Question: There are only several days left until the convention in Berlin. We already want to feel it now; we want to feel that the entire world Kli is in one state. How can we do this?

Answer: First of all, we need to realize how we can keep increasing the connection between us and make our dissemination around the world more intense. Our spiritual state depends specifically on this.

Our next spiritual degree depends on how much we will be able to expand around the world since the Light will correct and lift us accordingly. This is because we do not exist for us, for our ascent; we exist so Kabbalah will spread.

In “Messiah’s Horn,” Baal HaSulam writes that the dissemination of Kabbalah around the worlds is called a horn or the Messiah’s call. Messiah is a property that pulls man out of egoism (the world “Messiah” or “Mashiach” in Hebrew comes from the word “Moshech,” to pull). So this is what we need to do. If we assist the world a little more so it will come closer to the correction of its egoism, we will be lifted as much as the world needs. But if the world does not need it, we will not be lifted.

What did the ARI say on his deathbed? Chaim Vital, the ARI’s main student to whom he gave the ways of this wisdom, was not there at that moment. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his letter: “Isaac Cohen, one of the ARI’s students…came in at the moment of his passing and cried because their hope to see the world full of good, wisdom, and the Light of the Creator, which they had during their teacher’s life, was leaving.

And the ARI said to him: ‘If there was just one absolutely righteous man among you, I would not have been taken from this world prematurely….’ And the student cried: ‘So we do not have any hope?’ And the ARI answered: ‘I will come to you and teach you if you will merit it.’ And the student objected: ‘How will you come to teach us if you are leaving this world?’ And the ARI answered: ‘What do you understand in hidden secrets and the ways of my return to you!’ After these words he immediately passed away to live in the future world….”

Baal HaSulam has said the same. He died because his students were insufficient for him to continue the study with them. There are no other calculations here. When a person is needed, he is kept with this mission, and when he is not needed, he is taken. There is other work for him to do.

This is why we need to understand that we need to strive to circulate Kabbalah with all our might, and then we will be lifted. One absolutely and precisely depends upon the other! It is not that just one of us will not be able to ascend (this is out of the question!); the entire group will not rise in their unity if it will not properly participate in the dissemination of Kabbalah in the world.

Let us hope that this year we will change everything that depends upon us, and then we will really merit entrance into the upper world.
[33311]
From the Lesson 1 in Moscow 1/14/2011, “Introduction of the Book of Zohar”

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Question: What does it mean to thank the Creator?

Answer: After all the efforts that are required from me in dissemination, studies, and the group, I reach despair and then I start perceiving my egoistic desire separately from myself. It’s the same as how a sick person feels the place of the illness and its source—the painful area inside him, which he discerns and wants to isolate.

Then he begins working to come out of Egypt, to isolate his egoistic desire. A person tries to separate from it, but cannot do it. That is how the first and second Egyptian plagues go by.

After that a person starts to feel that all of these changes in relation to his evil inclination are evoked by the Creator. As the Torah tells us, the Creator informs Moses that He has given more strength to Pharaoh in order to ascend and project Himself above him.

A person starts to see and understand that the Creator does all of the work inside him. He leads him up, out of the egoistic calculation, and then lowers him, and then a person falls back. Then the Creator brings him out once again and later a person falls again. That is how time after time, a person acquires the knowledge and sensation of the fact that unless the Creator performs these actions upon him, he will always remain in Egypt by himself, inside his egoistic desire.

These impressions accumulate, becoming clearer and stronger, until a person cries out, ready for anything—even pitch darkness for his egoism —anything to run away from it. This is the “Egyptian darkness,” the night of the exodus from Egypt. There is no darkness in a person greater than this one, but if he knows that he is following the Creator, then he prefers this darkness. Of course, he does not prefer it in the desire for pleasure, but because the Creator is walking ahead of him.

And the way to attain this is through meticulous work.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You said that inner discernments begin even before the Machsom. But what should I discern if I still haven’t acquired the quality of bestowal and am entirely immersed in my will to enjoy?

Answer: It is precisely before the Machsom that you must discern just how much you desire everything in life only for your own good. However, these discernments are made with the help of the Light.

I constantly check: Am I doing this for myself or for the sake of others? I do this in relation to everyone and in all directions. I constantly discern what my thoughts and calculations are: “I hate him, but I have to ascend above this because my hatred comes from my ego, my will to enjoy. But if I ascend above my ego in the intention of bestowal, then I will start to love this person and act for his good. Even though this will evoke negative sensations inside the will to enjoy, in my intention I will feel that I have ascended to holiness and bestowal.” These discernments take place constantly before the Machsom.

Try to enjoy the fact that you are trampling your ego. One might think that this is masochism, a psychological disorder. But it’s not a disorder because at the same time you are united with your future inner quality of bestowal, which is good. You identify yourself with this new quality.

This does not mean that you like suffering. No! You like being inside this new quality of bestowal, and therefore you try to ascend above your will to enjoy. Even though you suffer inside it, you still enjoy in the quality of bestowal. And after making the discernment, you suddenly feel, “There’s absolutely no reason for me to suffer! On the contrary, I have turned my will to enjoy to the will to bestow, and this enabled me to ascend even more!”

