By coming out of my sensations and trying to be in someone else, I don’t step into his or her egoistic properties, but rather come into contact with what they aren’t yet: with their soul, with their spiritual potential. I don’t fulfill their egoistic, corporeal part, but instead I form in them myself, my spiritual image (Partzuf).

In truth, my soul is all I can fill in the others. A soul does not reside in the person. “A soul” is desire, and desire is not matter; it cannot be weighed on a scale. It is a field, a force, a force of desire that I direct to the others while it links with and remains in them as a record, as information that I enter into them, wishing to fulfill them.

My desire is scattered among all souls, all individual and common desires of people. At first, I am not even aware of it, and only later when I ascend to high spiritual degrees, do I start actively fulfilling them. Thus, such yearning outwardly forms a human soul.

The body dies since it is a mere animate organism which has no substance. What matters is how much of myself I managed to transfer into others with my desires. It is not actions which are required here, neither is it money or forces, but only desires. After all, desire is the greatest force in the world. It is the only thing that makes one person interact with another.

Hence, the friend’s role in the group is defined by what each of them will deposit into the others. Whether I like it or not, what the others plant in me starts influencing me. The global crisis reveals our egoistic interconnection; in the same manner, we are intertwined in our souls.

Generally speaking, a soul is something collective. There is one soul, one human, one Adam. And we, his particles, don’t yet comprehend that we are completely tied to one another, like parts of its spiritual organism, a spiritual system.

Therefore, everybody’s impact on all the others is direct and natural, exposed from one straight to the other. If we understand this, we gain a remarkable opportunity to selectively influence people and each other: pull, push, elevate, and help everybody. If we did employ this principle, we would definitely make a tremendous leap forth.

If each member of the group, man and woman alike, realizes this, then with their inner yearnings they can elevate us all right now. This depends solely on our internal desires, or rather, intention. Intention is an unfulfilled desire which is yet to come true. It is the most powerful force in the universe.

We see with the example of our world: The greater the physical force is, the less tangible it is. Who can feel the force of atomic interaction? And nonetheless, it can produce an explosion of enormous power from two pounds of matter. Intangible waves and emanations play a tremendous role in our life. And the force of thought, the force of desire, is the greatest of all.

Therefore, the key on our path is our intentions: How correctly we can form and connect them with one another. This means that each of us strives to live in the others, step out of oneself, their body, and start sensing the soul.

It is an incredible feeling when a person isn’t tied to their material body. Having stepped out of it, they start treating it as an “animate consort”: a horse, a donkey, a cow, a dog, and so on. They look after their body but absolutely don’t associate themselves with the life inside the “mammal.” They already feel that life goes on outside of them, in the enormous force field of the supreme mind.
[34032]
From Lesson 4 Berlin Convention 1/29/2011

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Question: What is the friend’s role in the integral system?

Answer: The role of the friend is enormous and invaluable. A person ascends to the extent that he or she helps all the others to unify. A person never works for himself directly, but always through the others.

In our world, I always pursue my own goal: I place myself and all the others in order and calculate what is best for me. Even ten people later, the benefit still has to return to me.

In the spiritual world, it isn’t the case. There, I calculate how much I can contribute to others so that it stays in them, not in me. My egoistic “self” eventually dies away, and what I have invested in the others (as I would in the bank, except that it would be to the others’ account rather than mine) remains. In the end, when I rise above my “self,” everything I had invested in the others becomes mine. It is as though I live in them, like a mother who lives in her children whom she takes care of.

The spiritual world is founded on this maternal attribute: on bestowal, love, shifting from oneself outward. As a result, we start experiencing ourselves living in others, and this state is perceived as eternal, complete. It isn’t dictated by my own state of existence, including my body. The body may even die, but “I” already live in other desires, other properties.
[34035]
From Lesson 4 Berlin Convention 1/29/2011

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The Light that Reforms is the Light used to correct the desires, Kelim (vessels), and it fills the entire reality of a created being. It’s the same very Light, but you utilize it to transform the Kelim.

Suppose I am standing before a beautifully set table filled with fine delicacies, but I don’t have much desire to eat. I am told: “You should still eat something! True, you are sick and have no appetite, but at least try, little by little!” And I eat without any desire, just to give my health a boost. As a result, I recover and start eating the same meal enjoying it immensely.

