Question: How can all of us together pave the potholes on our spiritual path in order to make it smooth if we each undergo ups and downs at different times?

Answer: This is done on purpose, in order to synchronize our spiritual states and to help each other. But if after some big event (such as a congress) we all fall together, we need some external force that will assist us.

If we created a true society, we wouldn’t fall. We would support and compensate for one another just like the organs that sustain balance in a healthy body. However, at a higher degree we find ourselves lacking balance: This is the ego growing and leading us to imbalance. So, what can we do when this occurs?

In this case, we need some external system against which we can calibrate our balance, correct, and connect ourselves again. The cause of all problems is revealed to us as the lack of connection. And now we need an external factor that will help us connect at a new, spiritual degree, above all the revealed “sinners” in us.

For this, we require a “stimulator” which is the daily questionnaire in which everybody participates. It will help us build a system where everyone will be forced to express their attitude, and in return, the system will act on them.

Where will this system obtain the power to influence us? It will come from the fact that we ourselves have built it and exerted our own effort! It serves as a relief fund.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/10, "Concerning the Importance of Friends"

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Question: How do I tell the difference between imagined reality and true, spiritual reality?

Answer: There cannot be any imagined reality! We live in a solid, material world. There isn’t any spirituality here. Spirituality can only be revealed in selfless connection among us. If we elevate our unity from the still level of Nefesh to the level of Ruach, we will experience spirituality (Ruach means “spirit”).

Why do we call this degree spiritual? It’s called spiritual because it’s the first degree at which we breathe life into our connection, into our oneness. That’s when we can call it spiritual. At present, this state seems “dead” to us. I have to unite with someone? I don’t like this idea; it’s “dead” in my eyes. That’s why my present condition is called “still,” and I reside in it because I don’t have a choice and I don’t see the way out.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/10, The Zohar

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Question: What’s the middle line? Is it a screen?

Answer: The middle line is the correct combination of the receiving desires (Kelim) and the forces of bestowal. I first prepare these desires and only then request from Above the power of the screen specifically for these desires. When I receive this force, I acquire a spiritual vessel (Kli) which is called the middle line where I’m able to perform the deed of bestowal.

Before the middle line emerges, I clarify what the left and the right lines are, what drawing the Light from Above downward means, and how I halt it completely through restriction. I have to discern what it means to push the Light away from below upward, and to what degree I can manifest my desire in order to create the Reflected Light that part of the Direct Light will clothe in, and not just simply push the incoming pleasure away as I did during restriction (Tzimtzum).

After all these clarifications are completed and I arrange myself to the best of my ability, I ask the force from Above to create an authentic desire, a spiritual vessel (Kli) from all that I have prepared. If I have prepared myself correctly, I receive the Upper force which does answer my request and unifies the desire to bestow and the desire to receive pleasure from both directions, left and right. It tests and sorts the Kli. I ask the Creator to participate in this for I don’t know how to work with it.

As soon as the Kli is ready, it gets “stamped” by the “seal” from Above which is a warranty that it won’t break once I begin using it. Further on, I continue to work in the middle line and receive in order to bestow, in faith above reason, while my forces of bestowal are working from below upward, and I’m certain that it will continue to be so.

To be in the middle line is a complete sequence of actions. There is a middle line in the states of Katnut (smallness), Ibur (conception), Yenika (nurturing), and Mochin (maturity). In each phase and without exception, in order to attain the middle line, I need assistance from Above in assessing, aligning, and merging with the Creator.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/10, The Zohar

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We are incapable of receiving into our desires all the Light of bestowal that is prepared for us at once. The solution to this problem is simple: to receive it in small “doses,” generation after generation, and let billions of people and not just one person work on this in each generation. In this way, we will receive all the Light into one joint vessel of our common soul.

The goal, however, is to collect all the broken parts of the common soul that were deliberately shattered from Above and now feel separated and hostile to each other. The hatred that exists between us encompasses the entire force of connection which was meant to reveal itself by us “receiving in order to bestow.” However, this failed to happen and led us to “receiving for our own sake.”

