The Light corrects the Kli (vessel) very simply: It comes and settles in it. And the Kli immediately gets “tamed.”

We are managed by the Lights as we speak. We can be clever or foolish, kind or cruel, and all of this is done by the Light. It affects everyone each instant in accordance with its program. We all reside in the ocean of Light; its waves lift us up and throw us down, mixing us together.

Therefore, getting to know the Creator, the Light, the property of bestowal, our mutual connection, is all one and the same. The arrival of the Light is our correction. When it comes, you become “sentenced” to it and are unable to (and don’t wish to) act otherwise. You realize that you are ruled by the Light that dictates all your actions.

This is what your connection with the Creator is. It is in you, and you feel how He works in all your desires, governing you. So, you comply with Him.

Then, beside the points that have joined your Partzuf, you will discover new points and will start asking the Light to help you unify with them. In this manner, a series of corrections continues, always at your request.
[27145]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “All Who Suffer for the Public”

Related Material:
True Lie

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: Where may the prayer for our unity and correction come from? How do I start asking for it?

Answer: We cry and beg for correction, but it is a pretense and falsehood. We, ourselves, don’t even realize that it is just lip service.

However, if I am working in the group and allow it to influence me, thereby exercising my only free choice, then it passes to me its enthusiasm and motivates me toward spirituality. At that point, it isn’t a lie since I am inspired by the friends. Even though I tried to connect to the group artificially, when they worked on me, I started to take it seriously.

This is how I am made: I am a particle in the collective system which has been functioning this way since the beginning of creation. That is why I cannot escape being affected by the environment, try as I might.

However, in this case, it was my wish to be influenced by the friends, and I made an effort to achieve it. If I now turn to the Creator with the desire received from the group, I will immediately receive an answer to it, a response. After all, this desire has a unique nature: the will to unite.

When I try to unite with them on my own or cry to the Creator to get this wish granted, it is a false demand. It isn’t regarded as a true prayer (MAN or Mayin Nukvin, Female Waters), but a lie. Although it is also beneficial, I will eventually see that it doesn’t work.

However, when I turn to the group, exalting it and reducing my own importance, and receive from it a new desire, a request that I further raise to the Creator, this is called MAN. As a result, there will be an answer from Above called MAD (Mayin Duchrin, Male Waters), which will truly connect me with the group, and there, inside it, I will find the Creator.

Inasmuch as I contribute myself to the group upon my own request, to that measure, the Creator will be revealed to me. However, no altruistic desire or action can come directly from me.

The group stands between me and the Creator, and we meet inside it. I raise my prayer to the Creator through the group. In response, He channels the answer to me through the group, with the help of which I may now rise to the group and find the Creator in it.

Between the Creator and me, there has to be the group. That’s why it is called the “place” and so is the Creator because there, He and I meet.
[27184]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

Related Material:
Now Is The Time!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Spirituality - 1 Comment →

When we talk about “commandments,” we are referring to the desires that connect me with other people. There are 613 (TARYAG) such desires, and I have to correct them with the help of the Light that Reforms (called “the Torah”).

If I don’t work on establishing the connection with my neighbor, then I have nothing to correct. If a person is alone, then he has nothing to come to the Creator with, only a spiritual spark and animalistic desires which do not require correction.

If you want to correct yourself, then you have to “show” the Creator the place of breakage, yet you do not have it. One person cannot experience the breaking; it requires at least two for this. Therefore, all of the 613 desires which we correct with the Light that Reforms is the correction of our broken connection with the others.

The Light that used to fill the connection between us and sustain us has disappeared. Now we have to attract it back and return it to its place. When the Light returns, it will correct the place of our connection first, and then it will fill it.
[27200]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

Related Material:
Why Don’t I Sense The Spiritual World?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Each convention is the connection of a multitude of people: beginners and advanced students, all very different by nature. However, all of them are unified by one goal: to reveal the meaning of life, to find the place we have to reach, the place worth living for instead of wasting our life away.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is intended to lead us to the most meaningful and central point: the revelation of the Creator to the created beings. To reveal the Creator means to reach His level and status here, in the corporeal world, in this life.

To accomplish this we need great power which none of us possess; it can only be found in the connection between us. The Creator did this on purpose because in order to attain Him, I must acquire His nature. To be closer to Him means to obtain more and more of His attributes. I do not approach Him physically, but in the soul where I get to know Him better in my new properties which are identical to His.