The recipes haven’t changed, my attitude to them has. Previously, I used them to get better, and it is called “the Light that Reforms,” the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), “repentance from fear,” the degree of Bina. Later, I transformed myself and started to employ these desires by receiving in order to bestow. Then, this Light transformed into the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) for me.

Who made alterations in the Light? I did. Which Light is this? It all depends on how I relate to it: It’s Hassadim for correction of desires, and it’s Hochma for their fulfillment. If I wish to transform my attitude to the others, I need to perform the correction first, and it means that I use the same Light as “Hafetz Hesed” (desiring nothing for self gratification). The Light is bestowal. And then, I can employ the same Light, bestowal, enjoying the fact that I bestow.

Bestowal, the Creator, the Light, fills our reality. We reside within it, and everything depends on our attitude. Our relation to the Light determines where we are: either in this world or in the upper one, at various degrees and different states.
[33654]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Two Points”

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“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Two Points,” Item 121: Over all the locks, we receive a special degree in His Providence, and they become openings, degrees of attainment of the Creator. And those degrees that we receive on the openings become halls of wisdom.

Thus, the locks, the doors, and the halls are three forms that come upon our substance, the desire to receive in us. Before we turn it into reception in order to bestow upon our Maker, that substance turns the light to darkness and the sweet to bitter, according to our taste, since all the conducts of His Providence remove us from Him.

At that time, locks are made from the desire to receive in us, and after we repent, we are rewarded with receiving in order to bestow, all the locks become doors, and then the doors become halls.

All of our obstacles become transformed into desires filled with the Light, attainment, understanding, and awareness of the force of bestowal.
[33657]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Two Points”

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If I truly wish for the Light to come to me, I have to ask for transformation of my entire spiritual vessel (Kli): from Keter to Malchut. In spirituality there cannot be any partial decisions, when I am “almost willing” but not completely. I must demand this correction for all my “10 Sefirot” for all the four levels of desire: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

Once I know my evil at all the four levels, then I can draw the Light that Reforms. My desire for this to occur has to be so intense that I will feel it with every fiber of my being, “to my very bones.”

However, if I awaken on my own right now and start demanding the Surrounding Light, scream, and ask for correction, it’s great, but it won’t help. Desire to which the Light responds must reside between the souls, in their relationships with one another.

In other words, I need to inspire myself to sing with the others, dance, and perform certain actions so that all of this would help me engage in the group: bond with the environment and demand from it to tune me to bestowal. Let it give me the desire to be in bestowal and become one with the others.

In the degree of my eagerness to bond with the environment, I will receive a reaction, a desire from it. And if I use this new desire to appeal to the Surrounding Light, then I have a chance to have it work on me.

Therefore, I must motivate myself to appeal to the group and in return receive inspiration from it, which would impress me. Then I can turn to the Surrounding Light. After all, if I appeal to the group, it is a sign of the following:

1. I realized that I cannot achieve anything on my own,
2. I desire to bestow more than to receive,
3. I value them more than myself.

In other words, it is a correct request; it forms me in the spiritual direction correctly. If I am willing to accept everything they give me by faith above reason and emotion, as if from the most spiritual source, it means I am prepared to be transformed. This means I have risen above my egoism, have become aware that I am a total zero, and now desire correction. And the only correction I want is to be able to bestow.

Such a request will definitely be answered by the Surrounding Light since it corresponds with its nature, “the reforming Light, precisely. And I ask to bring me back to it!
[33677]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: Virtual space (the Internet network) is made of people’s desires which populate it. Is there an analogy between the Internet and the spiritual world?

Answer: So far, we can’t analyze spiritual analogs of the Internet because this network lacks any order, even an egoistic one. It is ruled by “egoistic anarchy” where everyone is doing whatever they please.

On one hand, it is good since it helps this system to get organized as quickly as it may. But on the other, in this transitional period, there is no order whatsoever. Yet we should fear a possibility of any restriction on it. The Internet should evolve absolutely freely in this mess until it straightens itself out.

Humanity will get more and deeper engaged in this system in hope to receive fulfillment there. After all, the Internet seems to have it all! We are approaching a state when a person will not want to go anywhere and travel anymore: Why hassle when the Internet has everything I need? Why get out of the house when I have the Internet? Why study and learn something if I can always search the Internet and get all the answers?