So, this dividing force transforms itself during the breaking into its opposite and is now at the disposal of the created beings. By correcting hatred in all prior generations and within the multiple parts in each generation, all we do is recover the connections between separated souls. In other words, our goal is not to receive the Light for the sake of bestowal, but to re-connect the splinters that emerged after the breaking. By attaining connection, the creature will reach the power of bestowal and, later on, attain “receiving in order to bestow.”

We have to realize that correction of the state of separation between us and construction of relationships based on bestowal and love is our distinction. Not only did the Creator shatter us into multiple particles; most importantly, they were separated by hostility. To correct them means to collect and connect these particles back together. We have to pay attention to this rather than concentrate on the Light that becomes revealed within us. The Light that corrects our desires, the Light of love and bestowal, has to descend to us before anything else.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The Zohar, Chapter “Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Item 104: When the Ruach comes out of this world and enters the cave of Adam HaRishon and the patriarchs, they give him there a letter as a sign, and he goes to the Garden of Eden. When he approaches, he meets the Cherubim there and that flaming sword which turns every way. If he is rewarded, they see the letter that is the sign, open the gate for him, and he enters. If not, they repel him outside.

When we read The Zohar, we should imagine a greater or a smaller desire to bestow or only the desire to receive, that is, we should envision changes in bestowal. That is the entire spiritual world. However, these variations contain all color shades and all gradations of qualities. Everything we read in The Zohar is about changes in the quality of bestowal which manifests as such in our perception.

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Question: What do I do if every time I hear “faith above reason,” I immediately imagine some egoistic benefit?

Answer: We can’t think otherwise. Any altruistic qualities that ever appear in a person come from “Above” as a result of the Light that Reforms which affects us and brings us to equivalence with the Creator. As long as we don’t feel the need to bestow without some personal benefit, we have to do whatever it takes to cause the Upper Light to influence us and give us this quality.

If I am aware that I am not able to desire selfless bestowal, it shows a good understanding of our nature which a person doesn’t usually possess. This awareness is also brought about by the impact of the Light and is a sign of our advancement toward spirituality.

The Upper Light “draws” its properties on my egoism, which allows me to discern what bestowal “outside of me” means. Likewise, it instills in me a desire to have the attribute of selfless bestowal that doesn’t require reciprocity. If a person attains such awareness, he is on the way to the Machsom, the entrance into the spiritual world.
[20158]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/26/10, Article “15th of Av”

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The Klipa, like a shell protecting the fruit until it ripens, works this way for us the whole time until we reach correction. It preserves us until we become ready and ripened. Then we’ll be able to break free and shed the covering.

However, until then we do not feel that there is a shell, like a wild, unripe apple in which there is no difference between the inner part and the peel: Everything is similarly sour and green. The more a fruit grows, the greater the difference develops between the covering and the inner contents. First the peel is firm, but gradually it separates from the fruit itself, and the more it develops the thinner the peel becomes. If we leave the peel intact, the fruit will finally explode and break away from its skin.

In much the same way, a person grows until he reaches maturity. And as soon as all of our qualities are ready, we throw away and get rid of the Klipa.

Until now we were constantly lured by something in front of us and ran ahead in life, like a donkey lured by a carrot. However, now this whole system stops working. There is nothing more for it to do since we have already been prepared through it. The Klipot are the Creator’s loyal assistants; they reared us and allowed us to ripen. This is why they stop attracting us. Do you think that the Creator ran out of carrots? He has a multitude of other kinds of bait, but we no longer need them. We have reached the upper threshold of our degree and now need to ascend to the next one.

