When spiritual insight is revealed in us, we actually begin to see and gradually understand more clearly that everything depends on the “place” (the Creator), which means on the number and the intensity of my discernments that reveal the spiritual reality and that show me to what extent I am connected to everyone else. Everything depends on the number of discernments and mainly on their intensity and the intensity of the connection.

Each of us suddenly discovers different discernments of his egoistic perception, but gives up his ego in order to connect with others. It turns out that a “dent” appears in my desire opposite a “bulge” in the desire of the friend, and a “bulge” of my desire opposite his “dent.” Thus we connect, as each one gives in to the other.

It turns out that I have given up my interests in order to connect to the friend, but he, in his perception will discover these “bulges” of my ego and will annul himself in order to connect with me. Thus, we don’t annul our ego, but constantly use it through more “bulges” and “dents.” Our sensitive and fine perception and its intensity depend on the amount of such connections in which we discover more and more discernments.

This is how the general vessel is built for the interest of the public. The more common needs I discover, the more I can annul myself and connect with others. But then I have to think about the reason I am doing this for—for the revelation of the Shechina (Divinity). Here I have to attain one more connection that is more internal and for a higher goal by discovering that it is the Creator.

The Creator isn’t some personality, but a discernment that I revealed as a result of my clarification. It is the upper Sefira of Keter, which I discover after having clarified all the Sefirot that precede it. Just like the commandment of love, which we must reach, but which we actually cannot. It reveals to us by itself if we perform all the commandments that precede it.

It is the same when it comes to connection. If I with my point in the heart work in the group and connect with the friends, then within this connection, in all the four phases, I discover their inner root called Shechina. Shechina symbolizes the revelation of the Creator.

I cannot build this last phase, the Keter, the one who bestows, by myself. It is revealed since I have taken the four steps towards it.

I did everything that was in my power, I revealed the four phases and the forms of connection by myself, and then I discover the phase of Keter on which I cannot work by myself. This is the Shechina. On my part, I complete the work and then there is a discovery waiting for me, as it says “I have labored and I found.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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We have to reach a height where we work above our egoism and it doesn’t get in our way, where we rise above it and become completely free from it. Then there are no limitations left for a person.

But for now egoism gets in our way, being “help from the opposite” since it helps me to reveal new desires, problems, and all kinds of flaws inside of me. This incites me to work and act, awakening various sensations in me and a change of states.

If none of this existed, our state would be completely hopeless. That is why it is written that “The greater a person, the greater his egoism.” But as a person advances, he reveals a greater desire to enjoy, and inside of that same desire he reveals more and more details and finer nuances, evoking stronger impressions in him. This is called a greater will to enjoy.

Reaching greater egoism means becoming picky and intolerant about the smallest things which I previously did not even pay attention to. And this spurs me to perform new, finer corrections, eventually bringing me to carry out very precise work against my egoistic nature.

The Creator created the will to enjoy, being foreign to Him and to us. But this lets us feel one notion: our separation from the Creator as “something from nothing” (Yesh Mi Ein). There is nothing besides this in the will to enjoy. It includes just this one quality, and not an ounce of any desire. The Creator created just this one particular point, which emerged “from nothing,” being something completely separate.

And from this separate point, the will to enjoy then begins to develop like a spiral that unwinds. Everything that is present in this desire, that comes out of the point of “something from nothing,” develops from the Creator, but in the opposite form, like an anti-world.

The Creator created a certain point beyond His boundaries, which exists from nothing, and He brought Himself inside of it. It turns out that there is the Creator and the creation, standing one opposite another. And creation uses everything it has from this “nothing” in order to establish itself in the same status as the Creator.

After all, in reality everything else besides this one point of “something from nothing” is the Creator. And “something from nothing” is the turning point in our mind and feelings, which we must always correct.
[80546]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/12, Shamati

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Everything takes place in the desire to receive, the only created being. And it is controlled by the Light that educates it and teaches it by everything that happens with this desire. The process begins from the fourth phase of the Direct Light from which we see that in addition to filling the created being that it created, the desire brings it to feel it, the Creator. Eventually the created being (the fourth phase – Behina Dalet) begins to feel that someone has created him and is now filling him, which means that there is something else besides the desire itself and the fulfillment.

