Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)” (an abbreviated version): The rich man who wants to give everything to his poor friend can’t correct his friend’s shame. The poor man himself, through his efforts, corrects the shame and becomes like his rich friend.

To become similar, they need to cover the abyss that separates them. And if one of them is perfect, the rift needs to be corrected by the other. Without the poor man having to do it by himself, he won’t feel that he gained anything.

This is why the shame is indispensable, and it has to be as great as the gap between the created being and the Creator. We need to correct the shame in its entirety. Thereby the created being becomes similar to the Creator, that is, adheres to Him, and then both of them turn into one.

The poor man receives everything only for the sake of his rich friend since it is only in this way that he can bring him pleasure. Otherwise the rich man will grieve and suffer. This is called, “the sorrow of the Shechina (Divinity).” The Creator feels our sorrows much more than we do since each of us is disconnected from the others. Whereas in the world of Infinity, it’s possible to feel how everyone spoils the unity, and this brings great sorrow to the Shechina.

Thus, if a person feels, at least slightly, the sorrow of the Shechina, he begins to understand that he suffers because of it. And then he sees that it is possible to use the love of Shechina in order to act. Like the poor person, he can use the relation of the rich person correctly, use his love. After all, the suffering of the rich man is great indeed.

Baal HaSulam writes about this in the first article of Shamati, “There is None Else Besides Him“: “And certainly, the sensation of a single organ cannot resemble the sensation of a person’s full stature, where most of the pain is felt. Likewise, is the pain that a person feels when he is remote from the Creator. Since man is but a single organ of the Holy Shechina, for the Holy Shechina is the common soul of Israel, hence, the sensation of a single organ does not resemble the sensation of the pain in general.”

Man uses the Creator’s love and the sorrow for him in the correct way. He receives everything from the Creator and thus bestows to the Creator and fills Him with pleasure. And then the person discovers the same love towards the Creator that the Creator has for him. This is the purpose of creation—love for the Creator, and thanks to it, we reach equivalence of form, like the rich man and the poor one.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/2011, “Matan Torah (The Givien of the Torah)”

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If you find yourself feeling bad, first of all, you have to understand why. The cause of all evil is the shattering that happened in our desire to receive pleasure, after which that desire began working for its own sake.

I have to learn all of that. If I work in the group and do so in the right way, I reveal that there is no other hostile force in reality besides my own ego that gets in the way of everything I do and doesn’t let me enjoy life.

This is what humanity is gradually revealing now. There is no other evil besides the ego. It is the cause of suffering in the world.

I reveal all of this only under condition that I try to connect with others and see that I don’t wish to. And then I discover that “the Creator created the evil inclination” and I realize: “Aha, it’s the Creator who did all of this”….

In other words, I have to connect everything to Him, and that’s not easy. I have to realize He deliberately arranged all evil for me and did it so cruelly and cunningly in order for me to reveal that I depend on Him completely. He as if tells me: “You should come and bow before me, and if you ask nicely, I’ll correct that evil for you. But if you don’t, you’ll receive it, portion after portion, more and more each time, until you have no other choice but to bow.”

We have to realize that our egoistic desire is greater than our ego, greater than our pride. Were it the other way around, we would beat ourselves to death but wouldn’t be able to bow. The salvation is in our egoistic desire that grows out of the still, vegetative, and animate levels. Under the blows, it constantly becomes lower in terms of its quality.

I ascend in my desires to the very top and suddenly receive a blow. After that I no longer aim so high and become more modest. Then I receive another blow and bow a little bit more. Thus, blow after blow, I become smarter and start looking around: Who is hitting me all the time, who is above me?

As a result, I reduce my desires to the extent of feeling myself as a dependent, miserable, and intimidated animal. The desire to receive pleasure is the substance of creation. Everything else is just an addition to it that derives from equivalence of form with the Creator or the lack thereof.

Thus, our pride disappears under the blows and only the animate desire remains. When I reach such a state, I’m ready to bow my head; I am ready to ask. My foolish pride is gone.

