A question I received: Why is it so difficult to carry out the condition of “buy yourself a friend”? Shouldn’t our egoism derive pleasure from this?

My Answer: You “buy” friends by lowering yourself before them and doing what they want. This is called “paying.” Rather than proudly walking into a store with a pile of money and choosing who to buy, you buy a friend by doing what is necessary for him; you serve him. You don’t buy him “from above”; you buy him “from below.” You are willing to do everything for him as though he does not need you.

In other words, you bend down before him and ask, “What can I do for you so that you will become my friend? I am ready for anything, just give my spiritual desire, my soul back to me!”

You cannot forcefully demand that he return your soul to you since it is in his possession. If now you want to receive your soul, you need to approach him from different sides, trying to find the approach which will make him free your soul. Your success depends only on his positive attitude towards you. If he does not wish to treat you well, then you are lost.

Did you ever take care of someone, trying to gain their positive disposition to you?  Imagine that you are standing before a judge who needs to announce your sentence now. He is disposed strictly against you and is just seething with anger. How would you try to change his anger to mercy?

“A person and a group” is a whole Kabbalistic drama.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, Article, “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 2”

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A question I received: Why is man given too much intelligence from Above? As a result, his reasoning outweighs and rejects his actions, stripping him of an opportunity to advance?

My Answer: People receive so much intelligence in order not to be animals. An animal has just enough intelligence as it needs for life and it doesn’t make mistakes. We are given excess intelligence so that we would make mistakes, build plans for the future, have egoistic intentions and along with them, the intelligence to aspire to a higher degree, to develop, and to suffer. After all, suffering pushes us ahead.

An additional desire, a point in the heart, awakens in a person and rouses dissatisfaction in him: “Who am I? What am I living for? What is life? What is death?” An animal doesn’t ask about these things. You don’t complain about being given all these questions instead of just living peacefully as does an animal, do you?

Too much intelligence isn’t a problem. The problem occurs if a person allows his corporeal mind to control him and stop him from acting. If an action isn’t coordinated with the mind, the mind wins and stops the action.

We need to tune into the group, to build good relationships there, and to “buy ourselves a friend.” This is called action, as it is written, “We shall do and [then] we shall hear.” This means that we’ll reach the degree of Bina. After all, through the action, we draw the Light of correction from Bina. It influences us and gives us its quality of bestowal. However, if the mind stops a person from acting, then the person can’t change.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, Article, “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 2”

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People always aspire to reason and don’t understand that attainment comes only from above reason, that is, in the spiritual vessel of faith above reason. Only there will true knowledge be revealed. As we now study RABASH’s articles about the group and try to build our Internet community in accordance to the principles they describe, we want people to occupy themselves with it as much as possible. How much they understand these articles is not so important. What counts is that people work on them throughout the day as well.

One may get confused, not understand anything, curse all this, and want it all at the same time. It is most important for one to constantly occupy oneself with it. Thereby we will draw the Light that Reforms which will change our desires, and then we will understand.

However, understanding is not the goal in itself. The goal is to carry out correct actions which will bring us closer to bestowal. We don’t study in order to receive knowledge; we study in order to change. Otherwise it would be too easy, just as our egoism desires: to grab the Upper, spiritual world for itself also.

The whole Torah (Kabbalah) is given to us for a single purpose: to correct our egoistic nature. That is, the Torah works in the opposite direction, meaning against our ego. You do not climb into spirituality by yourself; rather, the spiritual Force of correction enters you. And you should desire and anticipate this force of correction. It is called your Mashiach (Messiah).

Of course we need to work on these articles about the group: make a plan, write a brief summary, take certain definitions, laws, and principles from them and use them to build our statute. Yet what matters most is being engaged in it all the time. The results will come as a consequence of this work and not from understanding. Everything will depend on how much we wish for this to happen. This is called the prayer (MAN).

Therefore, working with the articles is essential. However, it should not be work to acquire knowledge, but rather work to realize them.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, Article, “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 2”

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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out),” Item 51: …It turns out that she is like a polished mirror, which is concerned not with showing her own form, but only with the form of others, those who look at her or those who stand in front of her.
She resembles a mirror also because the whole quality of the glass mirror is the murky color in its other side. It reflects the rays of light, for if it were transparent, no shape would be seen in it. So is the Nukva—all her strength is in the Masach in her, which detains the light from shining from her down. Without this Masach, there would have been no light in her at all.

We read The Zohar but we don’t understand it; we read it but don’t feel anything. Ultimately we have to reach a state when the question “What is it all for?” will plunge us into despair, disillusionment, to an inner explosion and realization that we have no other choice but to unite, and in this inner unity, reveal what The Zohar speaks of.

There is no other method, no other path. We must overcome this barrier. There are many obstacles on our way: laziness, lack of understanding, and the mind’s protests due to its inability to comprehend. However, none of that matters. We only need persistence that brings us to a state of despair and the realization that there is no other choice. We must reveal what The Zohar speaks of precisely here in our unity. That which The Zohar describes is revealed only in the unity among us.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: What is unity? Is it an internal sensation or the revelation of some force?