This is not simple. But by virtue of several such actions, it happens. In any case pleasure is a sign that an action has reached completion: either in reception, Klipa, or in bestowal, holiness. Either way, pleasure has to happen as the completion. We enjoy in any case because the goal of creation is to enjoy.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/11, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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We exist in the opposite form to the Creator’s property of bestowal: the egoistic will to enjoy. On the spiritual path, all desires that gradually unfold within us, from the lighter desires to the heavier ones, have to be transformed into the intention to bestow.

In contrast to the still, vegetative, and animate levels, as we humans evolve, our egoism does as well. Our entire history is a non-stop growth of the will to enjoy and a chain of attempts to satisfy it. This is our nature. Therefore, we constantly wish for this desire to be realized, fulfilled.

So it goes on until at some point of his development man arrives at the question: “What do I need this for?” His desire completes its quantitative stage of evolution and transitions to the qualitative one. Now, a person needs not just a better car, bigger home, and more comfortable world. He starts asking questions regarding why things occur the way they do: “What for? Why? What is happening with me and what does it give me?”

New questions rise above the previous levels of evolution. At the human degree, we start evaluating and analyzing life, not being satisfied with the role as a “go-for” person who thoughtlessly serves egoistic desire. In previous generations, very few contemplated such questions and attained the source of events, the essence of the process and its purpose. These individuals are called Kabbalists, from the Hebrew word “the one who receives” (Mekabel) since they receive the revelation of the upper governance, advancing thereby. As for the others, they didn’t feel the calling for the answers to such questions.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah which assists a person in finding answers to the questions regarding the purpose of life (the source and goal), it is written that the time would come when many would wish to know for what we are living. In their gradually emerging egoistic desires, the masses will start transitioning from the animate level, from seeing a good life, to the human degree, to the question of for what is it worth living.

Kabbalists marked the time when such a transition was supposed to begin: the end of the 20th century. And it truly did. Today, “the highest priority questions” arise in a great many people around the world and to a certain degree among all of humanity. We see how growing despair, drug abuse, divorce rates, and the human crisis in general demonstrate that the questions regarding the purpose of existence halt our normal egoistic development, and they demand that we seek answers. Only then will we find the strength to continue the journey.
[33335]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “Because Man Is the Tree of the Field”

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Today, the wisdom of Kabbalah must be revealed to the world. In our times, everyone must know what the purpose of life is and how to attain the root of creation. Attainment of the root can be compared to fruit, where the spiritual life of a person and their spiritual development equates with tending to a fruit bearing tree.

In one of his letters, Rabash explains how to “tend” to desire by using the analogy of tending to a tree in our world. We cultivate it in the four stages of HaVaYaH until we acquire the desire to bestow, after which we start employing the will to receive in order to bestow. That is the “fruit,” meaning the end of correction of man, his maturity.

But in the meantime, having faced the question of the meaning of life, a person comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the place where it is actualized by the individuals who have similar questions. This is the period defined as “Lo Lishma” (not for Her name). The person’s approach is still egoistic, but now he desires to obtain the spiritual world and collect upper “fruit,” thereby answering the question of what is the purpose of life. Due to man’s nature, he doesn’t comprehend how it can be achieved otherwise.

This is how we plant the seed in the soil, and it begins to evolve. First, a person walks on the egoistic beaten path as he always has and relies on himself, seeing a bright future ahead. But after a while (sometimes a few years), he experiences a feeling evoked by the Light that Reforms: He begins to feel what an egoistic nature really is.

Then, he discovers that the spiritual world cannot be attained by using his usual feelings and mind; he realizes that it can only be attained in opposition to what has been until now. And a person seems to be losing his wings. He can’t move ahead with determination opening every door as he did before. At this point, he has to start working with himself seemingly from the outside, which is through the environment: in the group, with a teacher and Kabbalistic texts.

One must stretch from inward outward, and only then, having completed a circle, can a person treat himself as a seed planted in the soil. He will learn to tend to this seed so it may germinate and not dry out in the sand. He will provide nurturing conditions for it: minerals, moisture, and light, whatever is necessary for its growth. And only then will his seed sprout.
[33332]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “Because Man Is the Tree of the Field”

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A person grows not by his own effort, but due to the influence of the environment. To achieve this, he has to interact with the group in an effective, spiritual manner.

A person wishes for the group to fertilize him with the love of others, closeness, and connection with all that lies outside of his egoism. He must view this “beyond-egoism” reality as more important than the “within-egoism” one.

Only after such calculation, when the environment becomes more important to me than I am, do I start absorbing its life forces, instead of locking the attention onto myself. And then, I start to grow.

This work is non-stop. There constantly emerge new Reshimot (spiritual informational genes, records), desires, and thoughts in a person. He has to be able to handle them every second, continuously returning to the analysis and realization of what really matters: externality or internality.