How do I obtain these attributes? I am told that they are opposite to my nature. Yet, I don’t know what “opposite” means. I might be able to understand what “white” is compared to “black.” But what does “opposite” mean if I am only submerged in one nature, my own?

The Creator divided the entire reality into two parts: me and what exists outside of me. I either hate or love whatever I see on the outside depending on whether or not I can use it for my own personal benefit.

At the Convention I was given an opportunity to connect with a multitude of people that are on the outside. If I begin to perceive them as part of me, understand that we have united and are aiming towards one goal, then by forming, creating this unity, we are literally constructing a property similar to the Creator’s. It is called the corrected spiritual vessel.

We will start to unite, and the connection between us which used to be rejection, hate, disdain, envy, and the need to control each other will turn into love and unification. We achieve this unity not inside you or me but between us! This unity becomes the Kli (vessel) where we will be able to experience the Creator: you and me, the two of us together!

In this Kli, we will experience our spiritual life. It is similar to the blood that flows between the cells and organs of our body, carrying oxygen, life, to them. After all, our body lives because of this circulation, the bond that ties all of its parts together. Every organ bestows to the others and functions for the benefit of the whole system and not itself. This is how our body is designed on the corporeal plane.

This is exactly the kind of bond we have to attain at the “human” level of existence, and we must do it consciously and willingly.
[27106]
From Lesson 7, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/11/10

Related Material:
Don’t Be Afraid

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Rabash, Article 298: “Inclusion of the Attributes of Mercy and Judgment”: During a descent, while being overtaken by the desire for pleasure, a person does not have a choice. When, however, the desire to bestow governs him, he does not need to choose. Thus, his only freedom is in deciding what will rule over him: the property of judgment or the property of mercy.

A soul is comprised of ten Sefirot. From Keter to the upper third of Tifferet, it is ruled by Bina, the desire to bestow, and from the lower third of Tifferet by Malchut, the desire to receive. Only in the middle, in the middle third of Tifferet, there rules “lawlessness”: This place is subject neither to bestowal nor reception.

Indeed, sometimes a person cannot decide which direction to take: His thoughts and desires are not inclined toward either side. This is the place of choice. Meanwhile, we are usually distracted and do not think about something specific. But time and life continue to pass by.

How then do I use my being free from the two forces that manage me from Above? To do so, I need to pick an environment, in which case it is up to me who will rule me when I am in the neutral state.

I am awakened by the calling of the point in the heart and led to the group. Now, I have to establish a correct connection between them so that the group would affect me and I the group. As a result, I will fill my free states with the power of the group that I have chosen.

Completing, filling myself with the power of the group, I acquire a Kli (vessel) into which I later receive the Light. I lower my head before the group and in return receive two things from it: 1. Huge desire of all the friends’ points in the heart, 2. A screen (Masach) or awareness of the importance to work for the sake of bestowal. Then, through the group, I draw the Light that Reforms, the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), that does indeed correct me.

The potential to choose is always ours. The more systematically we will use the available means such as the teacher, texts, group, studies, and dissemination of Kabbalah, the more opportunities to choose will emerge.

As a result, we will be unifying the properties of judgment and mercy by ourselves, in accord with our own free will, combining the forces of Bina and Malchut, the right and the left lines. We will start governing ourselves, and the place of the choice will become the middle line for us.

By drawing as much as possible from Bina and Malchut so we may link them into one whole, we will attain spiritual life and begin to climb the spiritual ladder.

[27021]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “Inclusion of the Attributes of Mercy and Judgment”

Related Material:
I Choose But I Do Not Rule

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: When do we reach the maximum capacity of our intention to be one?

Answer: Right now, I am sitting at the lesson and trying to think about our unity so that the Light hidden in The Book of Zohar would come and unify us, allowing me to feel that we are all bound together. As soon as I feel connected with all the others and sense the network holding us all in it, I immediately reveal the spiritual world.

Once I feel the bond between us, I experience spirituality in this oneness. This is called “the exodus from Egypt.” We don’t need anything else! And it is so close.

However, I am unable to remain in this intention and inspiration longer than an instant. Why? It is because the others are not thinking about it. I need the support of my environment. But the environment thinks about whatever they want: one about his grandmother he will be seeing soon, another about problems at work, a third wants to sleep, and so on. Each is with their problems and nobody thinks about the connection.

