The Creator sends troubles and problems to the one whom He wishes to advance, that is, He puts him in the “dark cellar.”And the more a person develops, the more distressed he feels because he does not understand why he is given such a bitter life in comparison to others. What does he get and how does he advance by working in the dark?

Even if he does not compare himself to others, he still cannot understand why the Creator, the father, treats him in such a way. How can it be that the Good Who does Good gave him such a hard and bitter life, for such a long time?

He does not understand this until he finishes his work. After all, a person grows even in the cellar. He learns more about his state and begins to understand that the cause of his feeling of being in the dark cellar is his own attitude towards his father.

He tries, despite the feeling of darkness, to perceive this as a special treatment. He must connect these conflicting feelings and adhere to the Creator above them, to justify Him until he grows up because of this. Then, he will start treating the darkness of the cellar as the Light. He begins to connect with his father’s helpers, with all these forces and conditions that bring a new light, the light of a “candle,” in the dungeon, and not that light which is available outside to all the inhabitants of this world.

And then the light of a candle is lit for him in the dungeon, but not because somebody brought him from above the same light that everybody else has. But they bring him another light and help the king. Then, namely in this dark state, a person begins to see that this is not darkness but a big Light, only different, new! This is a new level, new world.

He grew up because for all these 20 years he worked in the cellar rather than simply waiting for his release. Every moment, he had to make an effort, and that is why this moment went by and passed into the next one. Thus, he connected all the moments.

He turned darkness into light by finishing all these steps. And all the troubles and sufferings that he had experienced became fulfillment suitable for the Creator who gives them to a person who now understands and feels Him and can enjoy all His treasures and fulfillment like the Creator, and not like other people.

That is, a person has to grow due to darkness and his own efforts to the point where he understands what the Creator enjoys and what kind of pleasure He wants to give to man. Thus, a person comes out of the cellar.

However, he enters another world, his world, his level, worthy of a king’s son. He is not like all the people around him, whom he once envied. All that bitterness and suffering which he had experienced in relation to this world helped him break away from it, learn his attitude towards the Creator, and turn this relationship from bad into good by faith above reason.

Now, he realizes that it is exactly what the king’s wealth is, and not those petty pleasures with which the inhabitants of that city, this world, fill themselves. The real pleasure is in bestowal, and not in reception of some crumbs that comfort all the others, hanging around the city streets.
[47797]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/2011, Baal HaSulam’s letter

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Question: We read primary Kabbalistic sources that contain the Light. Is there any other way to attract it?

Answer: You have to learn to keep connection with the system in which people are in bestowal. You have to keep connection with Kabbalists, with the primary sources, since the Light fills them.

We all are in the single system of Malchut of the world of Infinity. Everything that happens further is merely garments, concealment, and curtains behind which our state becomes darker. However, this all is the same Malchut.

Therefore, wishing to awaken the next states, you establish contact with people, souls, and desires, which are already corrected—with the Kabbalists. You read what they have written for you to keep connection with them, to be as close as possible to their place in the general system.

How else can you attract the Light that Reforms? You need at least a thread to the same idea, to the Kabbalist’s message. Even if you read the text in translation, even if its presentation is difficult for you and you prefer an easy, adapted version, but the idea itself is essential for you. At least in something, you should be connected with the desire of Baal HaSulam, Abraham, Rabbi Akiva, Ramchal, the Ari, Moshe, and so on. You need a thread that leads to the corrected part of the system.

How could it be otherwise? Would you talk about mutual guarantee on the streets? What do the egoists who chant similar slogans think about? Like soccer fans, they are ready to beat the tar out of anybody because love between them is always directed against something else. This is what egoism is, and it does not understand anything else.

The word “fascism” also means connection, unity, but only in opposition to someone. This is what may happen if we do not give people the Light that will neutralize this attitude and spread mutual guarantee worldwide, rejecting the possibility to love some and hate others.

Otherwise, without this message, Nazi regimes will be installed. People will unite to combat the crisis and then will turn against each other.
[47808]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: I cannot understand the meaning of creation and the existence of our world. Is this the creature’s fault or the Creator’s design? Who is to blame for this misunderstanding?

Answer: No one is to blame here. We are in a state where instead of the world of Infinity, immense and perfect, we see our world and ourselves as imperfect. So, let’s make an effort to view everything in the light of bestowal, rather than in the light of reception. Then, we will see that in reality, we are completely corrected, in a vast and perfect sphere filled with the Light, the Creator.

There was nothing else. It was just a misunderstanding of where we existed. We exist in this beautiful realm now, just as we did in the beginning. So let’s put our efforts into making this a reality.
[47789]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 7/10/2011

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Question: Is it possible to extend our corporeal existence in this world by attaining spirituality? Does one affect the other?

Answer: A person needs to aspire to complete his spiritual path in this corporeal life. Attaining this state means that his life really was a success. This depends on him.