We don’t feel it in our lives, since we feel ourselves as phase one, at the beginning of creation: I have a life and I am alive. We don’t feel that we are receiving this life from someone and that is why we don’t develop above the first level, the level of the inanimate.

The vegetative level already feels that its life is determined by someone’s desire, by some plan that leads to a certain goal. This means that it feels that there is a reason that leads to a process that leads to a goal. Thus two attitudes are developed in it: towards its condition and towards the one who provides this condition.

The created being can feel good or bad, and at the same time feel that this good or bad feeling comes from someone. Accordingly, he develops an attitude towards this “someone.” Instinctively, he loves the one who causes him pleasure and he doesn’t like the one who makes him suffer.

But thanks to the fact that he goes through many states, the created being begins to gradually accept the mental discernments along with the emotional impression. The mental discernments are formed in the created being thanks to the clarification of the process, the connection between the cause and the consequence, and by comparing the two. It is as if he begins to put a puzzle or Lego pieces together by putting together different parts, different states, by comparing them and connecting them with different reasons and outcomes.

After feeling many pleasant and unpleasant states and seeing that they are connected, he understands that it is impossible to judge and to respond only on the basis of the initial emotional feeling since there is no such program in bestowal. There is a certain formula that connects the cause and the consequence, and so we can be in many unpleasant states that are useful and eventually bring about better feelings.

Thus the ability to think begins to develop in us, and the thinking process appears. Together with the desires, the mechanism of the mind begins to take on a form, thus enabling a person to relate the process we are going through regardless of what he feels. We can already detach ourselves from our feelings and check these feelings by using the mind and relating to them objectively, as if from the side. This is how we begin to clarify our states.

As a result, the attribute of Bina appears in the created being, the understanding that is detached from the first phase, which is a pure feeling. A person begins to rise, with the help of the mind, above his feelings as a “clever man who sees the future.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/12/12, Shamati #121

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Phase two, Bina, is characterized by its understanding. Therefore, a person who attains it in his development begins to relate differently to what he feels. Even when he feels that he is in the dark, when he feels bad in the hardening of the heart, it is as if he is in a fog or a dark cloud, but at the same time he begins to acquire powers in order to detach himself from his feelings and to clarify them independently.

This allows him to agree with what the Creator does with him and to justify the Creator’s actions, since the Creator wants to raise a person above his feeling and to let him see it from the side. It is because he is in a difficult spot now, feeling pain, that he can clarify it by the mind above his feelings. Then he can accept this dual state gladly, since on the basis of this dual attitude he can build a new state, which is higher than the previous state, and higher than his desire.

Thus a person reaches the second phase (Behina Bet) instead of the first phase (Behina Aleph). He rises to the vegetative level and begins to move independently. He doesn’t just feel the good and the bad that come along like a lifeless stone that cannot respond at all, but begins to determine the state he is in by himself.

He justifies the actions that help him advance and establish a relationship with the Creator, and determine the Creator’s treatment as the “good and the benevolent” in every state, including the states in which we feel good or bad in our egoistic perception. Now he is in contact with the Creator above all these states.

But I want to develop further and attain such a state to “restrict” myself above the darkness. This means that I don’t care what I feel in my desire to receive; it doesn’t affect what I feel towards the Creator, the source. I don’t relate to the Light as to a pleasure like in the first phase that feels only pleasure or lack of pleasure. I bestow upon the Light like in phase two, I raise the Returning Light even higher, not because of a good feeling, but in order to adhere to the Creator above this feeling.

This means that I unite with the process the Light puts me through, by which it teaches me to be constantly connected to it, to its plans, above all the good and the evil. Then I adhere to Him above my feeling.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/12/12, Shamati #121

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On one hand, the commandments “between a person and his friend” are more important than the commandments “between a person and the Creator,” since from the love of the created beings one reaches the love of the Creator. But on the other hand, we mustn’t forget the final goal: We must build the mutual relations among us correctly only in order to connect with the Creator.