Therefore, nothing else attracts us ahead, there is nothing left to run after, we feel emptiness, and the future does not attract us. We need to come through this shell (Klipa) into the Upper world, like a worm that climbs into the light from a bitter radish.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The following examples of “faith above reason” were submitted by the Moscow group:

1) When Windows or any other program has an update and the program asks whether to update now or later, we are consumed by reception for our own sake. More often than not, we are unable to pull ourselves away from supposedly important work and press the button “remind me later.” The accumulation of postponed updates can lead to discrepancies with the central server to a point where a program or even the entire computer system could be lost.

2) Those who drive motorcycles know that in order to smoothly make a sharp turn, it’s necessary to constantly keep your eyes on the very end of the turn since that is precisely where we see the point of deliverance. In other words, as we learn in Kabbalah, we begin to receive pleasure from the change of states itself (the speed of passing states). The fulfillment of the scenes does not make a difference since they become slurred, and it is impossible to make out anything on them (the bad and the good alike). The most important thing is not to rewind and not to enter a scene (state, other gods).

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It is said, “I cannot dwell in the same place with the proud.” Where there is pride, there can be no Light.

At first, a guest treats himself with food from the Host’s table; he doesn’t feel or see that the Host exists. Suddenly he discovers that the Host does exist, and the dishes he treats himself to come from His table with everything belonging to the Host. A guest also learns that the dishes on the table were not put there by chance; rather, they were prepared specifically for him with love. He sees that the Host loves him and has to respond to Him in some way. This is why he becomes incapable of receiving from Him. He doesn’t know what to do!

The problem is not in receiving, but in the relationship itself. I don’t want to feel indebted, nor do I want to be in a place where I’m loved or hated too much. Moreover, a surplus of love is a hindrance since there is nothing I can repay or return for it.

How can I repay Him for the love I’ve received? I can accept enjoyment from Him, but it’s my animate part that receives pleasure, and yet His love is directed at the human being in me! What should I do? Through this, He forces me to relate to Him with all my heart. I either have to stop visiting Him or think of a way to repay Him.

Therefore, I separate myself from Him with pride, using it as a barrier. I rise above His attitude towards me, above hatred and love as if they don’t exist. It operates in me like a protective force, a self-defense that allows me to not feel shame or love.

Pride originates from the vacant space within creation and stems from the Serpent, Malchut of the World of Infinity. All other properties can be corrected except for pride because it separates us from the Creator, breaks the connection with Him.

If I am in a group, everything is permissible (conflicts and so on) except pride. By being proud, a person cuts off the influence of his surroundings and thereby has no chance to advance.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The Zohar, Chapter ”Lech Lecha (Go Forth),” Items 146-150: He said, “When a man goes to sleep on his bed, his soul departs from him and goes up, as it is written, ‘At night my soul longs for You.’”…

Afterwards, she walks and roams and rises according to her degree.

That Nefesh that was rewarded with rising appears before the King and adheres with a desire to be seen, a sublime craving to see the pleasantness of the King and to visit His palace. This is a man who always has a share in the next world.

What is the soul (Nefesh)? When I desire to unite with the others and feel how through this aspiration I connect with similar desires of the others, the place of our oneness and unity is called “Nefesh” in relation to me. Everyone may feel it differently, but for me Nefesh is the first spiritual step. If I can later strengthen this connection despite my growing egoism and obstacles, I can attain the next spiritual degrees: Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida. But the place of my very first contact, my desire for unity to occur, is called Nefesh.

I have to create a place for all of our desires to come together! And when everybody is there (and so am I), when I have connected them with my effort (and they have given me the opportunity to enter and join them), there, in the place of my exertion and my oneness with all the others, I will finally undergo all the spiritual states that The Zohar tells us about.

All I need is to desire this connection and feel as if I’m already in it, which will indicate my entering the state of Nefesh. The Zohar tells me about what happens next, in this oneness. There is only one relationship which experiences ups and downs, various adventures, and spiritual states. The Zohar doesn’t discuss anything else. As a matter of fact, The Zohar talks solely about the spiritual world since spirituality can be found only in our oneness.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/10, The Zohar

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