Question: In the stories of the righteous Job relates that his suffering is the result of a dispute with the evil spirit named Satan, who supposedly looks at people and decides to test their loyalty to the Creator.

Satan claims that Job was righteous because he had everything and thrived in life. And if you take away his wealth, it is unknown how he will respond. This is the beginning of the suffering of Job. Who is Satan?

Answer: This story is about the evil desire that confronts everybody. Satan is inside us and is called the evil inclination. It is written: “the evil inclination in a person is the Satan, the angel of death.”

Question: We consider Satan to be some kind of the higher power?

Answer: Why can’t it be higher? We are born this way; it precedes me: “the human heart is wicked from the day of one’s birth.” It rules over us. I would say that this force is even stronger than the Creator. Nature consists of four levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

The force that controls the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels is benevolent. That is why harmony and balance are present in the first three levels. Even though some live creatures gobble each other up, it happens only because they are governed by nature. They don’t hurt each other deliberately. The positive, kind force that rules the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels is called the Creator (Elokim).

The human (speaking) level is controlled by the negative force: “the human heart is wicked from the day of its birth.” The evil nature constantly tempts us to hurt others. Not only do I want to take your watch, ring, and beautiful eyeglasses just because I want them, I also enjoy that you don’t possess them anymore. Where does this feeling come from? It derives from the ability to sense our neighbors, i.e., “I feel you.”

Since I feel them, I am not satisfied when my neighbor simply doesn’t feel good. I really want them to feel bad. This mere fact makes me automatically happy. So the sensation of a neighbor that is inherent to human nature allows us enjoy others’ suffering that result from the fact that they lack things that they strive for. This sensation elevates and fulfills us. The force that causes this sensation is called Satan or the evil inclination.

Question: What does the dialogue between Satan and the Creator mean?

Answer: Satan lives inside us. It is our nature. As for the Creator, He is the external nature that we don’t yet have. It exists in the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, but is absent from the human level: “the human heart is evil from the day it was born.” This is how we are born and then continue living. You can easily see it in our children. They gradually grow for two, three, four years, and all of a sudden they become people.

They begin lying, stealing, acting solely for their own sake, doing anything they can to fulfill their desires. They want everything, and if you give a toy to a child and the second toy to another child, the first child wants to grab both. It is our duty to transform the wicked inclination into a good one, “as if for our own self.” If previously a little child grabbed both toys and never gave them to other children, now he is supposed to give both toys to his friends. It’s not about sharing. He has to act “as if it is for his own sake.”

Question: How should we understand  Satan’s manipulations when he demands sending new troubles to Job? It’s not enough to take Job’s money away. It is necessary to take away his children!

Answer: It stems from the program of nature that constantly rules over us. We permanently advance and grow, and our desires constantly enhance, develop, and become more and more egoistic. Our needs expand. However, do we become more corrected from generation to generation?

We constantly follow Satan. He pushes us to bad things: weapons, murder, terror, deceit, and slyness. Can we resist these things? No! We drift with the wicked flow that leads us nowhere. We consent to it. Moreover, we continue considering ourselves to be honest citizens!

By converting evil into benevolence, we’ll attain the Creator’s level. Then, we’ll understand all of nature and reach the best possible scientific level, build correct relationships among us and behave accordingly. We are not there as yet.
[148771]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/28/13

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From At the End of Days. Jewish Predictions of Humanity’s Future, Chapter 1, “Signs Indicating Imminent Deliverance”: Messiah will not come until the strength of Israel expires.

In spiritual work, one has to be completely disillusioned about their ability to act independently and to determine things and events. Everything happens only with the help of the upper force.

Everyone will have to sense and realize that we don’t have anything to do with the action of correction. Even though we may plan for certain actions, we are not involved with them because we are influenced by the upper force that descends and corrects us.

We contribute our efforts only to realize that this process is way beyond us. The force that descends to us from the next level has nothing to do with us.  The sensation that it is impossible to act on our own, is in fact, a reward for our exertions.

Our full awareness that it is the upper force that has complete impact upon us is the basic condition of being under its influence. Its power is ultimately important since it speaks of a new stage, the next level.

Comment: It is a very cruel and painful condition.