Otherwise, we would simply demonstrate “idealism” trying to overcome the crisis, to improve the educational system, to become better and happier people… All this is fraught with evil and leads to an even greater collapse. After all, by that we divert humanity from its internal part, leading it to a side road. Then people would feel even greater suffering trying to leave these attempts, no matter how wonderful they may seem.

We want to stop the hunger and to make everyone healthy, to fill everyone with joy. But if at the same time we don’t aim at adhesion with the Creator, with the goal of creation, if we don’t intend to bring the Creator contentment and to enable Him to reveal Himself, then instead of the direct path upwards, we are choosing a side road, and then more sufferings would be needed in order to get back on track.

Thus, by our seemingly good actions, we would summon negative results, so as it says: “It is better to sit and do nothing.”
[80382]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/12/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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The wisdom of Kabbalah uses only those terms and names which are real and reflect reality. This is an immutable law of all Kabbalists: “That which hasn’t been attained is impossible to name and define.” Until an object is revealed completely, as if you’re holding it in your hands, Kabbalists don’t call it attainment but something else like understanding, knowledge, and so on.

In this manner, we attain a phenomenon to its very foundation, from the beginning of creation until the end, in every detail. And as much as we attain it inside our vessels of perception, to that extent we ourselves become enriched and complex in equal measure. After all, all the worlds are inside us and the entire picture appears within. I don’t study external phenomena but whatever occurs inside of me, and in the process, I understand myself more and more and realize to a greater extent that there is nothing outside of me. If before I saw the world as being outside, it was only due to a distorted perception, while in reality, it was a projection reflected in my brain.

Ultimately, the spiritual attainment leaves no doubt, just like I don’t doubt basic, elementary things, such as how many fingers I have on my hand. And this is why it is written in different places that Kabbalah doesn’t require proof, since it cannot offer any proof to a person who is not in attainment. Words taken on faith won’t help here; a person needs to ascend to a level of attainment, to feel inside him or herself the screens, the Lights, and the vessels. Then he will see reality—see it firsthand with his inner sight.

Then our world will suddenly appear to be inside as well. Indeed, as the desires are corrected, a person feels the facets and manifestations of the world inside him. When we work in a group, trying to bring the friends closer in unification, bonding, and Arvut (mutual guarantee) in order to become as one man with one heart, then through that, we prepare ourselves for that very same perception, which depends wholly on a person himself. And this is why spiritual attainment has no boundaries. All that we see outside transitions inward, becoming a part of us.
[80337]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/8/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: How do I work with the group in order to clarify correctly everything that happens with me?

Answer: First, try to connect with the friends. Leave the clarifications for now; you don’t have the right tools to clarify things. First you have to acquire the means, a spiritual vessel with which you can clarify what is happening. At the moment your attitude to life is distorted.

Today you have to build a new vessel in the group since the clarification and actually everything depends on the mutual relationship a person has with the environment.

Question: We are trying to do it in the workshops. How can we correctly clarify the questions that you are presenting?

Answer: You have to want to connect on the basis of my questions. The question itself isn’t as important as everything you are saying in the discussions. The words are necessary so that we will rise above them and constantly think about how to connect with the friends. No matter what nonsense the friend may say, I rise above it wanting to connect with him. I have to see the friends as the greatest in our generation, and on the other hand, I bestow upon them my part of the general bestowal.

The work takes place on two levels: below—hatred and coarseness, and above—love and purity. If these two things exist, it is already a certain type of vessel. If you attain such a great gap between coarseness and purity then the Light, the Creator, is revealed.

Until then, you constantly work in workshops, in connections and in studying in order to attain this gap, which for us is the goal called “Mount Sinai.”

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It says in the Torah that at the foot of Mt. Sinai the Creator said to the People of Israel: “and now if you shall listen to Me, and keep My covenant, you shall be unique people of all the nations.” There is a condition here: “I shall give you the Torah, which means the method of correction, if you understand that you have to fulfill the formula of correction, the plan of the correction.”

The Creator gives everything, the instructions and their fulfillment, but you have to know where you are headed. Here a certain commitment is required on behalf of the lower, who checks himself: Does he agree to that? And if he hasn’t reached the level of agreement yet, then the exile in Egypt can reoccur and eventually we will find ourselves once again at the foot of Mt. Sinai facing the same condition.