My Answer: Unity is a new reality that we have no idea about. It is a new matter that we haven’t sensed before and that has the properties of the spiritual world: the properties of bestowal. When we become included in this matter and live in it, we start revealing a different, new dimension as if finding ourselves on a different planet. We reveal this dimension within the properties of this matter: in bestowal.

Thus, unity doesn’t simply mean mutual connection, good relations, or confidence. It is revelation of the new property which doesn’t exist in our world. When we obtain this property and become similar to the Creator, we reveal everything in our mind and feelings, in unity with Him.

There is nothing else for us to do except to reach unity. It is within our power to do so. With regard to this it is written, “We shall do and we shall hear.” This means that we can perform various actions, put forth our effort, and do everything in our power. We can study together and unite as the Kabbalists recommend and as RABASH writes in his articles.

However, we won’t succeed in this. We have to reach the state described as “And they screamed from this work.” It’s an internal scream that we have to unite but are incapable of doing so. Only with this state of this internal scream will it happen. It must be a true prayer, a true cry.

We have already built the entire foundation. Now we only have to reach the property of unity. The new matter which will become revealed as the connection with others is the spiritual matter. It is already to some extent a spiritual vessel which existed before the breaking. At the instant that we reveal it, that we reveal the spiritual existence, the Creator will be revealed.

Therefore, throughout the day, each of us and all of us together have to try, as much as possible, to care only about this.
[15553]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/10, The Zohar

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A Kabbalistic group is the AHP of the Upper One, Malchut that incorporates many other souls in it. I’m the lower one, and my task is to connect my point in the heart to those other souls even though they are foreign to me. If I annul my point in the heart relative to the Upper One, it turns into my GE (Galgalta ve-Eynaim) and, thanks to the Upper One, acquires a form. The Upper One gives it everything that it needs for growth, providing it with the structure, meaning with all the souls, the entire World of Infinity, the whole vessel of the common soul.

If you want to become a spiritual object (Partzuf), adhere to the Upper One, and its AHP will become your newly revealed world. To the measure that you cling to the AHP of the Upper One, your point in the heart expands, thanks to the AHP’s parts.

To adhere means to accept its rule over me, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Freedom.” The AHP of the Upper One is my environment. By clinging to it, I receive from it everything I need much like an embryo receives blood, oxygen, and nutrients from its mother. I do so in order for my point in the heart to grow into a spiritual organism.

This organism will resemble whatever I received from the AHP of the Upper One, the group. Yet, it will be its manifestation in my point in the heart, my spiritual gene. In other words, it will be shared by them both, the group and my own point in the heart. This is similar to how a child looks a little like his mother and his father, yet receives his essence from the Creator.

I pass myself into the “hands” of the Upper One; I introduce my desire into it, my demand to become the part in which the right and the left lines unite and realize the act of bestowal. To the extent that I accomplish it, that is, to the extent to which the semen annuls itself before the mother and obliges her to develop it, the mother starts taking care of it in return.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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A question I received: How do I combine the following dual attitude: On one hand, I have to view every one of the friends as greater than me, as the greatest of the generation. But on the other, I need to see them as smaller than me, as though in need of my constant care?

My Answer: I can easily relate this way as I do to my child: He is more important than I am since his desires determine my actions. If he needs anything, I drop everything and do as he asks. Yet, when I tend to him, I relate to him as someone who is smaller than me and cannot do without me. It follows that we can have this dual attitude simultaneously.

It is understood that the common desire is more important than my own. It is the miniature model of the common soul and already contains everything like a holograph.

If I relate to this small group with the law of mutual guarantee (let’s say the group is ten members large), those ten members are the same as ten billion. There is no difference here. Indeed, I need to exit my egoism, so it doesn’t matter whether I do it relative to ten or ten billion people. If in them, I reveal the spiritual world, then who is more important: me or them?

By myself I cannot reveal anything besides this earthly, corporeal life. Whereas in the right connection with the others, I reveal spirituality. Naturally, with respect to the goal, the group becomes more important to me than myself.

I must accept their desire as my own most sacred wish, as a law! This is what allows us to unite. On the other hand, I need to perceive them as smaller than me so as to feel that they need my help and give to them all that I have.

Whenever we’re talking about love and unity, I can regard another both as a small individual and as a great one. There is no contradiction here. It’s much like a baby with respect to an adult, where the baby becomes more important than everybody else. A small child is like the head of the family since the whole family revolves around him.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/10, Article, “Purpose of Society”

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How do we build a spiritual vessel from the point in the heart of every person, which is contained in his egoism? How do we elevate this point from the egoistic heart to the outside? How do we make it more important than all our egoistic desires and become concerned only with what happens in this point of spiritual aspiration?