Therefore, I can only decide at this very moment to think about our oneness, care for it, and demand the “miraculous remedy” (Segula) so that I will be able to see that we are all bound together and reside in the property of bestowal. I wish that the common quality of bestowal would rule over me. However, beyond making this decision, there is nothing I can do since I don’t receive support from the environment. What else can I do?

What is missing here is the common effort and responsibility of the friends before each other, with each person trying their best to stay in this intention. This mutual obligation is regarded as “the guarantee.” And if we think solely about how to find oneness between us, the Light will descend and do it.

We are unable to unite on our own. But we can think in order to make it happen. Yet, if we are unable to think about it, then we do not influence one another with the greatness and importance of the goal.

This point is all we need to be working on and nothing else. We don’t have anything except it. Everything is right here before us, so very close… And then we will discover eternity, perfection, and the entire spiritual world, but only on the condition that we decide to care for each other and not forget about this intention.

We only need to unite! Let the Light connect us, and the Creator will be revealed in our oneness! We will bestow to Him, and He to us.

Everything takes place in our connection. There we will experience the spiritual world, the Creator, and Infinity.
[27027]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Back To The Book Of Zohar

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

Contact with the teacher and the group provides an opportunity to discern my relationship with the Creator each time. With the group, you work directly, but when it comes to the teacher, you must exalt the importance of his words and his message in your eyes. Otherwise, you won’t be able to stay on course. What matters here is not only theoretical analysis, but also practical realization, which, so far, has been “lagging behind.”

Besides, a student must be cautioned against despising the group and the teacher. In fact, it undoubtedly prevents him from an opportunity to advance and throws him years back. I feel very sad when I witness such cases.

Despising others is natural in itself, but when a person doesn’t resist it, it is a big problem. Herein lies an opportunity for self-analysis since the measure of contempt for the teacher and the group is the degree of one’s contempt for the Creator. The only difference is that in the case of the Creator, it is concealed.

If a person doesn’t fight his contemptuous attitude and doesn’t overcome it, he is “bounced” back to such an extent that it is sad to see him here at all. In truth, he thinks that he is advancing, although without the group, he would realize sooner that he has strayed off the path. Then, he would be able to recognize what is happening and recover the course.

Contempt is the worst that may occur. I feel sorry for those who are taken off course by it.

We are interconnected in such way that all the abundance reaches you only through me. This is the structure of the spiritual world: I receive from my teacher, and you receive from me.

We must not allow ourselves to despise the source. On the contrary, we should cling to it tighter with all our heart and soul. I am saying this solely because we will not reach what we desire otherwise. In this, mutual work and growing unity are needed.

This will become increasingly evident. In the past years, we were not knitted together so strongly and didn’t realize that we have to bond in souls. However, our present conditions force us to do it more. As expected, issues, hardships, coldness, and arrogance will arise. We have to work on and rise above this “matter.”

[27142]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “All Who Suffer for the Public”

Related Material:
Hear The Teacher

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Spiritual Teacher - 2 Comments →

Question: After the Convention, I felt blocked; I couldn’t unify with the others and advance. Is this how the Creator’s revelation gets manifested, and is this evil His reverse side?

Answer: Yes, Pharaoh is the reverse side of the Creator, which is regarded as a “help against him.” This is His way to help you, and we mustn’t forget that.

When you feel drowsy, depressed, and immovable, you have to remember that all unfolding problems are purposeful and are designed to propel you toward the goal. You only need to grit your teeth and go against them. It is the Creator who trips you. It is written, “Come unto Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart.”

He, Himself, hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and, with each plague, the Creator will make him more resentful. You come to Pharaoh like Moses holding onto the Creator’s hand and watch from aside how they argue. What can you do when these two giants clash, the good and the evil, while you are in the middle between the two forces of nature, the left and the right lines?

Yet, at the end of each plague, Pharaoh yields and agrees to release you from bondage (exile) to freedom. That is, the path into the spiritual world is now open for you. You wish to leave and witness how Pharaoh claims power over you again, with ever greater resistance to let you go, and loads you with heavier work and difficulties.

At this point, we forget how this process develops. It isn’t worth fighting with our Pharaoh and arguing with the friends. Turn to the Creator. After all, He admits that it was He who hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He initially created egoism and the Torah as a spice, a means for its correction. If you wish to have it corrected, turn to the Creator, and He will give you a weapon to fight this battle.

