Question: Can it be that the group doesn’t give a person the support that he needs?

Answer: The group gives a person all the support that he needs according to how much he can feel it. The question is whether he is sensitive enough to feel this support. Perhaps, he is not connected to the group at all, what goes on it doesn’t concern him, and he lives his own life. He comes to the lesson, studies, and goes home. He may come to the lesson again after a couple of days when he doesn’t have anything more important to do. He doesn’t care about what happens in the group. He doesn’t develop the inner sensitivity to feel a response, an impression, an inspiration from them. He simply comes to the lessons occasionally. He never will receive anything from the group this way.

The group is a vessel, a means to adhere to the upper one, the place where the embryo adheres to the mother’s womb, the placenta through which a person adheres to the Creator. In the meantime, he is only in the form of an embryo, and the group is his whole world, like a mother’s womb. However, later, it receives the form of the entire world.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The main thing is to hold onto adhesion to the Creator. From this point, a person begins to see his entire life as a series of exercises that are meant to connect him more strongly to the Creator. All the shells operate as “help against him,” and all the events he goes through are essential since this is the way he can correct, according to the root of his soul, all the flaws of lack of adhesion.

So, a person blesses the evil just as he blesses the good and thus, advances. He understands that everything that happens are true gifts that come from Above, from the Creator who wants to bring a person closer to Him. So, instead of feeling angry or dissatisfied, he feels grateful as he uses everything as a means to adhere to the Creator.

If a person doesn’t take it this way, then he immediately begins to activate additional screens of concealment upon himself that force him to advance in the same direction, but in a much longer and more difficult way. In that case, he will have to be equipped with different sub-systems to help him react correctly to the interruptions that he felt initially and which he couldn’t immediately see as a means of adhesion. Now, he will have to go through several additional phases in order to be able to see that.

It is up to the environment whether he is ready to see that or not: the study, the group, his participation in duties, and the work with the friends. According to the conditions and the means he is given from Above, a person has to resolve the problem, that is, the obstacle that seems to come between him and the Creator, as if Pharaoh appears between them.

If a person prepares himself correctly through the environment, the study, and the support of the group, he can solve this problem correctly. It is because he can find the solution in the same place that he prepares himself together with the environment. However, if he doesn’t prepare this place, the obstacles draw him further away. He cannot hold on under the pressure of all the invitations he receive from Above to strengthen the connection, and so the opposite happens. The force that comes to awaken him is not felt as a clarion to adhere, but as an interruption.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Being in a state of Katnut (smallness) on a certain level is already considered having one foot on this next level. There will come a time when you will grow and be in a state of greatness. That is, you are already called by the name of that great level. There is a big difference between being a cub and a baby, a small human being.

In a state of smallness there is self-annulment and concession—you consciously limit yourself. In our world, a small child doesn’t know what vessels he will have when he grows up. In the meantime, he plays with toys, with a toy car. My little grandchild’s dream is to be a garbage truck driver since he sees this big nice truck that makes so much noise; he doesn’t know what his next level will be yet, or what he will want when he grows up.

In spirituality, when you are in a state of smallness you don’t know the level itself, but you already know your vessels since you have to perform a restriction on them. It’s because a state of smallness is part of the whole level, and you have to restrict your AHP. You don’t know what it means to be great on this level yet since you have not attained it, but you already imagine what it will be like; you understand its vessels, and this gives you the strength to perform a restriction and limit yourself.

You annul yourself before the upper one, which means that you are ready to give up everything you have now and to remain in “faith above reason,” in order to resemble the upper one in the future. You do it for the sake of the future! Here a connection is formed between the two levels: Being in a state of smallness, you dress your GE onto the AHP of the upper one. You want to be like the AHP of the upper one and so you restrict your own AHP, your vessels of reception, and for this you need a great power of overcoming.

A state of smallness is not just a childhood that is free of worries, when you don’t need to “break your head” over anything, but actually a state that demands great courage and overcoming. You have to feel whole in every state: You don’t use your AHP, but these vessels are familiar to you and you know where you are going. Otherwise your work wouldn’t be whole and you would not be able to annul yourself.

