Question: How do you understand what the Creator is?

Answer: It is impossible to understand the Creator.

We are a desire to receive, so whatever we feel, we can understand to the extent that we feel and understand our desires. Our desire comes first. Then the mind perceives, thinks, and assesses what it feels. Thus, it is impossible to know and attain the Creator without feeling Him. Feeling the Creator is nothing but feeling the connection between us. We perceive Him as the right connection between us since He is “come and see,” Bore (in Hebrew).

The Creator doesn’t exist inside me. The connection that is properly established among us allows me to understand that the Creator is inside me and this is what He is called. I don’t feel, don’t understand, and don’t know this. This is something, in and of itself, and is my first and basic source. I can feel Him inside me to the extent that I resemble Him. I don’t feel Him, but rather the corrected attributes that resemble Him and that I call the Creator.

Baal HaSulam gives us the example of an electric current. We don’t know what it is, but we can only see and feel its manifestation: a needle moving in a measuring device, a light shining, it heats, cools, etc. But, what is this actually?  It is some kind of energy that is not understood, because everything we wish to feel, see, or measure is its revelation in matter and not the actual source. This means that it is already matter that has been transformed.

Therefore the Creator is called come and see, and it is what’s inside us.

Question: So how can we personalize His control?

Answer: We shouldn’t personalize Him personally and must not give it any form! That is a terrible mistake. If you do that, you descend to paganism and don’t work on correcting yourself, but rather, depict a kind of figure whom you ask for mercy.
[141358]
From the Convention In Toronto “Day One” 8/04/14, Meal 1

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The inner changes required for a person to connect with others to a complete adherence with connection, unity, and mutual sharing that balances us with nature is not a simple process. The stages of changes of this type are connected to a cycle that ultimately closes at a beginning point.

It is up to us to pass through this entire cycle, to correct ourselves, and transform into a useful part of nature, not a cancerous tumor within it that devours everything around it and destroys the globe. A person must be a source of health and comfort for all the good and balance in nature.

Every year these states return as in a spiral and repeat themselves on higher levels. Essentially, a year is the number of stages through which we must pass in our connection and in order to reach the goal.

This cycle of stages of correction was discovered by Abraham in ancient times. He taught his students who became the source of the creation of the Jewish people. So this is expressed in the annual cycle of the Jewish holidays.

We must understand that the Jewish holidays are not the tradition of a particular nation or of one people. Rather they are symbols of unique spiritual states in which we attain mutual bestowal, love between us on higher levels, and a greater depth of integration in this connection in heart and mind.

This is not a celebration of particular historical events that were experienced by some isolated people and not relevant to the general program of nature. These holidays reflect spiritual states of the people as a community. They are already latent in nature as particular levels of our equivalence with nature as we advance towards states of balance and harmony.

If we identify ourselves as a people and connect among us to one degree or another by attaining a particular level of unity that is latent in nature, then we specifically celebrate this event. When we rise a little further to the next level of connection with nature and equivalence of form with it, we again celebrate this attainment.

A person doesn’t establish the holidays for himself according to his decision; rather, he celebrates the attainment of similarity and adherence that already exists in nature. So these holidays cannot be changed.

In our state today we are completely opposite to integral nature. All of the parts of nature are linked one hundred percent in a unified system. Only the human species is found in total destruction and opposite the natural unity.

However, if humanity, or at least part of it, will begin to transform itself into becoming similar to nature, will approach its form of unity and totality, then we will reach a particular degree of connection. First of all, it is up to us to recognize that we hate each other. This is the nature with which we are born.

This is called “recognition of evil,” the awareness that our opposite nature doesn’t allow us to reach harmony and balance with it. For this we require internal scrutiny, and we must pray to Lehitpalel (incriminate –Lehaplil) ourselves. Such confession prior to Rosh Hashanah is called the “month of Elul.”

At this time, we scrutinize our true state in relation to that good and wonderful state of connection we must reach. This means that we discover what is said to be the corrected state, we compare it with our present state, we see the immense gap between them, and so we pray to Mitpalelim (judge ourselves).

We understand what criminals we are and what we must do with ourselves, so we begin to organize the work to begin to advance towards connection. The power that is found in nature and connects all of its parts we proclaim as the ruling power that controls us! This power holds the entire system together and becomes our goal. We yearn to resemble it. This is called Rosh Hashanah, the beginning (Rosh) of our changes (Shinuim) and the new cycle at the end of which we want to be like the general power that permeates nature.
[144178]
From the program “A New Life” 9/14/14

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The Upper Light is at absolute rest, and the Creator is good and benevolent. This means that we are always standing in the presence of the Light, the absolute good that never changes. We are the only ones who change.