Answer: On the contrary, it is very joyous since we feel it as deliverance. We get rid of the responsibility to plan and calculate events that take place in our lives.

Question: Am I freed of worries about myself?

Answer: No, you stop worrying about yourself long before you attain this state. You simply feel a desire that is absolutely incapable to act on its own as if it’s inanimate, dead matter.

Only with regard to the next state, which you define as spiritually dead, are you able to turn into clay in the sculptor’s hands. Only the Creator can transition us to the next step and give us water that brings life. The land (desire) is dead without water (the Light of Hassadim). When it happens, you’ll be revived and will transition to the next step.
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From KabTV’s “Will the Messiah Come?” 11/14/14

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Torah “Leviticus” Kedoshim 19:12: You shall not swear falsely by My Name, thereby profaning the Name of your God. I am the Lord. “You shall not swear falsely by My Name” means avoiding self-deceit, a condition when one thinks that one is able to completely bestow and implement the qualities of love, but does not act this way internally.

There are various levels of violating the property of bestowal and love: by ignorance, by misunderstanding, by confusion, or by sickness. In other words, there are several minor problems and malfunctions in our egoism to which we don’t pay attention. One must scrutinize and gradually correct them so that one fully clarifies one’s ego to the extent that it becomes transparent, corrected, and bestowing.

This explains why one has to test oneself and work hard on these problems. The most widespread tendency among us is stealing. For example, when we advance in self-correction, we think that we can work with these kinds of desires. Our egoism helps us by persuading us that “Everything is all right; you are working for the sake of bestowal.”

In fact, we might even really serve others and try acting for the sake of humanity. However, suddenly it becomes obvious to us that everything we ever did in this direction was still for our own sake. It turns out that we receive something in return at all times and the pleasure we feel is the reason for our actions. It is said: “The path to hell is paved with good intentions.” Intentions looked good, but our actions were wicked.

To control ourselves, we have to study the Talmud because it explains these things in their tiny details.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/26/14

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Question: One of the verses of “The Song of Songs” contains these words: “I am sick of love.” Who is this woman talking about, herself?

Answer: If I relate to nature, to the entire reality with love, I start feeling from it warmth and a loving attitude. It embraces, caresses, protects, and surrounds me with pleasant, good waves that constantly support me.

In this way I talk not from the side of “man,” i.e., an attitude toward nature with love, but from the side of “woman,” receiving the attitude in response. Ultimately, we are talking about a person who feels himself giving and receiving.

He who fills is called a man. He who receives from the other in response is called a woman. It turns out that being in good relations to the world is called a man, and in receiving waves of warmth and love from the world is called a woman.

Question: It doesn’t matter whether I am a man or a woman?

Answer: Of course. We are talking about a person who corrected the evil inclination in himself and acquired the good inclination through group work and integral education.

Now, he is feeling bestowal and reception in relation to the whole of nature and to the entire humanity. This feeling brings him a sense of perfection and raises him above all the disadvantages so that the concepts of time, space, and motion disappear.

Question: What is “I am sick with love?”

Answer: A new sensation captures and fills him to such an extent that he does not feel himself. He feels love that fills him, but not himself receiving this love. He rises to the feeling of general nature, exits himself and he does not exist and is not present.

There is only a feeling of universal love. That is the point of his unity, adhesion, and higher connection with nature, with the Creator. The weakness lies in the fact that love rules.

Question: Why is it a disease?

Answer: When something comes from outside, fills me, and dominates me, this foreign power is called a disease. This is the expression of love that comes and fills me completely.

Question: But it is good to be sick with love?

Answer: True. Only it should be emphasized that there are no boundaries. You are under this foreign power on your own accord and due to the constant work that you perform with great efforts. You have reached this state, but as a result, you are in the power of love.
[149251]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/28/14

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Our world is divided into four categories: the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels, not in material form, but in the spiritual realm. After all, what makes us different from animals? It is our inner essence, our internal development. However physiologically, we belong to the same animal world.

We need to get beyond the concepts of time, motion, and space that are inherent to the first three levels, the still, vegetative, animate, and live on the level of man. We do not comprehend this level as yet, but it is waiting for us.