The number of years of his existence does not depend on him. Filling his existence with corrections does. Regardless, one’s corporeal path is such that it allows one to attain his or her correction over the course of these years. This opportunity is given. The rest depends on a person.
[47792]
From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 7/10/2011

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 503: “You shall make a table.” A table stands inside the tabernacle with a high blessing upon it, and food for the entire world coming out of it. This table need not be empty for even a minute, but food should be on it because there is no blessing on an empty place. For this reason, there must always be bread on it so that the high blessing is always in it. From that table, blessing and food go forth to all the tables in the world, which are blessed thanks to it.

The key during the reading of The Book of Zohar is to organize the system of values within oneself so that by every word, one would move along the ladder of properties and inner definitions, understanding that everything exists within one’s desire. This desire has multiple shades, and within them, one has to try to understand the study material. Then, as a result of these efforts, the Surrounding Light will come to him.
[47768]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/2011, The Zohar

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Everything depends on the creature’s desire. Everything around us remains in an invariable state: We are surrounded by the Light of Infinity, the Creator, nature. It’s not important how we call it; it is the perfect quality of bestowal and absolute love reigning in the world and filling up everything with itself.

However, we will not be able to reveal this upper Light, the Creator and His relationship with us, without possessing the right tools, the right desires, Kelim (vessels). That is why the entire method of the science of Kabbalah consists of how to make yourself worthy of sensing the Creator.

The Creator is always kind and embodies good, bestowal, and love. The greatest pleasure of all is to feel His love toward us. The only problem is that this can only be felt within the desires of bestowal because by coming in touch with the egoistic desires, this perception disappears immediately.

So, it turns out that from my side, the only vessel worthy of revealing the Creator’s relationship with me is the fear that I may not be able to receive His love toward me and answer it correctly. If His relationship toward me is to be revealed—and this is the only pleasure which really exists in nature—then I will have to be ready to receive it in the vessel called “trembling.” I am afraid of using this love for my own pleasure, enjoying it egoistically, and instead, I want to answer Him with the same kind of attitude.

This is called trembling because I must be afraid of the fact that at any given moment, my relationship may be ruined. It may be turned around, and instead of thinking of Him, I could begin to think of myself.

However, my ability to always remain as loving toward Him as He reveals Himself to me depends on His influence upon me, meaning that my feeling this fear or not depends on the Creator. I ask Him to give this to me; this fear is my main concern. As soon as I achieve the right fear in the right form and am strong enough, I will immediately begin to feel His relationship toward me.

It is as if I keep increasing the voltage on a lamp until it finally lights up! From that moment on, we can see it shine. In the same way, we are located in an ocean of love and bestowal coming from the side of the Creator, and the instant that the condition inside of me called “fear” is implemented at the right level, I will begin to reveal the Creator’s love inside of my trembling.

Both of the following conditions depend entirely on Him:

1. The creation of the vessel that ensures this fear in me. Otherwise, I cannot be sure of myself. In this sense, I am completely dependent on His help called the Light that Reforms;
2. The fulfillment, the revelation of His love toward me, in such a way that I accept it when it is revealed and relate to it correctly. I don’t want this love to spoil my response to Him so that I would suddenly fall into egoism.

It turns out that in building the vessel (desire), in its fulfillment, and the result of its fulfillment, I absolutely depend on the Creator. In order to reach adhesion with Him, I need the fear from which my spiritual vessel is built, reception of the Light, and the results of this reception.

If I concern myself with implementing these conditions in the right form relevant to my level, I will reach adhesion as a result. I will create the spiritual vessel and receive fulfillment into it. This is how we reach the goal: adhesion with the Creator.
[47326]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/2011, Shamati #38

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Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words“: Question 39: What is the Middle Point (Nekuda Emtzait)? This is the name of Behina Dalet (phase four) in Ein Sof (Infinity). She is named after her unification with Ohr Ein Sof (the Light of Infinity).

We begin to perceive ourselves, our existence, only after having reached the fourth phase. This is because we can only feel our own being in contrast to its opposite: the upper root.

This feeling is revealed at the last, fourth phase of the fourth phase (Behina Dalet de Dalet). This is because the fourth phase is the desire to enjoy starting to get to know herself. All of the previous phases have to be revealed inside of her.

Phases zero, one, two, and three are separated from the root and build themselves inside of the fourth phase. The last, fourth phase gathers up the experience of all of these phases and reveals herself and her relationship toward Him, that is, attains what the upper one is doing with her, relative to them.

This fourth phase of the fourth phase discovers herself as the desire to enjoy. In her upper part, she comes to the understanding and attainment of the root, while at the bottom part, her own relationship, the reaction to the revelation of the Creator’s relationship to her, is already apparent. This reaction is the feeling of shame that makes her perform the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph).