It is possible to pray only for my own correction. To ask the Creator to change is worthless because He is absolutely good to everyone, without exception, and cannot be otherwise.

The correct perception of reality is the understanding that there cannot be change in the Light and not even in us, but in me alone. This is because how I feel each one in the world and all the changes that everyone undergoes are determined only by how I myself am changed. Instead of demanding that others change, through mutual cooperation with them, I must summon a change in me, and then the whole world will be changed.

Wise people have long understood from their life experiences that it is meaningless to try to change others. Nobody is going to change and everything depends upon me. The wisdom of Kabbalah brings a person to a very simple perception of reality and explains that each one must correct only himself and not others.

But in order to convince myself to change, I require an environment. By influencing society, I influence myself. I seemingly want to improve the environment, but ultimately the environment influences me and changes me.

I play with the Creator and with the environment, but this is to influence me. Ultimately I change myself this way, by becoming similar to the Creator. I then attain a true perception of reality and I will see it as it is seen from the side of the Light, from the side of the Creator.

The Creator gave us this opportunity to change ourselves gradually, to constantly produce changes within ourselves to become more like Him, through the environment. If I perceive the whole world and all of the friends as perfect and only myself as requiring correction, by accommodating myself to them, I will be found in constant work that brings me closer to the level of the Creator.

And in truth, it doesn’t matter what happens in the environment, who is right and who is wrong. I perceive all of this as the Creator’s game with me. He is the one who organizes all of this theater around me to help me adapt myself to Him. For if there is none else besides Him and He is good that does good, then any other image that doesn’t come from the only good force testifies to my inner corruption that I must correct.

So I must be in a process of scrutinizing myself all the time, in an internal dialogue with the Creator scrutinizing what He is giving something to me to see, to hear, to taste, to touch, to think, and to imagine. What memories float up in me, what thoughts spin around within me?

The Creator creates an entire world around me so that I will not forget, even for a moment, that all this is made by Him, that I am conducting an incessant dialogue with Him, that I want to discover Him, and to understand! This is like an infant to whom something is said, but he doesn’t understand anything, and just looks with open-mouthed excitement. This is how we also must try to understand at every moment what the Creator wants to tell us through this whole world that He shows us.

Essentially there is only a very small desire for pleasure to receive, that feels itself as if it exists in a physical body with hands and feet, and around it there are other forms, other bodies, a whole world. This immense world is changing all the time, everything goes around within it. All this exists only in my inner perception, in my desire to receive and is portrayed within my imagination, but doesn’t exist in reality.

We live in an imaginary world like this. All of its images are shaped within our ego so that we will interpret them correctly. If we accept the intention to bestow over our desire to receive, then instead of all of the forms of this world, we will feel the Upper Light that fills all of reality. We must reach such a final form of perception.

All of the work is to correct our inner perception, to be released from this pathological imagination in which we now exist, from this imaginary world, and come to the simple, Upper Light. Through work with the environment, imagining ourselves as closer and closer to the Upper Light, meaning bestowal, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” we can change our perception; and instead of this world, we feel the Upper World.

This distorted perception that portrays this physical world for us will disappear and in its place we will feel the one Creator, and see that besides Him, there is nothing. And we exist within Him and everything is immersed in an ocean of white Light. This will be the true perception, and not the imaginary reality in which we now live.
[143698]
From the Convention In Chile “Day One” 7/30/14, Lesson 2

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Question: If, during a workshop, we are trying to come to a common state, enter into it, disconnect, connect, and suddenly a latecomer joins us, we immediately feel imbalance.

Answer: There should be no imbalance! We immediately need to “swallow” the friend who came. Suppose we have nine people, and suddenly there is the tenth, but he is not a disturbance to us, because we are working on him so much with our intention, our desire, that he immediately feels the framework that we give him and is included with us.

And if not, then during a round, no matter what he said or where he went, he must feel the framework of the group, and then occupy his place.

But in order for us not to fall out of this state, we need to specifically drive ourselves into it. Through our desire, our efforts, our constant example, including external efforts, we need to make other people feel that they exist so in a special ideological framework in which they cannot allow themselves even to speak about something external. This total pressure on each of us needs to be very strong.
[144153]
From Preparatory lesson 1 of the Congress in St. Petersburg 9/18/14

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Question: How does a person gradually develop an inner dialog with the upper force and discover the Creator by adhering to the group and to the teacher?