Question: Looking at the past, at the end of their life, the elderly regret the time wasted in the futile race for material enjoyment. They begin to feel that the force that fills the world is the power of bestowal and love, and regret that they worked too hard and did not give enough time for children, family, and friends.

What do old people feel looking back and what is not disclosed to young people who still have their whole lives in front of them? What kind of practical wisdom do mature people acquire and therefore regret for time lost and which young people do not know about at the beginning of their lives?

Answer: Elders and young ones have a difference in the means of enjoyment and sources of pleasure. Young people think that the sources of pleasure are food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge, and everyone wants to achieve them. And the older people already understand that there is no real fulfillment in all of this.

There is a material fulfillment by food, sex, family, wealth, fame, knowledge, but the real fulfillment is only in good communication between people, in love and sincere relationships. They regret that they have not invested enough in order to achieve such an interconnection, and to enjoy it and delight others by it.

Therefore, integral education should provide people, not only with knowledge of this, but also with the proof, because young people do not want to listen. For them, their whole life now is to get as much enjoyment from those things programmed internally, such as food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge. In actuality, true pleasure does not depend on time and is not limited by space, but rather it depends on sincere relationships between people and love for others.

One feels a genuine fulfillment only when connected to other people, and the connection between them starts to reveal a sincere relationship and mutual bestowal.

Then they reveal a sense of eternal life in this context, and this is related to the level of man, which is above the animal level. This step is not in our world and we need to recognize it, build it, form it, and dwell therein. After all, it is not connected with our body, but is connected to a new awareness, a new matrix of perception.

Question: What do you advise a young man who wants to manage his time? What is the best thing he should do in life?

Answer: Take care of all necessities in material life and then dedicate the rest of the time towards the implementation of the spiritual level, the level of Man (Adam), which is bestowal and love.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/22/14

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We learn how the creature deteriorated from one point of unification to separation, to gradual fragmentation, to the discovery of greater and greater forces, to building a system of connection between the parts. Even before the shattering, there existed various characteristics and the forces between them.

In such a way we learn about the whole system of connections between the future creature and the Creator, between the characteristic of reception and the characteristic of bestowal, and about the cooperation between them. This is the system of higher forces, higher worlds. And to make it possible for us to truly exist, despite and in contradiction to the Creator, a shattering happened and our present state was created. From that we began to advance towards trembling.

It must be understood that this fear, this awe, and concern, this anxiety are the measuring tools with whose help I feel the level, the world in which I am found, and whether I am concerned about myself in our world or I am concerned about others in the higher world.

In general, it is a great and wonderful fortune that we were given our situation in the world where we feel the ego that separates us, because with its help we can measure how close or far we are from the exalted goal. This is expressed in a comparison of the beastly fear in our world, an apparent concern about the next world, and dread on a higher level, where we depart from the framework of our mundane concern and logic and are concerned only for what is found outside of us. Through this we begin to resemble the Creator. It is precisely here that a person measures his state, the level on which he is found. Clearly when we are in an egoistic state, we are not prepared to come out of it unless a higher force acts upon us, which is the characteristic of bestowal (the Creator) in a form that we call Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light). It illuminates us from a distance, in secret, because we do not have characteristics that are similar to it. We awaken its influence on us, only to the degree of our efforts to approach each other.

This is an internal, voluntary movement. It is as if I am trying to enter into the feelings and mind of every friend. I withdraw from his external appearance, the external problems and characteristics, and everything that touches upon his mundane characteristics. Only his heart interests me, his yearning for detachment from himself towards connection with others and rising above his beastly state. This is to say, it is what raises a person above his donkey. It is up to me to feel what is happening within his heart and connect it with my heart.

It is the same thing regarding the mind. The various characteristics, thoughts, intentions, and problems don’t interest me, only what belongs to our development. In that way, it is up to me to take from my friend, his point in the heart, his point in the mind, and connect these two points with my two points.

In myself as well, I examine and emphasize only my yearning for the Creator (my point in the heart) and my mental orientation towards Him (my point in the mind). That is how all of us connect with one heart and mind to something whole, as if we are building a spiritual likeness from ourselves composed of heart and mind.

So where is our dread? The dread is when we succeed in building our common point, the pure heart that we have assembled and the mind that we have assembled, and we rise as much as possible, as much as we are detached from what we imagined for ourselves in the mundane sense. A permanent dread is awakened in us as to whether we will succeed in maintaining our collective structure.