The agreement on behalf of the lower symbolizes the need for clarification—he needs to find out that he really wants this and nothing else. Even if he weren’t given such a strict condition, he would still accept it with his heart and soul by asking for it and wanting it. The condition he was given helps him clarify what he actually has to do.

So why doesn’t a person reach the gathering at Mt Sinai with a clear demand: “I want to be corrected! Please give me the Torah and I will keep it, in order to bring You contentment…” the point is that a person reaches this as a result of the shattering. He has a deficiency but he cannot clarify things independently and so the Light has to operate first. By the Light that is revealed, a person feels darkness—his point in the heart rises to Mt. Sinai and at the same time at the foot of the mountain he builds the “golden calf.” Indeed, how can all his other desires agree to rise to the same level in which he is ready to work in bestowal, doing the work of the priests?

A person must discover the field of his future work, all the thickness of the “mountain” from the top to the bottom. Therefore, he faces this condition. He can refuse and “die,” which means to stay in the desire to receive, to return to Egypt. The people of Israel demanded this of Moses more than once during the journey in the desert. The ego constantly calls to return to Egypt since Egypt is depicted as a fertile abundant land. Everything was in abundance there, so what was the problem?

Egypt fills the egoistic desires to their fullest. They never lacked anything there, except for one thing: to the extent that you are developed you feel darkness and sufferings, and enter the “seven years of hunger,” but it is spiritual hunger, a spiritual thirst, when there is nothing to revive your soul, but only your stomach. The desire to receive is full, but for the desire to bestow it is exile and death.
[80273]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: What do I need to do in order for the Light to hear me: scream, cry?

Answer: It doesn’t matter how your request will be expressed outwardly, whether you’ll be dancing or crying, screaming or being silent. The main thing is for the request to penetrate as deep as possible into the heart. There’s only one way to check: Is your desire directed in a more and more precise way towards connection since only through connection can you come closer to the Light?

If the Light doesn’t respond to your request, it means that you don’t yet have the desire. Desire in the heart; this is a request toward the Light. If you develop the desire within you, then the Light will begin to influence and fulfill it.

It is said that every person is constantly praying; the Light affects every desire that arises in our heart. After all, the Light is at absolute rest, it is a force that fills all of creation, the informational force field in which we’re all submerged like in an ocean of water. And the moment some desire appears in me, it affects the Light.

But the fact is that there are desires that don’t go in the same direction with Him. And the Light still works on them because it affects everything—it is an immutable law, like in physics. But because these desires don’t correspond to the Light, the Light develops them in a negative form until a person discovers that he or she feels bad. Then he begins to look for a cause and finds out that he was moving in the wrong direction and he needs to change his desires. This is called the path of suffering.

Alternatively, I can proactively use the method, which explains what one must ask in order to correspond to the Light from the very beginning. To do this I join a group, which encourages me, fueling my desire. None of us wants to unite, but when we all talk about the importance of connection, then eventually everyone will want it. After all, it is a law of nature; we are impressed by our environment.

So I choose such an environment that infuses me with the right thoughts and desires, that constantly talks about the benefits of unification and the great achievements that are possible through it. And then I see that I simply cannot do without connection to others, and I begin to desire it.

If everyone works in this correct manner relative to the others and we desire to unite together at least in some way, then the Light begins to affect us and brings us closer to connection. And when it brings us to the very first, smallest connection of our desires, then it becomes revealed in them as the Light of Nefesh. This means that we have begun to live—we were born in the spiritual world. That is, we united together even if for the time being it’s through the weakest initial connection.

Then we continue on from this achieved connection already having some sensation of our state and the ongoing process. Again we begin to ask, now for an even greater connection. The Light affects us more strongly and raises us to the level of Ruach, from the still degree to a vegetative. This means that we can move on our own, we feel some movement in our connections with each other, an ability to do something ourselves. The degree of Ruach means that we weren’t simply born in the spiritual world, but we’re acting and living within it! Ruach (wind) is a vegetative degree and it means the ability to move.