Answer: I may not like the friend’s face but I want to be in contact with him and see that the human being is being concealed from me, the inclination of the truth in him, the special attitude. By performing different actions and changing myself I discover these friends of mine by whose appearance I was previously repelled by. Now, however, I begin to discover their beautiful inner form. This is how we move from one state to another.

Later this inner state seems ordinary and not special at all and I lose interest in it, but I still continue to work and discover a deeper and more sublime form. Thus we establish the inner connection with the friend.

Question: What exactly do I continue?

Answer: I continue to look for the friend’s inner desire and not for his external attributes. If I look for it this way then instead of the old friends, I will discover new friends that have been concealed within them.

Question: What does it mean to yearn to see the internality of the friend and not his externality?

Answer: Seeing the friend on the inside means to try to connect to him even more strongly and to justify him. I understand the Creator who has sent this friend to me in order to find the Creator through the connection with him. Therefore, I am forced to work with him although I would rather have the Creator send me Baal HaSulam as a friend.

Question: I was indifferent to the friend but suddenly a new attitude towards him begins to develop in me. What is this change?

Answer: The Light begins to influence you and so you begin to pay attention that there is something greater in your friend than just a corporeal body, this is called “in Your Light we will see Light.” As a result of the influence of the Light you discover that there is also Light in your friend. You don’t know or understand that it is Light yet, but you already begin to see that there is something valuable in the friend.
[144054]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Midrash, Chapter “Acharei Mot (After the Death Of)”: On the first day of the month of Nisan, after the death of Nadab and Abiyu, the Lord commanded Moses to warn the priests not to enter the Holy of Holies but only to perform one service or another.

Even Aaron who was the great priest was not allowed to enter the Holy of Holies except for Yom Kippur and only in order to perform his duty there.

The Holy of Holies is the vessel inside a person that is totally purified of the ego. Such a corrected, pure state can be attained only once a year and only when a person ascends to the level of the great priest.

Therefore, Aaron entered the Holy of Holies only once a year and no one else was allowed to enter, since they had not purified themselves as yet and had not attained the level of the great priest.

If we translate this to the language of Kabbalah, only a person who has desires that can reach the level of the great priest can enter the Holy of Holies.

Holiness is the attribute of bestowal that is made of two levels, Hassadim and Hochma. If you don’t want to use your egoistic desires, it is called Holiness. But if you want to use even your old egoistic desires in order to bestow, it is called the Holy of Holies. When you attain this level, you become the great priest.

All this is gradually revealed along the spiritual path. When I began to study the wisdom of Kabbalah with my teacher Rabash, I wrote down every word he said. I approached everything like a scientist and saw that he regarded it scornfully, “What difference does it make if I told you about something or not?”

He was right, because if you follow the spiritual path, you discover this anyway and see, hear, and know. After all, the basic property of the spiritual levels is that when each of them is revealed, you begin to see, hear, and understand what is going on inside it.
[143615]

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The Torah, Book of Leviticus, “Acharei Mot” 16:29-31: And it shall be a statute for ever unto you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, the home born, or the stranger that sojourneth among you. For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before the Lord. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls; it is a statute forever.

This refers to the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), an important event that occurs once a year. The word “year” (Shana) means a cycle.

Together with that, a man receives full correction of the desires on the present level. This means that in this cycle he completes all his accounts, which are that which he was able to correct. That which he was unable to correct, he sends far from him since he doesn’t want to use them.

This means that presently he is pure and constitutes in himself a certain spiritual structure. Therefore, in our world, people symbolically wear only white clothing.

It will happen again because we must repeat this cycle many times until Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction).
[143138]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/6/14

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The Torah, Levitcus, 16:7-10: And he shall take the two goats, and set them before the LORD at the door of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat upon which the lot fell for the LORD, and offer him for a sin-offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell for Azazel, shall be set alive before the LORD, to make atonement over him, to send him away for Azazel into the wilderness.

Question: What is the meaning of the two goats, “and Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats?”

Answer: It is a person’s internal work to reveal the different attributes in him, analyzing and clarifying what can be corrected and what cannot, for what he has enough power and for what he does not. On the whole, however, he has no power at all but only the option to ask the Creator for help.

If a person simply thinks, “Okay, I’ll ask,” it doesn’t work. Can he really ask to get rid of his attributes? In order to do that, he must process everything inside him in a deep, serious, conscious manner and experience it as something personal.

He cannot say, “I want to correct this and that,” but he only can ask for it to be corrected. At the same time, he can ask for these attributes to be corrected, attributes that are very dear to him and from which he doesn’t want to detach in any way, like a mother from her baby, for example. Can you imagine such a state?