The Internet system will respond to all personal needs: We will work, socialize, live, place food orders, and do everything else there. The Internet will give us everything except one thing: We will not get fulfillment in it. This is what it will eventually reveal.

And that’s when we will have to do something with the system itself since this is a system that connects people. Above it, there is nothing else left! This is the last and the highest degree of humanity’s material evolution. Therefore, this system will have to assume a form which will, indeed, respond correctly to all personal needs, that is, will teach how to work for the sake of bestowal.

A person who lost faith in this world withdraws into the virtual one. But when he loses faith in it too, we have to ensure that he or she finds the wisdom of Kabbalah there and from it, through the virtual world, arrives to the spiritual world. Being present in this virtual space ourselves, we have to demonstrate that there is no way out: One can search the entire Internet, but he won’t find happiness there.

The problem is not in lack of connection, but rather that it is a wrong type of connection. Connection has to be based on bestowal. And since a person who lives in the virtual world is a regular Internet user and to a certain degree feels this interconnection between people, then it should be even easier to explain to him or her that it is the type of communication that determines everything for us. All we need to do is to just find simple enough words for such explanations and create a Kabbalistic Internet society which everyone can link to.

It doesn’t obligate a person to anything: He or she may come in whenever they’d like and look at anything they are interested in. The person is not required to disclose their name, go some place, drive somewhere, spend money, or enter a new group – just click a button and he is there.

If we can build such networks that will make a person feel that he bestows to others on the Internet, he or she will gain a special fulfillment. In the virtual space, it can be arranged very fast because it is very flexible. The realization of the evil inclination can occur just as quickly and develop an awareness of what egoism we live in. The Internet is a marvelous instrument for the kind of revolution that we need to make in order to switch a person from the tracks of reception to the tracks of bestowal.
[33692]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: How do I feel joy when evil gets revealed?

Answer: You can’t feel joy. When you receive a blow, you have to feel through it, and only afterward will you work with it. It is impossible to protect yourself beforehand in order to feel an embrace instead of a blow.

Evil unfolds not as evil per se but as an ability to become aware of it, and it’s something totally different. To become conscious of evil means that you disclose your ego as evil when you receive greatest pleasure, when you are in the most wonderful and ravishing states that your ego can possibly imagine, in the states which nothing can supersede.

The blow is not when today, for example, you receive something unpleasant so as to force you to know your evil. It won’t be the realization of evil, but rather some evil being revealed. Becoming aware of one’s evil means that while being in the greatest states I feel my ego as evil. And then, I start feeling hatred toward these specific states which make me feel so good.

In other words, the awareness of evil and evil itself are two opposites. That is why this process is regarded as learning to know your evil since I engage my mind which helps me to expose evil within good. To the degree that I reveal it, I discover the blow that comes from it, but I don’t experience the blow itself. After all, evil doesn’t manifest clearly; it is always perceived as good.

A serpent unfolds mainly when you are feeling the most pleased. And only thanks to the Light that descends to you, as well as to your environment, do you get to know that this evil is the “angel of death.”
[33946]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, Baal HaSulam, Letter No.5

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Question: If the realization of evil occurs due to the lack of unity, then how does a woman experience this realization if she doesn’t do any practical work in uniting? How exactly should she feel unity?

Answer: This is just like within a family. How can you explain the entire family life in detail and what the relationship between the husband and wife means?

A man and a woman are two images that compose all of humanity, and together they have to create the image of a single soul. This is why the group must consist of male and female parts which have to unite with each other in their work and mutual support.

There should never be any insistence if a husband or a wife does not wish to partake in this. There is no coercion is spirituality, therefore, there shouldn’t be any pressure. But in the group the mutual help from both sides should resemble simple family dynamics.

Without women it’s impossible to advance because they are the carriers of natural desire and, therefore, are closer to nature. Without men it’s also impossible to advance since they’re the conductors of this upper energy that’s passed on to the female part. It means that we depend upon each other in our spiritual development just as we do in our corporeal life.

Our connection in the group should be like a connection in the correct family unit, where we complete each other. We already see families in all parts of the world where the wife, the kids, and the husband are all taking part in this process. We’re organizing virtual schools.