Until you defeat your Pharaoh, you won’t exit your Egypt, and this is exactly what many groups forget when they start arguing and bargaining among themselves. This Pharaoh cuts in between us so that we rise above the egoism unfolding in our relationships with each other.

In the beginning, when a group is being formed, everything is so wonderful in it that you simply marvel at it as when we watch a newborn. However, then the baby starts growing and shows willfulness.

Yet, we have to understand that it is all correct. This is how our nature gets revealed, and huge problems will come along with hard hits. This is precisely what is regarded as revealing the Pharaoh.

However, the stronger we unify to stand against it, against our collective egoism, the greater our success will be. In this, we must call in all the means that we have: the Creator, the other groups, and the studies. This is the only way for us to advance.

[27034]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
The Two-Faced “I”

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

The world of restriction is Malchut which restricts herself and claims: “I don’t wish to receive any more; I wish only to bestow. I will still receive, but on condition that I am able to do so in order to bestow and become similar to the Creator, the Light.” This is Malchut’s ultimatum, and we can’t but agree with it if we wish to be together with the Creator, with the Upper Light.

I am currently in the state where I am willing to receive whatever the Creator is offering: Give it to me, and the more, the better! So dictates my egoism, the desire to receive pleasure. But I don’t see the Creator since Malchut of the World of Infinity, the entire enormous restricted will to receive, stands between us. This is why I receive nothing, although I greatly desire everything.

Only if I agree to restrict myself and put a wall before me so that I don’t bother to know how much Light is coming to me from the Creator and receive nothing for my own sake, to this measure, will I start feeling that someone is standing before me.

If I reach the state where besides the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph, TA), I possess an anti-egoistic screen as well, 10 ounces worth, then the Creator will reveal 10 ounces of Himself and illuminate me with “10 ounces” of the Light called Nefesh. If my screen (desire to bestow) increases to 1 pound, then the Creator will become revealed with “1 pound” of the Light called Ruach.

This is how the spiritual degrees are measured. I must always remain under restriction and the screen since it makes me similar to the Host.
[27087]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “Explanation of the Article, ‘Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah’”

Related Material:
Experiencing Spiritual Life

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: I feel that we managed to create a new Kli (vessel) at the convention. But soon I will return to my usual egoistic world and will once again be in contact with people who are not on the spiritual path…

Answer: A person cannot advance without creating his own circle. Everyone needs a group – whether virtual or physical – but it has to be an environment that has a stronger influence on him than the external, egoistic society.

He should form an environment that will determine his thoughts, desires, and values. Otherwise he will be lost because he will follow the general egoistic environment. This is our only choice, and if we do not make it, we will be unable to advance.

So now I am coming back home after the convention. Where are my thoughts now? What’s troubling me? I’m afraid of the moment I run away from a connection with the spiritual environment and delve into the material one.

Will I prevent this “click,” after which all my thoughts and desires will be on the other side, in the common swamp? How can I not miss the quick moment of transition?

This is what I should worry about. This has been our mistake that cost us so many years and efforts. The rest is not a problem; the only problem is that I come home and calm down: “Great, the convention is over, now I can get back to normal life.” And then that’s it: Everything you had became Klipot (impure shells).

The only action that depends on me is to attach myself to a spiritual environment, stick to the group so that it is always close and influences me stronger than the material environment. Just like a child, when scared, stays close to his parent hoping that this will save him from all the trouble. Holding on to his parent, he’s sure that now everything will be okay. This is how we should cling to a spiritual environment.

When you leave, don’t avert your eyes from the group, listen to it as if you’ve still got the headphones on, and remind yourself of spirituality with our songs. It doesn’t matter where we are and what we do: There always has to be something dear in the background, something you received from the group. A faint sound of the lesson coming from a minimized window still gets into the unconscious.

And please be sure to visit my blog. I say the most important things there. Even the photos that are posted there I choose with great care. Make sure to read it daily because the following day the materials lose their strength. We’re all uniting around the blog and the morning lesson.

We’re not asked to produce more than the effort. This is what choosing a better environment is. And the Light does its job. Everyone should take care to connect to a strong spiritual environment in order to keep the spirit that you’re taking with you when leaving the convention.
[26553]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/10, Shamati #26

Related Material:
Let’s Not Wait For The Next Convention!

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - 1 Comment →