When a person understands that he cannot get rid of that by himself, he asks the Creator for help. Moreover, it isn’t for his own sake but in order to dedicate himself totally to others. He sacrifices his attributes as his small child. This is a real sacrifice on his part. At the same time, he ascends to a very high level when he asks the Creator to do that since he cannot do it by himself.

These things are revealed to us over a long period of time. A person goes through very serious internal states by weighing different options. He ask if he is doing the right thing, how can he give up one thing or another, and so on. We speak about these things as if they are understood, but, in fact, it isn’t just difficult, but very difficult.

Eventually, a division of the egoistic attribute takes place in a person. Part of it he can give the Creator, but the other part he cannot. This is the two goats, one of which he sacrifices and the other one he seemingly sets free.

It is very hard to explain the meaning of “and the other lot for Azazel” for the forces of impurity, and so on. This is the limit that is set on every level. It is necessary in order to advance as we are repulsed by the impure goat and sacrifice the pure goat.

Our movement is always based on the two elements of something that I am repulsed by and something that I am attracted to. It is much more difficult to be repulsed by the impure desires, to refuse to accept them, not to work with them, not to enjoy them, and not to fulfill them, rather than to sacrifice the other half.

First, I must determine which desires help me advance and which I must detach from, to “send them away for Azazel into the wilderness.”

These desires are so great that I as yet cannot work with them correctly in order to bestow and sacrifice them for the sake of the Creator. Therefore, I must send them into the wilderness, which means to detach from them.

I must clarify which of my desires are pure and correct them to the attribute of love and bestowal, which means to sacrifice them. This is a very difficult action, but this is the meaning of the continuous revelation of moving forward that is revealed in me as a result of the serious and difficult clarification.

A person doesn’t go through such states in our world. He is pushed into a corner and doesn’t know what to do. It is only in such cases of being under pressure that he can reach the revelation of his attributes, his desires, and a serious clarification and the division of the desires.

When they are totally separated, it will be possible to determine which of them is the goat for sacrifice and which is the goat for Azazel to be sent into the wilderness, no longer to be used.
[142998]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/06/14

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Question: To what state must preparation for the Saint Petersburg convention bring the world group?

Answer: Before the convention the entire world group must be in a state of arousal and excitement where awe, happiness, elevation, expectation and despair exist together.

This must not be something external, but internal. Each one must experience these states within himself.

Our friends throughout the world must prepare such that they will become softer, more flexible. Just as we work on dough, kneading it, so we also must work on this mass.

Besides this, we want to put ourselves under the influence of the Creator, so that He will make of us something that can be digested. This is our mission. We want to become active participants in this activity, and not spectators.

As it is said in the wisdom of Kabbalah, everything depends upon preparation.
[143518]
From the Convention Preparation Webinar, 9/4/14

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Question: We know that a spiritual action is performed by the intention. How should we approach the performance of the music of the upper worlds correctly in order to attain the goal in the shortest possible time so that, together with that, we will keep on advancing spiritually?

Answer: I think that the main thing is the constant guidance of the upper providence with joy.

About 20 years ago, I conducted an experiment in a retirement home, and I gave out the tunes of “Who is the Secret of Life” to the residents there. Then, I conducted a survey. People over 65 told me that they cried when they listened to the music.

I understand them. First, an elderly person who hears this tune immediately delves into his memories and the life he has lived, but these experiences are basically different from what this kind of music should convey.

It is about joy, about the upper Light, about a very clear state. It is a feeling of awe, inspiration, an ascent and flight of the soul! It swims in the white Light, and such a glorious state is embodied in our world when a bride is dressed in a white dress.

Therefore, the main thing is to at least understand and feel as much as possible what the tune is by focusing on joy and trying to resemble the person who wrote it. It is because he wrote it out of his attainment of the upper worlds, the upper state, and the upper force. There, one discovers only the joy of the eternal attainment, wholeness and harmony that excites and fills everything!

We should try to detach from our ego, from what it does with us in our world, from its distortion, and by ascending above the ego, we should try to live in a the totally different dimension of love, bestowal, and good mutual connection. Then, the melodies of the spiritual worlds would be felt in a totally different manner.

This is a little revelation for every student. I think that if he constantly remembers this, he will be able to begin to feel the spiritual world without studying anything else of all the enormous method of attaining the spiritual worlds of which Baal HaSulam wrote. There is no need for words! If a person opens himself to these sounds and to their internal sources, he will begin to understand everything.
[142240]
From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 2/09/14

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