This happens within every group of ten, and after that in all of the groups of ten together. Later, our convention will be connected with all the mirror conventions that are held in parallel with us in one spiritual space.

We must hold onto all of this within us and be constantly concerned that this structure will be felt more and more as real in every moment. In the beginning, it is only some kind of a hint, but gradually it becomes thicker and more solid. We even find some new characteristics within our united heart and mind.

We truly begin to feel something, and then we feel the division of this perimeter into ten Sefirot, meaning that we reach a spiritual structure within which we feel active forces, the Creator.

In this way we begin to feel Him and how He maintains our inner structure together, which is the ten Sefirot. All of us are included within this structure and each one feels the ten Sefirot within his particular individual perception, within his original spiritual characteristics, within the point in the heart and the mind.

Each one of us discovers his creation without disturbing each other. Our souls are included in each other and become connected so that eventually a general picture of the Olam Ein Sof (world of Infinity) is created.

We are already connected between us on levels that lead upward and the ten Sefirot become increasingly clear. Within them are discovered immense internal characteristics, combinations, coalitions, systems, and connections. Ultimately, all of these together become a Sefira that is composed of infinite emotional and intellectual connections.

In this way we reach attainment of the Creator, meaning attainment of the immense mind and emotion that fills this Sefira. This is the way that we must go together.

So the main thing is the characteristic of bestowal, and so we must fear falling into our mundane scrutinies, into our natural corporeal concerns. In a convention we must limit this to the level of necessary subsistence only.

We are trying to reach the state of trepidation in this manner.
[43956]
From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14, Lesson 1

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Question: Do you consider the Commandments that Moses gave to the Jews the key to inner peace, that is, balance between altruism and egoism?

Answer: Of course. The most important of them, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” is the foundation of the entire Torah, which is a handbook on how to achieve this condition. Unfortunately, those who consider themselves adherents and believers by observing the Torah do not always pursue this goal.

Question: The commandments, which Moses passed on, included only good deeds and warned not to commit the bad ones. But there was nothing said about how it would be rewarded.

Answer: No compensation should be asked for fulfilling the commandments. If you want to love your neighbor and treat him well, you must do it absolutely unconditionally. Then the inner satisfaction that you receive from it will be your reward.
[149394]
From KabTV’s “A Special Opinion” 8/17/14

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Question: People are different, so how can they influence different processes in nature together with other people?

Answer: Everything depends on the level of bestowal. If we speak about the levels in nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, humanity is destroying and corrupting the environment and causing great harm to the ecology. At the same time, however, the upper providence is arranged so that it enables a person to gradually learn from his actions until he understands because everything exists and operates for a purpose. Even though we should have already disappeared from the surface of the earth because of our corruptions, nature is still arranged from above in a way that it can bear us and allow us to continue until we learn and grow wiser and gradually realize, according to our human nature, that we have to change.

Question: Won’t humanity reach the recognition and the revelation as to how the world is arranged and how the different forces operating in it are arranged up until the very last moment of its evolution? Is it our eternal fate to live in such a mess, wars and outbursts of desires?

Answer: There is no mess and no coincidence. We are in a very accurate, rigid, and deterministic system. Everything is arranged in a clear and accurate manner without any defects or flaws.

There are no concepts such as “as if,” “suddenly,” or “approximately,” etc. The more we learn about nature according to different sciences, the more clearly the very accurate unchangeable laws are revealed to us. We divide and classify our knowledge in different fields, but, in fact, there are no different sciences like chemistry, physics, etc, in the world around us.

It is only the unknown areas that have not been explored and studied as yet by which we can attempt to clarify things, but it is merely our perception that stems from ignorance. We simply cannot perceive the whole general picture.

Still, if we delve deeper into this issue, we see that nothing in creation happens for no reason, suddenly, as if, or approximately. It is on our part that we see things that way as “one judges according to his own flaws.” If our mind could grasp and penetrate the depths of nature, we could see a magnificent system in which everything exists in perfection. We could actually see what Godliness is and that everything is related to everything on all levels from the top down. The natures of the still, vegetative, animate, and human beings are one in their spiritual and corporeal revelation, and by one movement of my arm, I can move and operate all the worlds. This is how it is all built. There is no event that can remain unfelt and not affect the whole system.

