning out” a place within ourselves will we achieve the needed effect. Otherwise, there will simply be no place for it to be revealed.

Question: How do we prepare this place?

Answer: We prepare it by rising above the obstacles. A person comes to a lesson on Kabbalah, to a “date” with The Book of Zohar, to a meeting with the friends with a whole heap of problems which seem coincidental to him, but there are no coincidences. There is none else besides the Creator.

Therefore, I need to perform the right calculation: I don’t understand what is happening, why it happens to me in particular or to us, and I still need to rise above everything only for the sake of unification with the friends. In this manner we prepare the foundation, create a place for future ascents; we form Malchut. This is written about in a different article from The Book Of Zohar, Introduction: “The Night Of The Bride.”

At the lesson, we are given an opportunity which is not present anywhere else. How important is it for me to reveal the Creator, to give Him pleasure? How important is it for me to rise above my egoism and unite with others in order to reveal Him? I constantly measure my goals according to their importance.

At the same time, I see that every time, I am given obstacles, and I need to step on the throat of my egoism in order to continue the path, staying in unification, on topic, and in direct closeness to the spiritual primary sources. This is a great work, and this is what is meant by “preparing a place” for the revelation of the Creator.
[28049]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, The Zohar, Introduction, “The Rose”

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Question: How do we strengthen the responsibility of every friend in regard to the mutual guarantee?

Answer: If the Light does not affect me to a sufficient extent and does not bring me to a state where I begin to care about the friend’s state, will I really think about him? Never! On the other hand, if I receive an awakening from the Light, suddenly I will feel such a desire. Either I have it or not. However, I need to contribute to having it.

Therefore, I do not eat myself up for not loving the friends. I don’t love them, don’t care about them, and don’t think about them because I am not connected to them. In order to change this state, I need the influence of the Light. If it affects me, I will think about others; if it doesn’t affect me, I won’t think about them. I need to determine exactly where and how I can cause a change.

Right now, I don’t love you, but the Light comes, and, suddenly, I do. Why is that? I don’t know; the Light does this. We only need to rouse its influence, and everything else is a consequence. However much desire, concern, and worry He gives me is how much I will have.

Hence, the most important concern is to awaken the Light, and this can happen only in the process of mutual studying. We await this phenomenon precisely from studying since there is no other means. During the studies, we think together, “When will the Light finally change and unite us?” This is the intention.
[28126]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: How can I think about the correction that The Book of Zohar brings us if I feel negative emotions such as hatred?

Answer: Prayer is whatever the heart feels. If there is hatred in my heart now, then this is my prayer, “I want to hurt my enemy.”

In order to correctly use the force that’s hidden in The Book of Zohar while reading it together in a group, I must first prepare my heart so it will desire the same thing the Creator desires. In reality, the Creator responds to every prayer, meaning the desires in our heart. That is why our world is so bad!

However, on the other hand, it is written that He responds only to the prayer that has gone through “the gate of tears.” So does He really respond to every desire, even the whim of a baby or the machinations of a villain?

Yes, say the Kabbalists who have revealed the system of our relationships with Him. A thief who has set his sights on some object, or a criminal who goes out “on the prowl” and is ready to kill someone, also desire to succeed and their prayer is also accepted. After all, we are talking about the desire of Malchut of the World of Atzilut, and everything beneath it, including our world, belongs to it.

Why, then, do we say that the desire can ascend into Malchut, or it can not ascend? The matter is that we draw a division into two types of desires:

– Some aspire in the same direction as the Creator’s will. Then they unite with the upper desire and are perceived as abundance from Above.

– Some do not match the Creator’s will. They also evoke the same response from Above as the positive desires, but are perceived by the negative desires negatively, as a negative reaction. This corrects a person, leading him down a lengthy, difficult path of suffering instead of the short, easy path where his desires coincide with the Creator’s desires.

That is why it is best for us to prepare for the right prayer and to use it when turning to The Book of Zohar. A person cannot sit at the lesson without any desires. One way or another, he desires something, and if his desire has been prepared ahead of time and aspires in the right direction, then he advances easily and quickly while reading The Zohar.

Besides, we have to remember that we are in the group, which helps us to strengthen our prayer. Thus, if a person’s thoughts are not aimed at the goal, then he takes an adversarial position in relation to the group and feels what seems like a negative reaction from Above even more.

Therefore, our entire work amounts to preparing for the lesson, that is, for reading The Zohar and other Kabbalistic books. Once we are at the lesson, it is difficult to change anything because a person’s heart is already tuned to a specific desire.

That’s why it is so important what thoughts I have when going to sleep and how I prepare for the lesson in the morning. These minutes play the decisive role. And we shouldn’t forget about the physical preparation so the body won’t fall into slumber.

Rabash writes the following in Article 36 in Writings of Rabash:
It is written, “He who hears the prayer.” Why does it say “the prayer” in the singular tense? Doesn’t the Creator hear all prayers? The matter is that we have to raise just one prayer: to restore the Shechina from the dust.

To pray for the restoration of the Shechina from the dust means to desire the revelation of the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love for the neighbor inside me in order to become similar to the Creator in this regard. If we all aim our efforts in one direction, then we are knocking on the gate that will definitely open.
[29034]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, The Zohar

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Question: What can I give the group during the study?

Answer: Your participation and aspiration to the goal, which has to be as strong as possible. This is the force of mutual guarantee by which we strengthen the group.

This is especially so during the study because that’s when we are able to unite and attract the Light that Reforms.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, The Zohar

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