Today, we feel that the world is changing—but why? It’s because the Creator is becoming revealed. He is getting closer, and we feel changes in our world. These changes are turned against our egoistic desire, and that is why we perceive them as something obscure. For the first time in our lives, it seems to us that we can’t fit into this world, into this life. We can’t understand what’s going on.

Usually, we performed this job ourselves; we made changes, instead of life forcing them upon us. We simply saw that it would be better that way. But today everything is to the contrary. Life is changing, the world is changing, and we are falling into confusion, as if losing control over what is happening and ceasing to understand it. All of a sudden, we find ourselves in a new world full of unpleasant surprises—more and more with each day.

We feel absolutely helpless, like people who went astray or like scared and confused children who don’t know or understand anything. And all of that is because the quality of bestowal and love towards the other is getting closer to us and beginning to gradually cover us like a cloud.

So far, this cloud is light and translucent, but it descends onto us from Above, and we start losing our regular senses in it: vision, awareness. Nothing works in this fog anymore. Little by little, here and there, we still use what is left from the past. But there are many actions we can’t perform because this cloud hides the cause and effect from us, and doesn’t let us understand the correct course of action.

In fact, this means the Creator is approaching us. And until we begin to change accordingly, we won’t be able to see what to do with our lives through this cloud, through this new quality of bestowal and love, connection, unity, globality and integrality.

Certainly, we can try adjusting ourselves to this cloud. We won’t be able to drive it away, but only to get adjusted to it somehow. And then, the more it descends onto us, the more we become alike.

If not, it will happen the other way around. It will shroud us with such a fog that it will force us to become like it because we’ll feel increasingly weaker and unable to understand, feel, react, and deal with our lives.

We can wait until the situation becomes absolutely frightening, desperate, and uncertain, and sufferings will finally push us toward action. They will be greater than the efforts required of us, and then we will run searching how to save ourselves from these sufferings, to lessen or sweeten them. Or we can start looking for energy and force, cause, and motivation, which let us advance against our nature and change it in order to conform to this cloud, in advance.

Then we will understand what is going on here. Our new qualities will help us understand the nature of this cloud, according to the law of equivalence of form, and we will be able to get settled in it. It won’t appear as a fog anymore; on the contrary, it will become a revelation of a new governance that is much better, stronger, and more desirable then the previous one.

After all, we were governed by our ego before, while now it is the upper force ruling. To the extent we understand it, we enter the same area of revelation and begin to exist in it, to understand and sense it.
[53809]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/2011, Rabash’s Letter

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Throughout our entire history of development, besides the period from the Exodus from Egypt until the destruction of the Temple when Israel existed as a spiritual nation, all the previous two thousand years, Kabbalists used to establish small groups among themselves and that was enough.

But now, we have to build the new system of mutual bestowal in an absolutely tangible way, like all connections and systems operating in this world. Namely, we should build it not just in internal relationships between us, like the groups of Kabbalists who reveal the quality of bestowal between themselves; rather, today the quality of bestowal has to get realized in the matter of this world!

That should be a full and tangible application of this spiritual quality in our life, imprinted in all the nations, industry, commerce, man’s relationship with the world and society, in all everyday systems. It has to be revealed at every stage, in every element and part of corporeal relationships, in our entire daily life related to food, sex, family, honor, power, and knowledge. In other words, everything that exists in this world has to exist with the intention to bestow.

First of all, we need a new upbringing, and then we can begin with corrections because if we begin correcting the society before we correct ourselves, we’ll spoil it even further. The world will become even worse to show us our faultiness!

If today you don’t understand that you are corrupted inside and intend to change something outside, all the changes you will implement will be purposefully turned inside out for you to be forced to come back and first of all, correct yourself. And based on that internal correction, you will be able to come out with the external changes—from inside to outside. This is the only way to correct reality.
[53822]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/2011, “The Nation”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Thought. Movement. Time.

A thought is an upshot of the desire. A person thinks of what he wants, and does not think of what he does not want. For example, a person never thinks of his dying day. On the contrary, he will always contemplate his eternity since this is what he wants.

However, there is a special role to the thought: it intensifies the desire. If a person has a small desire that lacks strength to expand and reach the desired, but thinks and contemplates on a matter, he can make the desire grow, expand, and start to demand its fulfillment.

It turns out that the thought serves the desire, and the desire is the “self” of the person. A great desire dominates the small desires. And if a person wants to increase some small desire, the advice is to strengthen his persistent thought of the desire since the desire grows to the extent that one thinks of it.

