Man is born loving only himself. This is our nature, and we can’t do anything about it. We always live inside it and cannot step out of it. All our actions are only for our own sake; otherwise, it is impossible to move forward. Therefore, I need a foreign force which would act against my nature and change it.

All my thinking and energy keep working for the purpose of filling and comforting myself. But there is one point in me that is pushing me to step outside of my nature, rise from the animate level, and reach the Creator, that is, to attain the human level. Only this point in me belongs to the human level, the level of the Creator since “man” is similar to the Creator.

I belong to the material world entirely, but this one point in me belongs to the spiritual one. If it doesn’t awaken, a human being lives solely in this world and doesn’t suspect anything more; he is satisfied with this materialistic life. If, however, this point is awakened in his heart, he feels uncomfortable in this world and strives to rise from it. He is influenced by two forces: One pushes him from behind out of the material world, and the other pulls him from the front, from the spiritual world.

Without renouncing oneself (one’s egoism) and rising above one’s nature, it is impossible to reach adhesion with the Creator. I have to decide which nature I wish to be related to: to the nature of the Creator or that of the creature, that is, to choose bestowal or reception.

Since giving is opposite to our nature, there is only one means to move from the material to the spiritual: a Kabbalistic group. The group has immense power because we work together and everyone annuls the egoistical desire that prevents him from fulfilling the purpose for which man is born. The purpose is to become similar to the Creator. The Creator is the force of bestowal, love, and annulment of self. This is why I need the group as an external foreign force that works as a lever which allows me to turn my nature around.

In order for this force to be great and invigorating, the group must be united and strong within itself and burn with the desire to fulfill the spiritual purpose. Then, everyone in it can use this power and step out of the enslavement of egoistic love.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, Article “The Purpose of the Association –2”

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Moving into a new unexplored state that we have yet to discover, create, and select the correct actions, is called a game. Playing, nonetheless, is a serious activity, which carries the element of the unknown. While playing, we study our capacities, inclinations, and goals, along with their outcomes. With each iteration, a person moves forward to an unknown state.

How does one advance into the unknown? If we know the beginning and the final states, it means that the program is already within us and we are merely implementing it as we move from state to state. However, in this way we are not growing. Moving toward a known state doesn’t translate into acquiring a new one, but is only an accumulation of experience. If a person knows what the next state should be, then it is within him, he is already in it.

“Growth” on the other hand, means that one acquires a totally new state and becomes the person they are not yet today. How can we accomplish this in the most rational, mature, and correct way if not with the help of a game, a simulation? Nature itself pushes us relentlessly to learn by playing.

The same process can be observed at the still, vegetative, and animate levels. In order to continuously advance, a plant employs similar processes within itself, just like a game. If we study the plant during its growth, it appears identical to ours on the animate and human levels.

A person has to imagine correctly the next state within oneself, so much so as to receive the force of growth from within it. Therefore, the Creator’s presence in each creature is mandatory. One can make a step forward only if it already exists in him. A person must consciously and purposefully draw the Creator’s Light, which comes from his hidden higher “half.”

Therefore, a person constructs a model of a more advanced state using the group, which is a simulator of the World of Infinity, spiritual states, and mutual bestowal. When a person performs various actions, one expects the Light to act upon him and to let him know that the most correct possible state has been found. When does it occur? When the Light clothes in it.

The Light remains in absolute rest. We only need to find our similarity to it. Out of all possible forms, as soon as we pick the form similar to the Creator, He immediately fills us and we become united with one another. This is called the next state. In this way, we advance.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, The Zohar

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A question I received: Why do we constantly talk only about the connection among us, and say nothing about the connection with the Creator?

My Answer: Right now we are talking about realizing our goal at hand, and this is why we devote so much attention to the connection among us. The final goal is adhesion with the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form, which means that we need to become “Human,” Adam (“similar” to the Creator).

First, we need to prepare our spiritual vessel (Kli) by making it similar to the Upper One. This is one vessel  for everyone; all of its parts should unite as one man with one heart. All our hatred, envy, ambition, pride, and thirst for power become included within it; we need to rise above it all and unite in order to become similar to the Creator, and thereby attain adhesion with Him.

It seems to us as though the Creator is somewhere outside of us, but in fact, He is revealed inside that common spiritual vessel which we build among us. Therefore, to have a correct perspective, we need to perceive everything as if it exists in one place. We build this space for the revelation of the Creator!

It is precisely there where we unite with each other above our egoism. Our egoism remains below, and above it, we build the connections among us. And if our connection is solid, based upon the force of the Light that Reforms, then in the connection, we will reveal the Creator (Boreh), which means “come and see” (Bo-Re).

This is different than picturing that He is somewhere high in the clouds and I am doing something here, below, in order to reveal Him in the sky. I reveal Him precisely in the connection between souls, between the organs of the spiritual body, as the inner Light that fills it.

Meanwhile, people think that when we speak only about uniting with each other that the Creator is separate from this. This is because internally they are not willing to agree that there is a connection between our work – the studies, dissemination, and unification with each other – and the Creator.