You see the upper one and you understand that it’s possible to adhere to Him now, like a child to a grown up, at first even just as a single point from which the adhesion begins. You give up everything you had. The Ibur (conception) begins from the three days of the assimilation of the semen; which symbolize your annulling yourself in all the three lines.

First, in the left line, you remain adhered to the upper one to the extent that your ego is revealed to you although you discover there that you don’t agree with it in any way! After having done that and having adhered to the upper one, things become more difficult: The Light comes and wants to fill you with all the pleasures and to give you the whole world from one end to the other. But you refuse to accept all that and want only to be in adhesion with the upper one! This is the right line.

Then comes the middle line, and so this whole time is called the “three days of the assimilation of the semen.” That is, you have both the attainment of the Creator and His recognition, everything that you want within Him. However, you don’t want to receive anything: neither the attainment nor the understanding. You only want adhesion with the upper one, and you desire not to receive any self-benefit from this adhesion, nothing at all, ever! This is called the third day of the assimilation of the semen, after which the embryo begins to develop.
[105957]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/13, TES

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Question: How do we know that we have attained the state of the spiritual Ibur (conception)?

Answer: I suggest that you do the following: In spite of everything that happens, try to awaken yourself with the help of the environment, keep the same daily schedule, annul yourself, and accept that all the problems come from Above in order to help you annul yourself before the upper force, through the group.

The sign of the correct self-annulment is joy. Don’t ask for anything else, only to remain in this state in order to advance by the annulment of the ego. This already means that I am in state of Ibur.

I don’t care what I get from it. The only thing I want and what is important for me is to remain as strongly adhered as possible—that is, in the lowest point of annulment, in the smallest state. And because I want to see and feel different spiritual phenomena, I still have to work on myself. In other words, I have to annul my ego to the zero level, and this is called adhesion with the upper one.

Then I increasingly annul myself beyond that point and adhere more strongly, although my ego awakens. Thus the nine months of pregnancy go by. The most difficult part is the first three days of the absorption of the semen. Most of the problems occur at this phase, both in spiritual life and in corporeal life.

Even problems like miscarriages, which occur in the more advanced stages of pregnancy, happen because of different malfunctions and defects that occurred in the first three days of the absorption of the semen.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why does an egoistic connection between friends arouse the influence of the upper Light, while our other egoistic efforts are not able to attract it? What is the trick here?

Answer: The Creator brings a person to a group, as it is written: “The Creator puts one’s hand on the good fortune and says, ‘Choose it.’”And what do you choose? You choose the environment. You hope that it will influence you, even just a little, to the degree that you are ready to bend yourself before it.

Here, the question arises: Why and for what do you bend yourself? If we are honest, it is in order to make a good profit. They tell you that if you lower your head before the friends, you may win a big prize. Essentially, this is pure ego.

The group before which you bow is in no way better than you. All the friends are the same egoists, but this doesn’t matter because each one wants to lower his head to the others so that through brotherly love with a massive “promotion,” you will receive some kind of pleasure.

So, the Light comes to you because, as it is said, in order to fulfill the commandments, we don’t need intention. So, even if your intention is egoistic, you receive the Light that Reforms anyway.

You might ask, “How does this happen?” I would put the question differently. If it were not for this mechanism, how could you change at all?

There is a parable about two angels who asked the Creator: “Why did you give the method of correction to humans and not to us?” The Creator answered: “Do you have an evil inclination? And humans do.” It follows that you must be within the evil inclination and quite consciously seek self-benefit, saying: “Even were the world to burn, most important is that I feel good myself, even if I am left alone.”

However, at some moment, the spark of a new desire is awakened in you, directed straight to the Creator, and even though you imagine Him as the source of egoistic pleasures and an eternal and perfect life for yourself, it is enough if you enter a group of people like you. After all, it is specifically the Creator who brought you together; it is specifically He who is gave you the means to learn and to connect.

More than this, the Kabbalists stand above us and organize everything that the group will need, like a perfect teacher. They are concerned for us, and the Light reaches us specifically through them. You will see this yet.

That is how the method of Kabbalah works: Good deeds don’t require the right intentions and, thanks to them, when you still have nothing, you can reach the first level.

