If on our path spiritual fulfillment would become available to us as everybody is asking, it would block our desire for spirituality. This is the greatest obstacle on the path.

Hence, I am given a wall that blocks my way. I stand before it, anticipating the wonders awaiting me on the other side. Yet, if such a wall has been revealed to me, it means I am already equipped with a force of resistance so that I wouldn’t quit advancing, but rather would break through this wall.

Even though I cannot accomplish it in one blow and must apply a few more strikes until I break it, the wall will keep cracking and will finally crumble. But I already have the necessary breaking force, the power of attack, or I wouldn’t be shown it.

If we now see the wall standing before us, the wall we have within, in our hearts, it is a sign of our ability to break through it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t show since “obstacles are not placed in front of the blind.” I thought we were able to overcome it, and this is why we made a step toward unity.

Now, we just have to unite thanks to studying and the rest of the work that we do and gradually collect, crumb to crumb, all our efforts in one collective breaking force. We need to do it in order to probably discover again that this force is insufficient to break through, and we have to unite even more.

And thus again and again we will gather more strength and increase pressure until the wall falls. That is the stage of the exodus from Egypt, the very end. This is why it brings joy.

The problem is that right now everyone experiences this wall on their own. Meanwhile, we have to feel that this wall is common for all, and to the extent that we do, we will feel that the force that we are trying to employ to break through this wall is collective as well. In that case, it would be not one person but the group standing against it.

It is similar to fleeing from Egypt: one night, one Pharaoh, one threat, same plagues for all Israel unified as one man with one heart. Nobody is counted separately from the others, and everybody unites together. This is how the group must feel. In that case, despite the frightening height of the wall, we will still overpower it.

That is because when people unite, they discover that they lack the Creator’s presence among them, and without Him, we cannot do! He will become the very force of this breakthrough that will ruin the wall.

Pharaoh himself will assist us. After all, it is he who is chasing Israel out of Egypt and then follows and guides them, as The Zohar describes. A person keeps trying to go back, whereas Pharaoh throws them all out of Egypt as he is a faithful assistant of the Creator.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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We have done a great job! In the upcoming days, weeks, and months, it will become clear to us what a substantial leap we have made. Never before have we raised such questions and spoke so openly about unification that has been the theme of the recent convention. For the very first time, we have tapped upon the essence of our correction, the wisdom of Kabbalah, and our soul.

It has been a truly radical change, and we will never be the same as before. Now we are mutually connected, but we must keep working at it harder and harder, until we get to see that the Creator is filling us more and more by the minute and that all cosmos, including this world, is permeated with the Upper Light, and we are dwelling in it.

All of the worlds where we are bonded, mutually intertwined like a grid-net, are starting to clearly emerge. We will come to that!

There is the time of giving and the time of receiving. Giving from Above exists and has to manifest itself; all we need is just a little bit more sensitivity to feel that the Creator is filling the world, the air between us, and the entire reality. A bit more subtlety, enthusiasm, receptivity, and openness toward the others, and we shall see that we are living the revelation.

I think everyone will begin to feel that it is possible, that it isn’t some fantasy. Rather, it becomes true thanks to our individual efforts in seeking and finding the Creator.

Try to bring out your inner empathy. What is faith? Faith is a sensation of bestowal. The book Faith and Hope says that “faith is a subtle predisposition, the attribute of a delicate and sensitive soul.” It is what we need: a subtle inclination of an empathic soul.

We must get to feel that this Upper Force truly dwells among us. It is as if we are trying to see something and when we finally manage to get a glimpse of it, we become convinced that it exists and are surprised at how we couldn’t see it until now. If you withdraw your glance yet again and lose focus, it becomes harder for you to find it next time, but at least now you know that it is real.

The difficulty lies in getting to see it for the first time. We have to adjust our vision or, rather, our heart a bit.
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From Lesson 8, World Kabbalah Congress 2010, 11/11/10

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The Surrounding Lights (Ohr Makif) and circular Kelim (Kelim de Igulim) are the means we use to advance and move from state to state in the spiritual space. What differentiates the circular Kelim (desires, vessels) is that they are deprived of the screen (Masach) and do not perform Zivug de Hakaa (coupling while striking) to the measure of their similarity to the Light. Only the screen brings this similarity, connection, to the vessel, thanks to which the Kli (vessel) defines what direction to take on its own.