Each person perceives the Creator as something elevated and is willing to unite with Him, but we are unwilling to unite with another person. They don’t understand that this is the same thing. A more inner connection among people is called the “Creator,” the quality of bestowal, but the nature of man does not permit one to agree with this.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, Article “Arvut (The Bond)”

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Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” that all those who aspire to the Creator are one nation where everyone is responsible for one another. This is called mutual guarantee. The Torah (the Light of Correction) was given to this nation only after every person was asked: Do you agree to carry out the commandment of love for the neighbor?  “Love your neighbor as yourself” means to take care of others no less than our nature forces us to take care of ourselves. This is the condition that enables us to draw the Light of Correction upon us. The Light will come and correct our spiritual vessel only if we reveal that we want to unite in this way.

Mutual guarantee is when, having ascended above our own desire, we already comprise one unified body, one organism, and we all depend on each other. To do this, every person must have an anti-egoistic screen and be in the spiritual world on the level of bestowal (Hafetz Hesed), while also treating his material life as a necessary component for his spiritual life.

Operating in mutual guarantee, every person fulfills another and understands that he has to be connected with the others. His entire life takes place for the sake of this, like it happens with the cells within one’s body. Every cell and organ of the body lives in order to carry out its function in relation to the common organism. The meaning of its life is love and bestowal. When we perceive this connection among us, this is called spiritual life.

If we desire to unite in this way, then we will receive the force to carry this out!

From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, Article “Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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A Question I Received: When I read The Zohar, my mind keeps seeing superficial images. How can I remember that all these things are happening inside me as the text speaks about connections between us?

My Answer: To tell you the truth, it doesn’t matter. "Time does what the mind does not." The time is for studying and growing closer with the friends. When, during the lesson, a person isn’t able to think (with his head) about the goal (with his heart), let him listen to his heart.

Most important is to constantly hold on to the thought of what you want from the study. Torah does not have an affect without this. The Torah influences according to one’s intention. As it is written, "I created the evil inclination and gave the Torah as a spice." Do you have an evil inclination? Bring it and then you’ll receive the Torah as a spice to it (the means for its correction).

However, how does having this spice help you if you lack the evil inclination? Kabbalists give us simple examples. Do you have soup? Would you like to add pepper, salt, and all kinds of seasoning? Go ahead, but how will you benefit from having salt and pepper if you don’t have the soup? By themselves, salt and pepper taste disgusting.

In our case we first need to prepare the "soup." Without it, there’s no need to ask for seasoning; we wouldn’t even be able to ask for it. It’s during the process of making the soup (in the group) that the need for seasoning arises (for the Light to unite us). Only those who need Torah have (discovered) the evil inclination.

This is why we need to approach the reading of The Zohar and all our lessons with the proper intention, with  knowing exactly what we desire, or, in other words, with a prepared evil nature. With the evil revealed in you, you have something to correct; you will receive correction for it. If you haven’t discovered the evil within, you first need to look for it. If you feel righteous, the Torah is not for you; it is for the sinners for their correction. This is why the one who is greater than the others is the one who discovers a bigger egoism within, a greater evil, and he has something to correct.

Thus, it doesn’t matter how much one understands during the lesson. "It’s not the wise who studies" (Lo ha-Hacham Lomed). What matters is feeling that one has something to correct in the connection with his friends.

We need to unite into one desire, the soul of Adam, and we must become brothers in our goal. Even though we now hate one another, don’t want the others, and disdain them, we understand that unity is the goal. This is why we wait for the Light to come and bring us back to the source where we will become one complete desire, and the Creator will become revealed among us.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/10, The Zohar

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As we analyze our desires we need to penetrate deeply into them in order to understand that they, along with their egoistic intention, come from the Creator. We need to reach the uttermost depth of the recognition of the desire and from its root attain where this desire comes from.

When we reveal that the desire itself and its egoistic intention are sent to us by the Creator, we’ll understand that there’s no choice. We have no one else to turn to with a plea to correct it except the Creator. Otherwise, a person doesn’t need the Torah as he doesn’t scream out or appeal to the Creator. He doesn’t yet perceive himself as a creature governed by the Upper Force to which he may appeal.

Our egoistic origin is the same angel that brings us closer to the Creator. We receive blows, and consequently, we understand that they have a purpose and that they are sent by someone higher than us. We can reach this conclusion through suffering, and we can also reach it through the studies, the environment, and spiritual development.

“A sage sees the future”; he sees the arousal of a state before it is reached and he has the ability to change it. Physical suffering of this world turns into the suffering of love when I draw a little bit of the Upper Light and feel my state in relation to it. Then I begin to suffer from the fact that I have no love for the neighbor or love for the Creator. Herein lies the point of our free choice.

It is essential to get to the root of the suffering and understand that it is purposely sent to us from Above. If we understand that there is no choice and begin to scream out to the Creator, it signifies that we have reached the greatest depth. However, if we still attribute our suffering to various reasons in this world and to ourselves, we haven’t reached the very bottom.