An approach like this directs the person the right way, protects him from lying to himself, and makes it possible to look forward to a true, mutual connection. This is no lie. Everything is based upon laws, not on concepts, beliefs, or customs. We are in a realistic system. With time, we will be able to describe it using a precise, adequate language.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 96, “What Is Waste of Barn and Winery, in the Work”: The basis upon which He built the order of the work was in the lowest manner, and all of it was above reason. Only one who is a real fool can be so low as to proceed without any basis on which to establish one’s faith, literally with no support.

Additionally, he accepts this work with great joy, as though he had had real knowledge and vision on which to establish the certainty of faith. And to that exact measure of above reason, to that very measure as though he had reason. Hence, if he persists in this path, he can never fall. Rather, he can always be in gladness, by believing that he is serving a great King.

We have to descend from the height of our ego, our confidence that we know and understand everything, that we have everything under control. It should be to such an extent that we come to the recognition of total hopelessness, absolute zero, 100% lowliness. To the extent that our previous knowledge was great, to that extent we are now going against our reason and are happy about it, feeling sure that it is the right thing.

We don’t want to count on anything that comes from our desire to receive. It is because everything that comes from it is undoubtedly a lie, no matter how true and real it may seem.

Of course it is possible to descend so low and ascend to faith only by the Light that Reforms, but we don’t have any power to do that since we have nothing but our ego. We can only check ourselves by the joy that we feel when we return to the same problems, the same mistakes, understanding better each time to what extent we have to be in a state of lowliness.

All this has to be in faith above reason: the extent to which I am able to I disregard my mind. I accept my mind, but only in order to work above it and advance accordingly. It is impossible to acquire the attributes of bestowal without passing the zero point of self-lowliness.

It is the same point that is called an embryo (Ibur), conception. This level constantly appears before us each time, with new conditions and new depth of desire (Aviut). We descend to “zero,” and we have to justify our past, which is called to bestow in order to bestow, and then justify the past for the others, called to receive in order to bestow. This means that first we correct the mistakes, and then we turn the mistakes into merits.

But when we change them to merits, we bring them to lowliness since it is only the Creator who does and determines everything. So the structure that we build is based on this point of lowliness, on the state of the embryo that grows and increasingly annuls itself.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/13

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We are all connected by a “cobweb” of forces that penetrate all our relationships. On the whole, these are either the forces of reception or the forces of bestowal. If a person discovers neither of the forces, it is as if he is hanging in emptiness. Usually, however, either the positive or the negative forces are revealed to him, and together they weave the general network.

So the “cobweb” exists and it is up to a person to what extent he feels it, to what extent he is in it, and to what extent he wants these forces to be either corporeal or spiritual.

We may say that we are in a “fixed” position in this network, regardless of our physical location. And the saying “he who changes his place changes his luck” refers to spiritual “coordinates.” If I move from one country to another and see different people and a different environment around me, it doesn’t mean that I have changed my position in the system in any way.

I am in the same point, in the same network, but now it simply seems to be different. Even if my “luck” has changed, meaning the forces that act upon me, it doesn’t mean that I have changed my location in the spiritual network. Only the manifestations, the “garments,” the scene in the Creator’s theater, by which He manages me, have changed. But the director is the same, and the play is the same play, and behind the new set there are the same side scenes.…

Question: But what should I emphasize? Where should I make an effort?

Answer: The Creator tells me: “I have brought you to a point of choice, now realize it.” He has brought me to the group, but it is only the place of choice, while the choice itself is in my hands. It is like coming to the ballot box that has already been prepared for me, and now the choice is mine.
[106354]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/30/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: How is spiritual and inner work divided in the corrected world? Do inner differences between people receive external expression?

Answer: In the corrected world everyone will realize what he must carry out 100% in order to correct his desire. For everyone, this is according to his level and desire.

Some people will learn from morning to night and will realize the material that they have learned internally. This will be their function, similar to the creation of software. Others will be occupied most of their day with organization, dedicating only a small part of their time to learning. Some of the people will be the operators, some will realize themselves in service, and so forth.