And so, one should study Kabbalah constantly for the persistent effort in thought increases one’s spiritual desire until it becomes the actual ruler.
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati (I Heard), Article No. 153, “The Thought Is an Upshot of the Desire”
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We do not reveal all the things we wish to reveal with our own strength in our current vessel of perception, meaning the desire to receive pleasure, but rather, in the qualities of bestowal. The corporeal world is revealed in the qualities of reception, while the spiritual world in the qualities of bestowal.

We are not able to see or sense anything in the spiritual world because we do not have the property of bestowal. We perceive everything we experience in our desire to receive pleasure directed “toward oneself,” while the spiritual world is perceived in the desire to bestow when exiting the desire to receive pleasure, “outside of oneself.”

How can we come closer to this when these two forms of perception are opposite to each other? Kabbalists say the following: Try to play at bestowal, practice it, doing the same action with the others, when every person, together with everyone else, tries to come “out of himself,” of his ego, towards the others. Imagine this aspiration as much as you can.

In this aspiration, when you think that you are coming out of yourself towards the others, you begin to attain, perceive, and understand what the spiritual world is. You do not understand anything in it, you are not able to analyze or test it, or evaluate your actions. But these efforts gradually build readiness—(“muscles”) within you, which you already have but simply don’t use.

Different parts of your future, your soul’s big body, are instilled in you, in your point in the heart, like in a drop of semen, and this body of the soul develops through you constantly exerting effort. Why is this so? Since your efforts to exit yourself towards a fellow human being combine with the strengths of everyone else, united in one common aspiration, this activates these “muscles.”

When every person in the group thinks about coming out of himself towards the others, he adds the strength of his special “muscle” to everyone else. This way everyone begins to increase his “muscles” with his ability to develop and come out of himself.

It follows that every person only has one point of exiting oneself: the joint aspiration. But all the rest who also think about coming out of themselves, they are the ones who, by including themselves into him, build the structure of the future Partzuf in him (and every person does this in everyone else). This does not mean that they give him anything from their “muscles.” They give him strength for the development of the information gene (Reshimo) called his point in the heart, a drop of semen.

It follows that none of us is able to develop on his own in any direction, in not one “muscle” of our 613 forces, desires. We can only develop through mutual inclusion in one another. The Creator sends us friends, haters, conflicts, wars, problems, and pressure, all these different situations, to provide us with this kind of mutual inclusion. When we work correctly on the basis of these problems, then the more acute and dramatic the sensations of these situations are, the higher and steeper degrees of ascension they become.

This is why we need to add all the different situations that arise in the group and in every person’s life and the difficulties in their inner spiritual work to our study, and see how much we can advance specifically on the basis of problems and complications. We see this in the Torah tales: More problems get revealed every time, and ever new ascents occur above them. And this goes on until we achieve complete correction (Gmar Tikkun).

For this reason, when we read The Zohar, we need to concentrate on the fact that all of us together desire to come out of our ego towards the others. This way every one of us grows his vessel (desire)—the spiritual Partzuf built specifically from everyone’s mutual inclusion.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/2011, The Zohar

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Question: During the breaking, how did it happen that the upper one knew that the creature was going to break, but still responded to its request?

Answer: Of course, the upper one knew, He Himself arranged the breaking! Otherwise, how would Malchut connect with Bina if it were not for the breaking?

When people speak of the current crisis, they also refer to it as some kind of breaking (the word “crisis” comes from the same root). But this is not correct. A crisis is the creation of a connection between two qualities that cannot connect any other way.

In technology, we often use this method of connection, when the defensive forces of some material need to be destroyed in order to connect it to another material. This method is used to weld metals, incorporate one into the other. When things cannot connect, we thus destroy their defensive forces, the boundaries between them, and force them to connect, enter one another. This becomes possible through their breaking, forcefully, through an explosion.

It might seem strange why we would need to blow up and break things, but we do not break them; on the contrary, we achieve a connection. And it will be impossible for us to connect with one another if each one of us does not break his defensive barrier. After all, the force of egoism, the force of the desire to receive pleasure, which exists in all matter, will never allow anyone else to enter its territory. This is why we need to use a special force against it, which would break its boundaries, in order to introduce a second material, a second quality within, like an unwelcome guest.

This is what happens during the breaking with Bina and Malchut. But if Malchut never receives the quality of Bina, it will not be able to correct itself. And it is not able to receive the qualities of Bina because it has put restrictions on itself, defensive screens—it does not wish to receive anything. It needs to be broken in by force! It will never agree to do it on its own.