And then we advance even further and reach the animate degree, Neshama (soul). At this point a person ends his cycles of reincarnation. There’s an even higher degree at the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun) when everyone will be corrected and unite together. But for now we need to ascend along the preceding degrees, and this entire advancement only happens in a group, in unity, in order to reveal the Light that will fill the correct bond between us.

In other words, if we achieve the right connection between us, then the feeling of our unity is called a sensation of Light.

Demand it in any way you can, again and again, and each time you’ll receive an impression, clarify Reshimot, and eventually it will happen. The most important thing is to continue. You need to study, participate in the entire life of the group, try to get close to everyone, and then it will come. According to what is written: “I labored and found.”

And if it hasn’t happened yet, it means that for now there’s still an insufficiency, though not of time and actions, but of your inner desire that still has to develop and become perfected. New, more advanced Reshimot still need to appear, which you will realize thanks to your work, and then it will happen.

You can scream and cry, but it won’t help. Only one thing helps: meticulously and persistently, patiently and stubbornly continuing your path.
[80159]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/8/2012, Writings Of Rabash

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Some people think that the Creator can be reached through torturing oneself, making one suffer. But the Creator doesn’t need our sufferings. He doesn’t send them to us. We feel them because according to the nature of the creation, the Light and the desire are opposite to each other. And by revealing this oppositeness, a person must realize that this feeling is given only in order to rise above it. It is only a sign allowing us to feel the oppositeness and separation from the Creator.

First of all, we should be thankful for getting such a sign, and move away from this bitter feeling as soon as possible. After all, willingly or not, consciously or unconsciously, through this unpleasant sensation we blame the Creator, the source of all that is happening to us. And thus I find myself opposite to and separated from Him, and this is called a sinner.

We must strive only toward lighter feelings, toward getting closer to the Creator. A person’s search for suffering comes from pride. After all, he thinks that he is supposed to be awarded, paid, and elevated for the sufferings. This comes from a misunderstanding of the entire system of reality.

The Creator is called good that does good, and He wishes us good as well. The purpose of creation is in receiving pleasure, and the Creator created creatures in order to delight them. And if you feel something unpleasant at some moment, you should use this feeling to move forward and justify the Creator by staying in an absolutely good state.

We cannot kiss and love the stick that beats us; it is a deception and hypocrisy. If a person works correctly, he rises with the help of the environment and a new scale of values because he appreciates the quality of bestowal more and more each time. He uses every moment; when there is an opportunity to rise, he sees that he has not yet reached the full sensation of perfection; he is imprisoned in bestowal of the Creator who is absolutely good. He doesn’t calm down for a moment as his goal is to give pleasure to the father without caring about his own pleasant and unpleasant sensations. He keeps advancing by using his good and bad impressions to find out what else could be improved to reach bestowal.

So the person keeps moving, rising above the darkness and discomfort each time it occurs. After all, they point to his remoteness from and lack of adhesion with the Creator. Thus he is grateful for all of these discoveries; these are sinners that are revealed in him, which he can overcome and rise above toward adhesion with the Creator.

And then, all this revealed evil will become a blessing, a gift for him. He will welcome the darkness with gladness by preparing himself to it in a proper environment in advance. Every moment the darkness becomes revealed in his senses and mind, he will look for something that is left uncorrected.

He doesn’t look for suffering; he looks for black details in his perception in order to correct them. After all, he prepared to be corrected in advance and he doesn’t suffer in vain, which is simply silly.

Here is an entirely different calculation with respect to all the events happening to a man in the world. He sees everything as a means in order to rise above disturbances and reach merging with the Creator. It means that he is climbing the Creator’s mountain. Throughout his journey, he is wary of any unpleasant feeling lasting longer than a moment and then rises above it due to the high importance. After all, a person perceives it as a sign or a springboard for elevation, an opportunity to justify the Creator, to rise above this feeling toward bestowal. And this depends on the importance of the goal and the greatness of the Creator. Then he will highly appreciate the means, which become revealed to him in an opposite, negative form, giving him an opportunity to build himself.
[80255]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/11/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Letter 8”

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