Everyone will act according to the degree of his deficiency and its expression in this world. This is because a person expresses himself according to his inner desire, according to his level within the general system, divided into five levels of Aviut (the density of desire). Each one of us belongs to different parts, to different “organs.” It could be the “liver,” or the “brain,” or the “lungs”…. In a complete system everyone is important because every organ and every part has its function that establishes all of our external deeds.

Therefore, quantitatively and qualitatively, my corrections are derived from the spiritual source of my soul. Accordingly, being a corrected “cell” in the right place within the totality of souls, I need to receive the Light that Reforms.

It’s said: “There is no coercion in spirituality,” “a person learns where his heart desires.” According to its influence, the system itself establishes a person’s place, and it’s up to each one to take account of himself regarding the form of his chosen participation. Possibly, this “review” will make it possible for him to advance. And perhaps the person will understand that he is not ready for more than this; he will be satisfied in the outer circle, and this will be the place of his correction.

Not all of us need to strive inwards. The outer part of every level is found within the inner part of the lower level, and together they build a pyramid of “overlapping” parts of Galgalta ve Eynaim and AHP. This is a universal principle derived from spirituality.

Possibly, you dream about universal equality. All are equal in a sense that, from Above, each one is given all that is required according to their desire (vessel). And with everything else, all of us are different. Democracy from the side of the Creator is that all of us are loved to the same degree, and all of us comprise one circle of adhesion. Together with this, there is a hierarchy that characterizes the spiritual ladder up to the end of correction.

Therefore, decision makers are those who reach spiritual heights and desire more wisdom and adherence, not those who want more money and control. Such people were once called the “Sanhedrin” or “The Great Assembly” among the people of Israel.

On the other hand, the concept of “equality” in modern society is destructive. This vision of equality brings fascism. All the sociologists, the political scientists, and people of other professions know that a fascist regime is the most egalitarian: They always talk about the “common citizen,” about the “common worker” and so on. We know the results. Therefore, the right structure is a spiritual pyramid in which each has an equal opportunity for self-realization.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Torah, “Exodus,” 19:12-13: And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying: Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it; whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death;

No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live; when the ram’s horn soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.

Question: Why are there all these conditions for coming near Mt. Sinai?

Answer: A “Mount” stands for 125 degrees of ascent to the Creator, and it includes a person’s entire ego. Five worlds x five Partzufim x five Sefirot = 125 degrees. These are the stages according to which a person has to change internally as he climbs the levels to the very top, merging with the Creator.

In the meantime, the nation is standing at the foot of the mountain. It has not yet received the Torah, the instructions for the correction of the ego, and so it cannot “touch” the spiritual ascent without being ready for it.

When a person works with his ego and wants to start the spiritual ascent with it, in his current form, he will only be confused and destroy himself. It’s like a child who cries “I want to” and enters a place that he shouldn’t, and we have to protect him from endangering himself. It’s the same thing here, when a person who doesn’t know the instructions, cannot even approach the spiritual ascent unless he knows them.

After all, the instructions tell him how he should gradually correct himself, according to which stages and in what way, and it’s the only way a person can ascend. What’s more, he will face problems on every level: He will be pushed down from the mountain; he will fall and climb again, trying to climb from one level to another like a child who is not strong enough yet to lift a leg.

A person is thrown back, he falls, rolls a few levels downwards, and then has to climb again; however, as he climbs to the previous levels, he already understands them better. He thinks to himself: “Wow! Now I get it!” He tries to climb a bit higher, and he falls off two levels lower. Then, when he ascends from the lower level to the middle level and then to the higher one, he begins to understand the middle level better since he discovers in it not the Light of Nefesh but the Light of Ruach.

He begins to understand this level better, and then he falls three levels downwards. Otherwise, how can he understand that? In order to understand all the reasons, he has to descend. It’s from this state, when he is created as existence from absence, even before the creation of our world and before his current understanding of how he is and what he is, it’s precisely from this point that he has to understand his current self and how to go on.

So, from the current point of our life, we remember the years that have passed and understand them better than when we were just living them. Therefore we say: “Was it so or was I dreaming?”

That is, our life was like a dream. Now, if we attain the upper levels and look back from our current level, we begin to understand that all this was predetermined precisely so that now I, in my current form, will be able to see my whole past and agree with the one who has prepared all this for me: the Creator.