It will not agree to break and receive for its own sake. Yet, without the revelation of egoistic reception, it is impossible to reveal Malchut’s true qualities that are opposite to bestowal and do not allow it to attain it.

This is why the breaking was arranged from Above. We call it so, but in reality, it is the connection of Malchut and Bina because as soon as it happens, the qualities of mercy and justice intermix.

At the end, we get Bina and Malchut, which are tightly connected with each other, but broken. This also is an attainment because even though they feel distanced from the Creator, they have an ability to correct this distance because they are connected!

It follows that the breaking is a great correction in the building of a vessel. It is impossible for us to attain continuation or any correction without this intermediate state. This is why we need to see a turning point, a point of “bifurcation,” in the current crisis—a possibility for a sharp turn into a completely new state.
[53712]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/2011, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

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The rudiments of Kabbalistic teaching originate from Abraham’s book Sefer Yetzira (The Book of Creation), where he explained the main principles of the structure of the upper system that governs our world. This system is called the “upper world.” In relation to it, our world is called the “lower world.” We need to know the structure of the upper system because we are under its constant governance.

The upper governance divides into the private and general. Private governance affects each one of us, and general governance influences all of us simultaneously.

We are under the influence of forces that constantly change according to their specific program. Our destiny depends on them. However, we have the ability to influence these forces and, accordingly, affect our destiny.

Kabbalah says that we practically have no affect on anything in our world. Our world is the result of the forces that descend from the upper world. However, our interaction with these forces, our reaction to them, changes their effect on us—we and these forces mutually interact with each other.

If we understand the essence of this interaction, we will be able to consciously control the influence of the upper world upon our world. Basically, this is the purpose of Kabbalah: It is the reason we need it so much in our time when the upper world keeps descending closer and closer to us.

We feel it getting closer quite clearly because we can no longer continue acting egoistically, as we did over the course of thousands of years of our evolution. Today we are no longer able to control our world since the upper world keeps getting closer, and we do not know how to influence it.

Let us hope that ultimately, our studies will give us this ability. Besides improving our life and making it safe, we will be able to add a new and very special parameter: not simply a comfortable existence in our world, but the perception of the upper system, entry into it, and existence on its level.
[53889]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 9/4/2011

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Question: While reading The Zohar, should we try to search for the connection between us in the mind or in the sensations?

Answer: We should search for it in our sensations. If we’re unable to find it, the mind should assist us. However, first and foremost we should try to find an emotional connection.

The Zohar describes the already existing connection between us. This connection will reveal itself as Malchut of the world of Infinity, full of the Light of Infinity, the presence and the revelation of the Creator. This is what we must aspire towards.

Hence, when reading The Zohar, we try to imagine the correct connection between us. Today the necessity for this type of connection between all of humanity is becoming apparent. This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed to everyone. It demands from those of us who have received an awakening and have begun to study a bit before the rest to disseminate it in the entire world so that everyone could realize that we are in a crisis, that our current connection no longer works, and we must reveal a new connection between us.

This new connection cannot be discerned in the natural, egoistic way, as it was done before because this connection already exists in the global, integral system permeated by mutual guarantee, the system that is somewhat becoming revealed in the world. Therefore, a problem arises: A better type of connection manifests to us, but we still relate to it egoistically. The crisis is the gap between the desired state that is becoming revealed in the world and the actual state we are in. This is a crisis.

The reading of The Book of Zohar, the study of Kabbalah in its entirety, and all our efforts should lead us to a state where we become similar to the connection network that is being revealed between us. After all, it’s being revealed as far more corrected than we are in our broken state. When we analyze the situation, we ourselves say that the world has become interconnected, while we have not.
[53716]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/2011, The Zohar

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In our days, there is no big difference between working in the group and all of humanity, individual and collective work since a common network has become revealed. In the past, groups of Kabbalists worked in hiding, separated from everyone else. They did not show themselves because it was forbidden to reveal Kabbalah and explain its purpose before the actual network of common connections becomes revealed and the need for a method of correction arises.

This is why Kabbalists kept quiet. But since the moment this network started revealing itself, the situation has become cardinally opposite, and we must divulge this wisdom.

Kabbalists predicted this even before this network became revealed to the world. Almost one hundred years ago, Baal HaSulam started telling the world about the need to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah. He thought that the world should prepare ahead of time for the revelation of connections to avoid going through wars and suffering we have experienced in the past century.