However, for the time being, a circular Kli does not have a screen that would arrange its desires in a line, from above downward, to the extent of their similarity to the property of bestowal. And yet, the screen-less vessels also live, move, and transform under the influence of the Surrounding Lights.

As a matter of fact, how would we keep advancing from our world through the entire preparation period toward the Machsom and the entrance to the spiritual reality unless the Surrounding Lights were affecting us? What devices would we use? After all, we do not have a screen. Does it mean we would be left at the mercy of the natural flow of events and fate?

On the other hand, if the Kelim still gravitate to the screen and if their point in the heart awakens and gives them the first impulse to correction, to the truth, they become subject to the effect of the Surrounding Lights. These Lights perform according to the efforts of the Kli, its desires and demands no matter how silly they are. In a similar manner, children do not yet know how exactly to evolve but keep growing and developing nonetheless. All of this occurs due to the impact of the Surrounding Lights.

I was led to the group, and I do what looks good in the view of my friends. Having no understanding or power, I still don’t grasp completely what is going on but feel that it is important to me.

Until a person enters the spiritual world, he does not know whether he is dead or alive, how he lives and what nourishes him. We have no idea what the real status quo is until we have come to know the Creator in the smallest degree.

Hence, we are guided by the Surrounding Lights. We attract them and wish for them to affect us. In the dark, without the screen, the intention for bestowal, in the egoistic intention Lo Lishma that inevitably derives from their breaking, we still gravitate toward Lishma, bestowal. Afraid and unwilling, we nevertheless do not ignore it anymore.

Hence, in such situation, we get affected by the Lights that are related not to a line but a circle: the environment comprised of the friends in which we do our work.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot

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Question: Is there a connection between the individual and collective governance?

Answer: Yes, there is a two-way connection between them. The collective governance is related to certain parts and, at the same time, affects the entire system of souls, all of which correlates with each individual response.

The souls residing within the circle of the system must ultimately comprise a singular line. In order for all of them to find their own place in it, each of them has to be managed individually. Therefore, there is a program of general and particular management in the system which works from Above downward (marked yellow in the diagram below).

However, this isn’t enough. Now, everybody has to provide an individual feedback: To what degree do I wish to advance and exert additional effort toward the pressure that the management is applying on me? Am I adding my own power to the force of the Light?

The Light affects me “in its time,” pushing me forward by blows whether I like it or not. This process is regarded as “Beito.” However, there is another way: I can accelerate my development and engage in this process before the Light will begin to act. Such acceleration of advancement is regarded as “Achishena.” I align my desire with the desire of the Creator, with correction, the final complete state of existence.

Therefore, the essence of my work is in bringing forth all of my power, thereby neutralizing the power of the Light. I wish to accept the program of governance, understand and implement it independently. This is the reason we received the point in the heart, and, in truth, our sole aspiration is to know and carry out the program of creation.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: If there is no reward and punishment in this world, where do they exist?

Answer: There is reward and punishment in our world, good and bad people, and everything else that you see and understand. It is written: “The world behaves according to fixed laws.” Within the scope of our world, each society, country, and civilization has their own laws.

If you come to a kindergarten, a school, or some adult establishment, in each place you’ll find specific laws of communication and reward and punishment for their observance. Wherever you may end up, there will be a charter of laws for a group of people, whether a society or a nation.

But with respect to profits and losses concerning the spiritual world, your corporeal actions have no bearing on the spiritual degree. They affect the soul’s future reincarnations, but not on the Creator’s revelation to the creatures, the revelation of the spiritual world, which is described as “see your world in this life.” And, as the Torah explains, a person who has only performed corporeal actions is considered to have done nothing at all.

We study that your only free action in this world is the exertion to unify in the group; all of your other actions are not yours. We are evaluated only with respect to choosing the best environment every time so as to achieve the purpose of creation.
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From Lesson 2, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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Question: When we cross the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), do we do it together or each of us in our time?