Question: Does this mean that I justify the whole way, no matter what I have been through, all the suffering?

Answer: The point is that now I don’t see all the suffering anymore. I see the necessary changes that I had to go through in order to be in contact with the Creator today. This is why there are always greater descents than the previous ones.

The Book of Zohar tells us about Rabbi Shimon who has been through all the levels of the spiritual attainment, and when he was just one level away from the end of correction, he descended all the way to the bottom; only then did he feel that he was facing the last 125th level.

Question: Does this mean that he had the spark of the last level left in him?

Answer: Otherwise he wouldn’t be at the bottom, since it’s possible to measure one’s self only compared to the top. So a person cannot advance spiritually if he doesn’t receive the method of correction and has not been through three days of alienation from his ego.

The three levels are necessary in order to totally detach one’s self from one attribute and to move on to the next one. It’s because the two levels that are close to one another have something in common, and a person has to be not between two levels but between three levels, which means that he has to move from the lower level to a higher one and then to an even higher one. Then through the middle level he detaches himself from the lower level.

Afterwards it’s possible to correct oneself in order to “wash one’s garments,” which means to correct a certain level of the ego, the fourth part.

Then you can come close to Mt. Sinai—to a certain circle. You have to see this circle and to understand yourself, your egoistic attributes compared to the altruistic ones. The more a person corrects himself, the higher he can climb the mountain, which symbolizes the ego and rising above it. After all, all of Pharaoh’s ego, everything that Egypt stands for, the universal ego, has turned into Mt. Sinai.

You could only escape from Egypt, but here you have to rise above your ego and to start working with it. The difference between these two states is that in the middle you receive that method of correction, the Torah. After all, without the method of correction you cannot even begin to correct yourself. Now you have a chance to climb the mountain.

Question: What does it mean “no hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned,” and “when the ram’s horn soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount?”

Answer: A stone stands for the ego, “the stony heart.” The ram’s horn is the descent of the upper Light of the attainment, of the revelation. I receive it by hearing (the attribute of Bina). When I begin to hear the sound of the ram’s horn, it corrects me and I begin to see, which means that the sight, the understanding is revealed in me. Sight is a higher level.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/18/13

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A person is composed of two components: his own “I” and his existence. We can forego our own existence by bringing proof to our ego that it’s worth it. We see that the world changes, its values change as well, becoming less and less materialistic. The desire to receive changes not only quantitatively but also qualitatively, and therefore prefers more subtle fillings.

Besides this, there exist many types of people, and each enjoys different things: music, art, or sports, which are considered to be more “spiritual” than simple “materialistic” occupations. But essentially these are all types of materialistic egoistic fillings, and they are all the same in relation to a person’s spiritual development. The only difference is in this is how much a person prefers personal preoccupation in comparison to collective preoccupation. This determines his development.

There have always been people who loved to work for the good of all. They provided inspiration to people to make social revolutions, stood at the head of charitable movements, and helped the needy. Ten percent of all humanity have an inclination towards bestowal, their ego enjoys bestowal. This lets a person feel superior, to respect himself, to be proud of himself, even if nobody knows about his good deeds. This is a special type of egoism.

But to forego “self” is already impossible. It’s possible to do something like this only through the Light that Reforms and even this is not directly, but indirectly. The person invests himself in a society, tries to be included in it, and then the Light begins to influence him and to change him through the society.

Only in a form like this is change possible. This is a unique patent since in truth, we don’t want this to happen. It’s impossible to desire this for real, but since we nevertheless are able to act in this way, the change in us happens. This is called “I have labored and I found.” We are prepared to make a particular effort to be included in the environment, as if we have the desire to bestow, as if we want to discover the Creator and bring Him contentment.

All this is “as if,” but in this game there is a kind of condition for all of these efforts to enter into the system for “fun” but for real, as if we truly desire it! And the system begins to react to us. While the person isn’t really asking, yet suddenly he finds an answer. And he always finds something that he didn’t expect at all, and therefore this is called a “find.” This is always discovered as a surprise, quickly, abruptly. Thus through external corrections we reach internal corrections, through correction of the existence of reality we correct reality itself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/13, Writing of Rabash

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