I would like for the women to be a lot more active. I don’t understand why the women’s part of the groups suddenly quiets down, becomes less active, and exists along with the men but slightly beneath them. I don’t understand this.

I have many women helping me with translations and with processing the materials. I have more faith in them then I do in men because women are more devoted to their work and they won’t let you down. For this reason the women’s group should be “heard” more.
[33805]
From Lesson 3 in Moscow 1/16/2011

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Question: How do we raise the value of the goal in the group, the importance of the morning lessons, assignments, and the interaction of all group members between themselves?

Answer: There isn’t another question or problem except for the one single issue that Rabash describes in all of his articles. Baal HaSulam merely outlined it as he didn’t have such a burning issue regarding the groups. He had with him only five or six individuals.

When I first came to Rabash, he also had six or seven students his age. I was 33 while they were over 70. “How do I advance like this?” I asked him. He replied: “It won’t work for you; you need a group.” So, I started giving lectures, leading discussions, and brought him about 40 young men. Our entire work likes solely in unifying our yearnings for the Creator, towards the revelation of a singular force of Nature. The work is grounded on unification.

Alone, you cannot disclose anything. All you have is a mere point in the heart, which is your desire for the Creator which has been evoked in you. You must place the group between you and the Creator. As a result, it will become that “platform” where you feel the Creator. You cannot experience Him in any other way! Otherwise, this dimension remains empty for you, and you cannot fill it up and feel its fulfillment. Therefore, all our work lies solely in this.

“Quarrels” in the group? It’s very good that you have them. But they should be not for the sake of reconciling and relaxing afterward. They are needed to invite the Creator! It’s the only reason why He instills all the problems between you. Nothing else!

There are “quarrels” of other types, which are not connected with relationships between the friends, but rather with family, children, lesson schedules, group development, and the circulation of Kabbalah. That is another story; it is our regular life.

But our internal relationships, common work in building interconnection that is destined to reveal the force that fills the space between us, this can be done only with His help. This force manifests in two different ways: It either transforms our desires by unifying them and making them common, or it fulfills our collective, transformed desire. But it is still common!
[33819]
From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”

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Question: What should we do in order to reform the negative attitude among the friends into an understanding that everything is initiated by the Creator?

Answer: It’s very simple. As soon as I feel there are some problems between us, specifically between us, I can immediately call on and directly draw the upper force which will make peace and harmony between us, as it is written: “He who makes peace in heaven makes peace between us.” I as if can make or force Him; I can understand why it is occurring between us and why He does it.

Generally speaking, you can make claims to Him only so that you get corrected. As to what happens between us, I should say: “All of this is my fault, and no one else is to blame in any way.”

Suppose I feel tension, some kind of conflict, between you and me. It is not because you are corrupted. Sages say that everyone who judges another does so in the degree of his own egoism, in the extent of his own corrupted nature. Looking at you, I always see you as bad when, in fact, it is my own reflection in you.

Therefore, I must always demand correction. Until I see you as perfect, I am not transformed. And all of this pertains only to our interconnection, the goal of which is to come to the Creator.

One can feel this only when he enters the group which enthusiastically works with this, understands that this is where the purpose of its existence is contained, exists solely to work out within all possible interactions, and comprehends that while doing so, it transforms all of creation and plows the soil for others.

After all, we are part of the integral system, its root, the “cap.” Today, we are the groundbreakers in the new generation that will be the first in mass to unveil the upper world. In other words, we lay the groundwork for the rest of humanity.

What takes place among us should be treated creatively, as in a laboratory. We should view ourselves as experimenters and relate to ourselves, to egoism that arises in us, as if it’s something supplementary or foreign that we should experiment on. We should treat it just like the Creator does: from the side.

As soon as I start treating my egoism as something aside, having fully risen over all problems that will have appear in me, then will I exit Egypt. And afterwards, I start unveiling the Creator, but not all at once since it’s not that simple. In the beginning, I am in the process of the correction of my desires. This is regarded as “forty years of wandering in the desert,” but it is something totally new. In truth, I battle with egoism in the desert in order to conquer it and create between us the property of bestowal, the attribute of Bina.
[33822]
From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”

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