Answer: The Machsom is a potential border. If I aspire to unity with the friends and from separation between us yearn to reach greater closeness, if I try as much as I can to annihilate this distance, but am unable to do so, then I appeal to the Creator, the Light, and break through the Machsom. In other words, my ego remains, but I wish to rise above it despite the fact that at the previous stages, I didn’t especially desire this and was accepting of its presence in me.

This is how it was before the Machsom. However, above it, there are two forms of connection: “to bestow in order to bestow,” the level of Bina, and “to receive in order to bestow,” the level of Hochma and Keter.

Where, then, do I realize the Machsom? I do so in the connection between us. In it, I am not subject to our external actions concerning each other and expressions of personal likes. Here, I need to work solely within.

I have to feel an inner ability to bond with them within myself, in our desires, so that all our sparks of bestowal connect together. As soon as I start desiring it, I cross the Machsom. Yet, all our egoistic attributes remain. After all, we haven’t corrected our ego, but rose above it, eager to unify our passionate desire for spirituality, the property of bestowal.

If our sparks of bestowal are bound together, they form a vessel for the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) because such a vessel already has the attribute of Hafetz Hesed (presiding above one’s egoism). That’s when a person starts perceiving the Upper Light ruling over everything there is.

Below the Machsom, the same Upper Light fills the entire reality, but we don’t perceive it. As soon as our points in the hearts begin connecting, in a bond, density, compression between them I suddenly start feeling the Light that permeates everything . However, the sparks had already “found” the Light and become its “gauge.”

We are now in the same condition, and we don’t need to zoom into another dimension or other galaxies. The Light resides between us, and we just lack sensitivity for it, an organ of perception. The closer our hearts get, the more we discover the Light that dwells among us. We arrive at this in mutual bestowal and desire it to take place.
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From Lesson 2, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10

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Everything depends on the support of the environment; without it, it is impossible to advance spiritually. When you acquire a spiritual environment, then all the great Kabbalists who attained the spiritual world during their lives in this world, all of their souls will become your group.

You will enter the “Upper Assembly” of Rabbi Shimon (the spiritual level called by that name). You can connect to higher sources, but only to the degree it is necessary! Now you simply do not need this power.

If you needed the group that includes Baal HaSulam, Rabash, the Ari, Rashbi, and other great Kabbalists of the past from Abraham until today, then you would receive it. However, right now you do not need it. As soon as you need it, you will reveal the spiritual group in addition to the material one. Perhaps you won’t even need a material group because just the spiritual one will be sufficient.

If the souls start to help you directly, it is called “a donkey driver.” The Creator sends a high soul called “a donkey driver” so it will always help a person. But this help comes in response to your plea that you need spiritual ascension.

It’s similar to how Rabbi Abba and Rabbi Yossi, whom The Book of Zohar talks about, are on the path where they open the Torah and discover that they cannot reach correction on their own. They need the revelation of a special force that will help them to ascend.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: If there is no one besides me, then why do I have to come to the Convention, unite with everyone, and love them?

Answer: You have to start perceiving the true reality in your sensations. Therefore, you have to come and see that we all do exist, and you have to perform all actions so we would “cease to exist.”

Question cont.: But you said that there is no one else here.

Answer: But it is me who said it! And you have to reach such an attainment on your own. You have to prove it for yourself that there is nobody here except for Malchut of the World of Infinity.
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From Lesson 6, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/10/10

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Question: What greater evil should we disclose within in order for the Light to illuminate us?

Answer: We must come to see that our innate nature is Pharaoh (ego) who does not allow us to rise above ourselves. We ought to hate it, but we still love it; we keep enjoying living in it. When, similar to our present predicament, we start receiving blows, we become disappointed in our nature and understand that we cannot reach spirituality.

So, for the first time, we got to see our nature as the evil inclination, as our rival who is the opposite to the Creator, spirituality. This is regarded as the first plague of our Pharaoh.

As to the other nine plagues, I don’t think we will need another nine such conventions. We will be able to undergo them in our mutual connection on daily basis during our lessons. We will pass through them quickly because the key at each spiritual stage is its first degree.

Later on, it will all be just a routine until a certain stage is completed. For example, right now, we are to become aware of our own evil, and we have started this process. Next time, it will be the escape from Pharaoh, exodus from Egypt, and this is what is called spiritual birth.
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From the Lesson on the Weekly Torah Portion 11/12/10

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