The question now is only whether I happen to be clever enough to realize that I’m really an animal and all of my prideful self-conceit is a deceit. I have to forgo it in advance, lower myself, and ask the Creator for correction. Correction is in Him taking power over me by my request. If I come to such a request, that’s my prayer. There is no other prayer.

That requires a lot of strength and support from the friends. After all, if you can lower yourself before them, they will give you strength to lower yourself before the Creator, multiplied many times. By that, you accelerate time, reduce blows, and instead of them bring the mind to advance with.

If you lower yourself a little bit before the group, or as Rabash writes, make a zero (0) out of yourself and make one (1) out of the group and put it in front of you, you’ll turn into “10.” If you make two zeros out of yourself, you’ll turn into “100,” meaning you’ll receive 100 times more strength.

This is how great the strength you receive from the environment is if you lower yourself before it even a little bit. The smaller you make yourself, the more strength you get from the environment in terms of advancing towards the Creator. It’s an inverse relationship.

By that, you save a lot of time and spare yourself life cycles full of suffering, wars, and grave problems. This is what all the work is about.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/2011, TES

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Question: In the convention there is a wonderful atmosphere of unity, which envelops us with warmth. If we surrender to this feeling, won’t it put us to sleep? Won’t we lose our ardor?

Answer: We only hasten our development and not more than that. There is nothing else one can do in this world.

Until now I have developed under the pressure of suffering that pushed me from behind and forced me to rise above it. It was an egoistic development: I developed different means to ease the pain. This went on until 1995.

Then we were given a choice, and now I can evoke upon myself the force that brings another development, the force of Light that comes through the group, the studies, and so on. I will still have to feel pressure and suffering, but it will be the suffering of love that will pull me forward.

Unlike other troubles, the sufferings of love are sweet, and everyone likes them. It is like the “suffering” we feel before a meeting with a loved one or before having an opportunity to do something we enjoy. Thus, instead of suffering through the long path, I have to evoke upon myself the yearning for something good ahead of me.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: How important is the preparation for the convention for our spiritual advancement?

Answer: The preparation for the next level determines everything! We see this from the state at Mount Sinai when the people were asked: “Are you ready for the final correction?” To connect as one man with one heart means to reach the end of correction, Gmar Tikkun. If you are ready for that, the intensity of your desire has to reach 600,000.

Everyone should say: “I agree to connect with others so that I will correct the evil in me and turn it into good, into the force of connection, until I reach a perfect state.” In the perfect state, the intensity of my desire should grow 600,000 times.

It isn’t about the number of people who will be present there: two, two thousand, or actually 600,000. Even if seven billion people gather in order to connect, the intensity of each person’s desire will be considered to be “600,000.”

We will we receive the Light that Reforms only if we agree to be as one man with one heart. This is why we have to prepare ourselves so that we arrive at the convention with this desire. I have to be ready to participate with others and to draw the Light that will affect me so much that it will connect me with others. When the Light performs this connection, it will change from the Surrounding Light to the Inner Light, which will be revealed within us. Thus, we will reach spiritual revelation.

It will be the revelation of the actions of the Light, which is called the Inner Light, as well as the revelation of the source of the Light, meaning the revelation of the Creator. The revelation of the Light will evoke in me different sensations, and I will understand what the right and left lines, Hassadim (Mercy) and Hochma (Wisdom), my present situation and level, as well as the entire process are.

Every revelation contains the whole process from the beginning to the end, just like a holographic picture. It contains even the world of Infinity to some extent. So starting from the first level I discover everything. From here on I already understand where I am, and I feel it. Even if it is only the beginning, I am already on my way.

Everything depends on preparation.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Question: Even while reading The Book of Zohar, my thoughts roam about in different directions. How can I always keep the goal in mind?

Answer: We are inside of a force field with forces deliberately drawing us in different directions. But this happens precisely in order for us to connect them in one direction, to bring them to a single reality with our own efforts.