To achieve this, we need the influence of the environment. We first have to lead our points in the heart to freedom from egoism, to the outside, and then to unify them. Their unification is crucial. The points in the heart are the means of connection among us; in this connection, we will feel the Creator. The stronger it will be, the more Light will be revealed in it.

This connection resembles an electrical resistor since we resist and do not wish to unite with each other. But, if we nonetheless unite, we feel how the Light begins to ooze through this resistance. The Upper Light influences, warms it up, and I feel the manifestation of the Creator in it.

In other words, I do not destroy my ego as practiced by different “spiritual” methods which tear a person away from reality. I use my ego and precisely through the ego, I reach attainment. Thus “the higher a person rises, the more his egoism grows.”

It will be significantly harder for you to unite with others on the next degree. It seems that it should be the opposite since you have already done this work. But suddenly you will begin to feel, “Who did I get involved with? Who are these people?” This means that the real work has begun.

The more resistance there is among you, the higher you can rise and the greater the Light that you can reveal. Instead of the Light of Nefesh (a minor Light that fills a small, few watt “light bulb”), you unite despite of a huge resistance (R2 instead of R1) and reveal the Light of Ruach, which is billions of times greater than the Light of Nefesh. It’s like a small light compared to a huge fire.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50

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A question I received: How do I know that I am advancing by the path of Light and not the path of suffering?

My Answer: The sign of following the path of Light is joy. It is written that “joy is the outcome of good deeds.” If I am connected with the others, I am always a part of a healthy common body and receive from it strength and inspiration. They are constantly circulating in our collective organism, flowing from one to the other; hence, I never fall or get disappointed. I don’t even feel tired! Granted, I can sometimes feel sore in my corporeal body, but I never feel tired mentally.

I keep receiving new desires and their fulfillment from the others, which flow from them to me and vice versa non-stop. So, in this condition a person ceases to feel ups and downs. For him, everything is one whole.

In fact, the day begins in the evening, but I don’t perceive it as a dark night. I feel that this is my preparation for the next spiritual step. I now need to gain more of an appetite and get hungry in order to become more receptive to perceiving spirituality.

This night is not the darkness we imagine. This is the darkness within egoism. It is the time of the construction of the vessel (Kli). In our earthly life we go to bed at night; however, in the spiritual one, we labor diligently in the night. We are making, creating, and building ourselves. It is as if at night we are assembling our car, and in the morning we drive it. Don’t think that in spirituality “night” is a dream separated from reality. We break off the previous reality in order to attain a new one. And we build it with faith above reason.

At “midnight,” the merging (Zivug) of Abba ve Ima takes place to create new desires (Kelim). I need to work in the dark because darkness conceals the old desires from me (since I don’t need them any more and must ascend to a new spiritual step). It also hides from me the new desires so that I can find them, connect them to myself, and understand where they are and why.

It’s similar as to how we play with our children. We first prepare a game for them, but later, they have to play by themselves. We pick a toy that consists of different parts (for example, cubes), not a toy with a single piece because we want the child to put it together by himself. Our spiritual work at “night” is the same.

Therefore, a person who is closely knitted into the environment doesn’t feel separation from the spiritual path when he falls. On the contrary, he sees that he is given an opportunity to work and experience a new adventure, like a child, whom nature pushes to grow. So, he loves such games of building and putting together.

Additionally, if the environment pushes us to this game, like nature does a child, we will feel as if we are on a wondrous journey. But if the environment doesn’t provide such inspiration, we don’t want to play as if we are a sick child who didn’t receive such a desire from nature and lags behind in his development.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50

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A question I received: Is it possible to ask the Creator to give points in the heart to those in whom they haven’t yet awakened?

My Answer: We need to pray for the whole of humanity to quickly reach a true spiritual need for the goal of creation. However, to pray means for you to aspire for inner unification with such tension and force that it will be felt by everyone else like a fire that is blazing within.

Imagine that humanity today is almost a lifeless body; maybe not completely dead yet, but in a state of unconsciousness. And we are its organs trying to revive ourselves and bring back life to this common organism. Gradually the whole body begins to awaken. This constitutes our work.

The most important work in dissemination is not in external efforts (the amount of books we release or materials on the internet); it is in the unification between us through which we rouse love, connection, and warmth in our whole worldwide unification of people who study Kabbalah. It is precisely this work that influences everyone else, and they suddenly begin to feel that there is something unique in all this! But what it is exactly, they don’t know. Nonetheless, they suddenly find us.

After all, every person’s heart somehow led him to Kabbalah though he himself didn’t understand how. It’s simply that once this need arose in him, he began to search, and suddenly he felt with his heart that his place is here. This is because his desire was already aimed in the same direction.

It was a very small desire for spirituality, a point in the heart was hiding deep within, but we ignited such a powerful fire that people felt it from afar. Therefore, everything depends on our inner unification. This is the most effective dissemination.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/10, Shamati #50

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