As it is written, this phase is called the middle point (Nekuda Emtzait) “after her unification with Ohr Ein Sof (the Light of Infinity),”  meaning that all of the Light of infinity is revealed in her before she feels the shame and decides to perform the restriction.

All of this is concentrated inside the fourth phase (Dalet) at the borderline where her upper part ends. In this part she senses the Creator’s attitude toward her and thus cleaves to Him, meaning that she is included into Him and annuls herself before this Light, the Creator’s love.

This happens exactly at the border, after which the lower part and a new revelation begin. In the state of her merging with the Creator, where she attains her full unity with the Light and loyalty to Him with all of her heart and soul by virtue of her nature, at the very depth of this unity, she suddenly discovers a quality in the Creator to which she cannot connect.

This is because now sbe is not connected to the Creator Himself, but to the fulfillment that she is receiving from Him. That is why she feels their connection as an imperfect one. There is one more quality in the Creator, the quality of the giving one, and she is not able to connect to this quality. That is why she begins to feel shame. In the very depth of her connection to and dependence on Him, like that of a baby feeding completely from the mother, she discovers that He is opposite to her.

This arouses terrible shame inside of her because she is located right inside the Creator, in the closest connection to Him. This feeling of shame builds the four reverse phases when she decides what to do with this discrepancy and comes from the root of feeling the shame to its fourth phase, to the decision to restrict herself and not receive the Light anymore. Now, she begins to search for how to merge under the conditions of equality and similarity of qualities, and not by restricting herself and becoming one who is fully receiving.

This is the middle point, the one that was completely merged with the Creator before it started to burn with shame and all subsequent actions took place.
[47111]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: What can a person do when he is unable to overcome himself when there is gossip and insinuations in the group?

Answer: This is a problem. If we are connected at least with one letter of the wisdom of Kabbalah, then everything that happens with us from now on is only connected to the friends and the attainment of the Creator in the group. There is no other cause for the events in our life. No matter what happens to you, all the good and the bad goes in line with the goal. You have entered a spiritual highway.

People around the world are still at the stage when their egoistic desire is growing. This will continue until they reach a point where the problem will become revealed to them: either a worldwide crisis of the integrated interconnection or the point in the heart.

However, our failures only come from careless work in the environment. And once again, you can correct all the problems only in the environment, only in a mutual connection with the friends. Why is it so? It’s because this way you awaken the Light which does all the work. It is the Light that organizes and determines everything in your life from physical health to spiritual well-being. Everything depends on its presence or lack thereof.

This way, the work in the group is a universal method that allows you to attain success in everything.

Question: How do we make sure that the group is the only territory of our work? How do we stay on this track?

Answer: For every person to remember it and feel its importance, we need a common opinion and mutual guarantee. I must make sure I do not forget that my life on all its levels and in all details depends only on the well-being of the group, its perfection.
[47703]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: Why do I reveal hatred toward the friend within myself? Is it so that I would not receive personal, individual pleasure from the Creator?

Answer: What you feel toward the friend is not so much hatred, but rather rejection or antagonism for various reasons. You certainly reject, hate, and refuse to accept the Creator to the same extent. And this presents you with an opportunity for correction. After all, you reveal a space for work, your own “construction zone.” This is the only way we advance; we have no other area for work.

This is what differentiates the science of Kabbalah from all other methods. One would think that it tells us about some lofty matters, some empyreal spheres, while in truth there is nothing in Kabbalah except work in the group with friends, a very simple and real work.

Humanity as a whole is also approaching this need. All nations will need to become one “group”; otherwise, they will have no right to exist. The upper Light constantly affected us and led us to this point, and today it illuminates the desire to such depth that we must understand: We will not survive without unity. From now on our life does not depend on the economy and trade, like during the past 50 years. We depend more and more on human interconnection; we need to unite our souls.

In this manner, Lights affect the vessels, penetrating them deeper and deeper and illuminating this need. Whether we want it or not is irrelevant. The engine of the generator picks up speed, the illuminator amplifies the brightness of the projectors, and their glow protrudes into the depths of our desires.
[47707]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/10/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 422: But I am perplexed about the sages of the generation—how they let even one moment be without standing before Rabbi Shimon and studying Torah while Rabbi Shimon is in the world. But in this generation the wisdom will not be forgotten from the world. Woe unto the world when he departs, the sages grow fewer, and the wisdom is forgotten from the world.

This is not a reference to history. The generation of Rabbi Shimon is an exalted spiritual degree that one can connect to and consequently can receive from this great degree called “Rabbi Shimon.” “Rabbi Shimon” is not the name of an individual, but that of the source of Light of a particular degree (Arich Anpin of the world of Atzilut).

Therefore, one must take care not to lose one’s internal, constant aspiration to be connected to The Zohar—the very Light that exists at the degree called “Rabbi Shimon.” Then, to the extent of one’s approaching or distancing from this degree, one can gauge one’s advancement in or distancing from the spiritual work.
[47605]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/2011, The Zohar

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