It is vital to cleave to the Kabbalistic texts, the teacher, and the group. As Kabbalists inform us, these instruments calibrate the person correctly, and then, with their assistance, he can rise above himself, above the calculation aimed for personal benefit.

Cultivating within the seed of bestowal, a person enters the “womb of the upper one,” places himself under its influence, and submits to its force, its program and purpose. As to one’s own thoughts and desires, they get nullified. This is the only way to evolve: like a seed in the ground and an embryo in the mother’s womb. One has to annul himself before the environment so it can affect him freely. This is the law of spiritual development.

Thus, gradually, we clarify for ourselves what the spiritual world is compared to the material one. We acquire an increasingly greater property of bestowal above our egoistic desire, get formed like an embryo, sprout like a seedling, and finally become a tree that will bear the fruit of bestowal.
[33326]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “Because Man Is the Tree of the Field”

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Question: Has there ever been a couple, a husband and wife, in the history of Kabbalah who revealed the Creator specifically in their connection with one another? And have they left any sources behind?

Answer: Couples like this have existed throughout history: Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Esau with their wives, and so on. The female part is always in the picture because without it, there is no contact, no adhesion (Zivug de Hakaa), no connection between the Creator and the creature.

The only purpose of the male part within us is to correct the female part within us. For this reason, from the point of correcting creation, it is the female part that needs correction. The object of correction is woman. The force of correction is man. The Light of correction comes through the man with the purpose of correcting the female part. When the female part is corrected, it births the next state from the male part.
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From Lesson 1 in Moscow 1/14/2011, “Introduction of the Book of Zohar”

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Question: What does it mean “to rejoice over the friend’s joy and to grieve over his grief,” and how do we achieve this?

Answer: To rejoice over the friend’s joy is to feel happy that we reach our spiritual goal together, that we are on the path together. It’s when I feel the friends’ yearning within me and don’t feel my own presence or personal eagerness toward the goal, but rather how I aspire to it with them. In fact, my “self” disappears, dissolves into the others. This is how I attain eternal life, too.

A person’s “self” no longer exists. It functions only as a conduit of the Creator’s Light to all others. So it turns out that all our “selves” disappear. And instead of them, there emerges one integral whole, multiplied by the number of the “selves” that there used to be.
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From Lesson 1 in Moscow 1/14/2011, “Introduction of the Book of Zohar”

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In the beginning of our path, over the course of thousands of years according to the time of our corporeal world, we have been evolving by the influence of the Reshimot (spiritual genes), which awaken in us and force us to realize them.

Relative to nature, we reside in a state regarded as “this world” and must pass through this degree. With each new incarnation, another, greater desire to enjoy awakens in us, which is a more exalted Reshimo that we are supposed to actualize while attempting to fulfill it to the fullest.

When all informational genes (Reshimot) which belong to the part of the path called “this world” expire, we start experiencing another type of Reshimot. The first such Reshimo is called “a point in the heart.”

At this point, we are supposed to realize this Reshimo based on the new conditions, a new model: not according to the desire to enjoy this world, but according to the desire to bestow, which is now awakening in humanity. In this way, we advance, always against our will, under the pressure of the genes (Reshimot) awakening in us.

A person can do nothing else except what his soul demands of him since his Reshimot are pre-programmed with all that will occur. As to us, we are a mere desire that is completely governed by these genes (Reshimot), similar to a computer that is programmed with software and data.

But the nature of the spiritual steps in us remains constant. Our will to enjoy is divided into 125 portions or degrees we ascend by. And until we have finished correcting each preceding portion of the desire to enjoy, by having made all the necessary transformations at a given degree, it is impossible to advance to the next rung.

The nature of the spiritual rungs is a strict law, and there are no tricks that will help us to escape and hide from it or cut it some slack. Everything depends solely on how eager we are to meet its conditions.
[33258]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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We exist in the one and only reality created by the Creator, but we uncover it only to the degree that we correspond to it and are similar to it in our properties. Reality itself is constant and unchanging, and it is called the world of Infinity.

Meanwhile, we exist in the desire to enjoy, the property opposite to the world of Infinity: the intention to receive instead of to bestow. We can correct ourselves by performing consecutive corrections time after time, 125 times. Our every correction translates within us into a new attainment, and this is how we advance.

This is a step-by-step advancement that abides by the law of the equivalence of form, and there is no place for a compromise here: We are situated in a system that operates like a living organism. If you correspond to it, you receive accordingly, and if you don’t, you will receive according to this lack of correspondence. You constantly interact with nature to the measure of the similarity and strength of the forces with which you approach it.

If nothing changed in us, we would always stay in the same state. But since the Reshimot (informational genes, data) are constantly growing and changing in us, we are becoming increasingly opposite to nature and differ from it more and more. This is exactly what we feel as the accumulation and manifestation of various unfulfilled desires and problems.

This is how we feel the forces which are pressuring us increasingly stronger from the side of the evil. These forces will inevitably compel us to move toward good, meaning to search how to reach similarity to nature.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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