Humanity experienced more killings and suffering in the twentieth century than in the entire history of humankind. And of course it was possible to go through all these corrections in a different form. But so far, the corrections the upper one performs remain within Him, and we do not know about them or see them with our own eyes. We do not have the means to see the corrections we have attained at the cost of such great suffering.

Even though this was a correction, but its form was undesirable since it donned on us under the pressure from Above and against our own desire. In Kabbalah this relationship is called “Achor Be Achor” (back to back). But we need to come to a complete agreement and turn “face to face” with one another (Panim Be Panim).

After all, one way or another, we always advance, but it happens in an undesired way. But now, after Kabbalah has come out into light, humanity can prepare itself for the revelation of the network that connects us through an integrated, global upbringing and mutual guarantee, that is, through the proper connection between us.

And when we prepare for this revelation, we will welcome it as good, and we will perceive it as a common field blessed by the Creator, and not as a life full of danger and threats. Everything only depends on our vessel, which must precede the Light.

You will feel that this field of mutual connections is blessed by the Creator because you yourself will want to bless it! You will think that every new revelation benefits you because it brings you closer to general bestowal, mutual guarantee!

Whatever happened needed to happen. We neither erred nor made wrong moves—everything happened according to the Creator’s desire that became revealed this way. We should not regret anything in the past, even the most painful events that are very difficult to accept: “There is none else beside Him.”

But from today on, we need to see that everything depends on us, and “no one will help us but us!”
[53518]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/2011, Shamati #110

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All the upper worlds, the breaking and the descent from Above downward all the way until this world, and then the development in this world until our time, all of this cannot yet be called the creature. Only now, when we are finally beginning to reveal something and to supplement our previous development, it can be said that we are approaching the beginning of being the creature. The degrees we are now beginning to realize are turning into some sort of actual reality.

Everything that happened before: the four phases of the Direct Light, Malchut of the world of Infinity, the entire expansion of the worlds all the way until our world, the birth of our universe, the Earth, and humanity, its entire history until today, all this is like a grain that contains the entire program, the entire process in its potential. After all, none have yet realized their freedom of will! There is no creature yet! None have yet done anything by their own desire, their free choice, separate from the Creator.

This special process is starting only today. Until now everything came from Above. And even when we read about certain actions, such as screens, calculations, all of this refers to the future. In addition, people who have already attained this from below upward tell us about it. And only the upper program is realized from Above downward.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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In today’s complex situation in Israel and in the world, it becomes clear why Baal HaSulam insists that first of all, we have to sit down on the school bench and study. This is what we need; otherwise, we will not be able to relate correctly to what is happening.

This does not mean that I ought to love my enemies as “each will have to pay for his deeds,” but I have nothing to hate them for. I should know only one thing: How I can prepare myself for unity and in what forms. Only this can break hatred—only through this connection, inside of which the upper force is revealed.

If it is revealed, we will cure all these evil forces. We simply have no choice. The Creator pressures us so much because otherwise, we will never come to the point when the spiritual force, holiness reigns in us. Without this, we have no chance for salvation. I hope that we will manage to convey this to the nation, simultaneously with the pressure that is exerted on us as if from outside, that is, from Above, and we will be able to achieve unity.

In fact, this is called the war of Gog and Magog. Through all the nations and by using any instance and possibility, the Creator puts the pressure on us, and we must unite. It is like the exodus from Egypt: The pressure is growing and growing, until we have no alternative, and we flee. Otherwise, we do not want to leave the slavery of our egoism and are willing to stay and live in it forever.

Therefore, there is no way out; we will have to go through all the “Egyptian plagues” and pressure. The better we understand them, the less these blows will materialize. They will be more internal—with understanding, awareness, search, and scrutiny. They will be faster, at the other degree. If the blow is felt in matter, it is billion times harsher and longer.

The difference between the degrees is such that the entire still level is equivalent to one plant! Try to estimate this proportion: One side of the scales holds the entire still matter of the universe, and the other holds a blade of grass. Can you imagine what a huge difference it is, if we rise only one degree in our scrutiny and corrections, not to speak about ascending from the animate to the speaking degree! And we can do this instead of the blows that await us at the still level.

Imagine, how many blows and sufferings we will have to go through on the still level….Therefore, all our work now is only to rise and rise faster. To do this, we need to sit down on the school bench and to learn to understand a little what happens to us and to the world, and why. We have to explain this to ourselves and to the entire world. We have no other weapon, but explanations. And the situation simply obliges us.
[53725]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/2011, “The Nation”

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