Question: Why can’t humanity reach this level of evolution and see this picture?

Answer: We cannot do that in our egoistic mind and our egoistic feelings. We can only perceive the whole picture if we acquire the attribute of bestowal, the second and altruistic force.

Therefore, we study only on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate and only on an elementary level, which is not bestowal and reception.
[149239]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How is it that a person is able to annul oneself before the environment?

Answer: A person despairs of how much time has passed and so much effort has been applied, and still there’s no result. But if one nevertheless is in the group and continues to attend, in the end one’s desire changes.

I remember once I came to Rabash’s lesson during a terrible rainstorm. Nobody had a car except for me, so we waited for a long time, but nobody came. Then I began to call and ask why people didn’t come, and then offered a ride. And the reply was: “What can I do if there’s such a flood outside?”

And then another student showed up all soaking wet. When we asked him how he was able to walk in such a downpour, he replied: “What could I do if there’s a lesson?”

It turns out that one sits at home and says, “What could I do?” “How could I go out in this rain?” And another came completely drenched and also said, “What could I do, there’s a lesson, and I couldn’t stay home?”

Everything depends on a person’s attitude towards any given condition. Every moment you are being asked about your attitude. If you don’t forget that everything comes from above especially for you so that you work with it, then you have no choice, and you act accordingly.

Question: How can I, with every given possibility, persuade myself to take a step towards the group?

Answer: It is written: “Whatever the mind doesn’t do, time does.” And indeed it’s true. If there’s no quality, quantity will work. In any case, you realize that one day, due to the influence of the Light, nothing will help you. You won’t accomplish anything by addressing the Creator directly, since it doesn’t work like that.

Then you despair and decide that you’re required to connect yourself with the environment. You’ll want to connect your threads with everyone else’s, and everyone else wants to connect with you, like you’re a fish caught in a net. Only in this form will you have the opportunity to do something about yourself, and most importantly, let friends work on you.

You are bound to feel disillusioned to the point where you doubt your own abilities in order to agree to submit yourself to the environment, to become entangled in the net with one hope that friends will affect you. You believe that they have the power to do so. You have no connection with the Creator on your own, and He doesn’t want to influence and change you.

After all, you see that many years have passed, but nothing helps. There’s nothing else to do, and then you make your decision. This requires a lot of effort, time, perseverance, and persistence. There shouldn’t be a day where you miss a lesson.
[148969]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/14 Writings of Rabash

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Question: I don’t know how I will hold on for the three hours of the lesson because I feel tired, heavy, and lack energy; my body feels as if it is full of lead. Is there some kind of quick solution to overcome the heaviness of heart?

Answer: It is known that the whole reason for heaviness in the work is that a person doesn’t feel the Creator. So it is simply necessary for me to be conscious all the time and to try and remember that the Creator portrays all the feelings of my reality: everything I see, hear and perceive through my five senses, including my perception of myself and the world. I get everything from Him.

It is the Creator who is making this feeling of heaviness for me, since everything that I feel comes from Him. If I don’t forget this, then I will be looking for how to deal with the state that I receive from the Creator. The main thing is not to forget that in each and every moment, through feeling myself and the surrounding world, I have contact with the Creator.

I have contact with the Creator now! And so I must constantly think, “How is He bestowing to me and how am I bestowing to Him? How do I obtain equivalence with Him, His revelation, and pass from this feeling of concealment that doesn’t let me clearly feel that we are connected together and adherent to each other?”

Even before my characteristics begin to reach equivalence of form with the Creator, by feeling this world (Olam), which symbolizes hiding (Alama), or concealment; meaning when I am feeling my body and the environment, I am constantly in connection with the Creator. We must try to be in such a sensation that passes through the skin, through the body, the emotion and intellect, the thoughts, and everything there is. All that I feel reaches me from the Creator, as well as the thoughts and desires that are changing within me.

This is because I never lose contact with the Creator. Then, I will be able to look for how it is possible to be connected even more strongly with Him and how to establish reciprocal connection, love, and mutual bestowal.
[149074]
From the Preparation to Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/14

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