Therefore, this is how we should view our states, which are often confused and unstable because they are all intended to awaken us to search for a force that’s higher than these opposite forces that awaken within us, so this one force would rule over them. It’s so we could unite them and bring them together as the proper combination of constituents to the spiritual reality.

If we find a higher force that forms the entire picture for us, this will already be a higher level than our state. Therefore, on one hand, I must favorably accept these different states, thoughts, desires, and this entire confusion while understanding that I am receiving all of this data to work with, like blocks that I have to put together correctly.

Now every person must find for himself what kind of force, principle, and attitude he can use to properly unite all of these disturbances so they will go from being disturbances to components of the same spiritual picture that he wishes to attain.

In reality there are no disturbances. They are all desires that are not properly connected into one desire and therefore seem superfluous to us. But that is not so. Each of them, with its aspiration to the opposite direction, deliberately points to the lack of our direction to the single force that includes everyone, the upper level, the force of the Creator.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/11, The Zohar

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There are two ways by which nature advances us: without our knowing or consciously, meaning by the Light (the Torah) or by suffering. The way we advance without knowing is by pain. Because our nature is a desire to receive, we advance and develop gradually from one degree to another under the influence of a good sensation or a bad one. So what do we sense as good or bad?

We were created by the Light, which created us with a desire to be filled. Through our process of development, we gradually attain everything that is in the Light, in the Creator, as good and everything that is in contrast to it we perceive as bad.

This is a very long way, and for a long time, according to our nature, everything seems the opposite to us. But as the power of bestowal teaches us, we begin to understand that our egoism is bad and that it is responsible for all our failures, and how wonderful it could be if we were in the attribute of bestowal, which could raise us above all evil.

This awakening comes gradually to each of us and to all of humanity. It is through suffering that we learn from the blows that the force pushes us from behind.

At the same time, we are given the opportunity to hasten our development by ourselves and to advance towards attaining the good. The good is only bestowal, and we should do different exercises and use different tools in order to develop the sensation of the recognition of evil by ourselves, not as a result of the blows but rather through the environment.

In order to do that we have to be more sensitive to good and bad, to bestowal and receiving, to love of others and to hatred. I can prepare myself even before the blow comes, by working with the environment so that I can begin to understand that bestowal is good and receiving is bad.

After all, this is how nature is. The Creator determined the goal of Creation: adhesion to the Creator, to His qualities; that is,  “As He is merciful and you are merciful too.” So we have to resemble His attributes in all our attributes. This means that I have to transform myself and to understand that my nature is evil and that the Creator’s nature of bestowal is good.

The tricks and the means I use in order to see bestowal as good, are called “Mitzvot” (commandments), “God’s work.” Working with the environment enables us to see bestowal as good and egoism as bad.

This is why the soul was shattered into many private souls and we can, thanks to our mutual work, attain that connection and love of others, which is good. From the love of others we reach the love of the Creator. It is the particular and the general expression of the same phenomenon.

All the descent from the top down, meaning all the preparation that was made for us was necessary so that we will be able to use it and to develop independently and consciously, so that eventually we will reach the goal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/11, “What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends”

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Question: We can compare the group to a car that functions only when all its parts are in order. If one of them breaks down, the car will stop. On one hand, this is very exciting, but on the other, it is a bit scary. Could it be that if one person loses the right intention during the convention, nothing will work?

Answer: No. There are 125 degrees that separate us from perfection. The ideal system is still far from us, so in the meantime we are required to do the most corrupt spiritual work on the first degree below. Here you needn’t worry about everyone’s utmost perfection. It is enough if we just try a little—and we will get our first toy car. Even if it isn’t a Porsche, but some piece of junk without an engine, still it’s a car.

On the first level, only the initial, “weightless” perfection is required of us, the weakest connection that still has many deficiencies. If in general, we come to the convention with the right desire, it will be enough to attain a 1/125^th degree of perfection. It’s in our power to do it.
 

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Question (from the Spanish group): We can do some dissemination work today. Half of the people in the group believe that we should do it, and the other half thinks that we need to participate in the Gathering of Friends. What should we do?

Answer: Dissemination is more important. It will increase your desire to connect. Whatever you say, it’s better to be involved with the general public.

We can see that on ourselves: Had we sat in friends’ gatherings and meetings without going out to the streets during the last three moths, we wouldn’t have attained what we have today. It has rebuilt us, it has changed us. Dissemination is at the basis of change. Thanks to dissemination, we have a greater need to unite, to come together, to understand the material better, to simplify it, and so on.

Dissemination builds us, and I am very glad that the groups are starting to understand this. Baal HaSulam wrote about this, and we shouldn’t try to outsmart him, thinking that we can manage on our own without the groups in which we work and without the world to which we bring the message of connection. Despite the childish arrogance, we should be a bit more critical of ourselves, which will help us take part in dissemination.

Read what Baal HaSulam wrote and put his words into practice.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: Tremendous efforts are required in planning and running the December convention. What is the right attitude toward volunteering at the convention?

Answer: It is hard to express the importance of everyone putting forth maximum effort, professionalism, and desire. It will be a great loss for those who miss this opportunity.

We are talking about a major event at the beginning of a special, fateful year, a truly momentous transformation of all humanity that must move to a new path. It will take place either by great suffering or by the Light that we awaken from within by our exertion and efforts to achieve unity. It is by our desire and efforts that we evoke the Light that will reform us.

It is important to understand that we don’t draw the Light directly; rather, we strive for unity, over and over again, although we may be exhausted: These efforts in particular bring us the Light. Even when we feel rejection, frustration, and reluctance, we still make efforts resisting our own resistance, and then we will evoke a most powerful Light. I hope we will reveal great, burning hatred between us and at the same time, with the same intensity, yearn for love. It will be very good if these two poles manifest in us. Let’s hope this happens at least to some extent.

So, it isn’t the time for personal calculations of one’s efforts now. No efforts are necessary here, but true self-sacrifice. Everyone must take part in the work as much as possible.

Unfortunately, it is very hard to give each one a job. We cannot supply work for all the volunteers, but at home you can prepare and shoot video clips, prepare a variety of materials for dissemination to attract new people, and so on. Look for something of your own if you see that all the jobs are taken here.

Question: What duty should I take in order to utilize it in the best possible way?

Answer: Choose something that is the most suitable for you. Each one should check himself and find a job according to one’s abilities. If you know something about electricity, ask the electricians. If you know how to cook, go to the kitchen.

Question: Perhaps garbage collection would be more beneficial?

Answer: Not necessarily. Everyone should do his best. If you are a specialist, you should volunteer where you can be the most helpful.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: What organ of the “body” of the collective soul will Israel become? Or is it the embryo of Adam?

Answer: It will be its head since “Isra-El” means “Li Rosh” or “my head,” as said by the Creator. All people in the world who aspire to reveal the Creator belong to this part of the collective soul.

Question: Did the creation of the awareness of the existence of complimentary desires expressed as the will to give and the will to receive create egoism? Does egoism in its extreme form exhibit similarity to a singularity that, in analogy to the astrophysical “black hole,” only receives? Can the breaking out of the cage of egoism be compared with the breaking of a vessel, where the breaking of egoism is the turning of the desire to receive into the opposite desire, namely the desire to give?

Does the breaking of egoism and the combination of the desires to give (expressed by individual souls) evolve a creature that has the desire to give? Can this combinatory process be compared to the spiritual equivalent of the big bang that created the material world? Is the creation of the will to give and the will to receive the breaking of a “spiritual singularity” manifested on the human level of reality as the breaking of a material singularity (also called big bang)?

Is the purpose of our lives in our reality to drive the evolution of a spiritual reality by virtue of an individual’s intentional breaking of the vessels of egoism (imbalanced awareness of the will to give and receive)? Is an individual’s willful intent to break his own vessel of egoism similar to the original intent of the Creator creating these desires?

Answer: I’m leaving your questions, and my answer to all of them is “yes!”
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