I delve deeper and deeper into the suffering by its degrees of Aleph, Bet, and Gimel (inanimate, vegetative, and animate) and I think that I’m receiving a blow from nature. However, when I reach its last stage, Behina Dalet, I reveal there that its source is above nature, that it’s in the Creator, and is as if the Creator’s pointing a finger. Then, I scream out to Him.

Is it possible to speed up this process? Yes, it is. For this reason, we’re given the Torah in order to advance by a quick and simple path according to our own will rather than by the path of suffering. I can organize a group around myself and draw the Light from Above through the studies (for example, by studying The Zohar) and I quickly reach the same result. This is called the path of the Torah. The difference between the two paths consists of thousands of years of suffering.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/10, “What is the Preparation for Receiving the Torah?”

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The Torah is the force of correction, and it changes us to equivalence with the Creator. When we become similar to the Creator, we are called “Adam,” and each of us is called “Ben-Adam” (human being) on his part. Adam means “similar” (in Hebrew – Edame) to the Creator. Thus, a “human being” isn’t one of the billions that exist in our world, but one who achieves equivalence to the Creator.

However, in order to elevate oneself to the level of the Creator, in order to implement the Torah, a sufficient desire is necessary. We are consumed with earthly concerns, so how can we be concerned with the aspiration to spirituality, with elevating ourselves to the next dimension? This is part of the preparation for receiving the Torah. It’s written that the Creator gives us the Torah every day. This means it is always ready for use and it depends only on our desire.

Therefore, first of all, I need to cultivate the desire to rise from my animal degree to the entrance into a new world, which is the spiritual world. However, if I don’t have this desire, I’ll live like an animal and I won’t notice this means since I don’t experience any need for it; I don’t want or understand anything that goes beyond the realms of this world. Otherwise, I could already be advancing to the spiritual world. So far, I don’t have a sufficient desire in order to use this means to enter the Upper dimension. Thus, I need to prepare myself for the reception of the Torah.

Only if I reveal the evil inclination in me and clarify what it is that I need to correct in order to reach the Creator (love and bestowal), do I prepare myself for receiving this means called the Torah. Engaging in the Torah means extracting the Light that Reforms from it. I need to aspire to it and desire it to correct me. I need to open a book as though I receive medicine from it, without which I am doomed to die. Are there many people who study the Torah this way in our world?

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/10, “What is the Preparation for Receiving the Torah?”

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A question I received: How should we work during the day on building a Kabbalistic group, a vessel that we prepare to be filled by the Creator’s Light and revelation? How do we assess our personal state and that of the world group?

My Answer: We should interpret the Creator’s message which we receive from Baal HaSulam and Rabash as a single appeal: to unite. Rabash discloses this state, this point of contact, and tells us what it involves. However, it can only be reached by combining in oneself all opposite qualities.

These qualities seem different to you because you are not perfect. Yet the more you engage in this work, the sooner you will see that everything contracts into the single point which is called unity. Everything merges in it: you, the Creator, your efforts, the group, correction of the evil inclination, the greatness of the goal, your own insignificance, and the intention for bestowal with the egoistic inclination below it. Everything unites into one whole.

It is incorrect to take one item from the article and lock onto it. Rather, everyone should work on the entire article during the day: Read it a number of times and prepare a summary. Suddenly you’ll discover that with the synopsis you’ve prepared the subject can be examined from many different perspectives.

However, simply engaging in this work is most important. It attracts upon us the Light that Reforms. A person is not required to make correct and clever conclusions. As we advance, we become less and less successful in making reasonable conclusions as we feel more shattered and unfit. It looks as we are moving in an opposite direction, but this sensation is given to us by the Light that comes to awakens us!

Every day we have to set  a new task for everyone of us. If someone fails to perform it, he immediately lags behind. By the next day, he won’t be able to continue together with everyone because we move consecutively from one state to another. One can’t leap over several states and make a running jump onto a high-speed train.

Now that we have started this work, we should make sure that we perform it every day, regardless of our mood. We have to support each other to ensure that nobody falls down because anyone who is in descent prevents others from the proper understanding and learning.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, Article “The Purpose of the Association – 1”

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We have started our work on building a Kabbalistic group. If, throughout the day, we keep thinking about the day’s article we are studying, we will see enormous transformations within us. When so many hearts and desires act according to the method of Baal HaSulam, aspiring to and clarifying the goal together, this action itself already unifies us.

Together we attract the Light which begins to act upon us, and we feel tremendous changes. These changes, however, may seemingly be to the worse. So what? Their purpose is to teach us that advancement occurs above our egoism, above our desire to receive pleasure and sense an egoistic reward.

I worked so hard, but the next day I felt even more heaviness of the heart, my own insignificance, weakness, disregard, hate, and indifference. Nonetheless, I have to get up and continue walking. It is similar to the wandering in the desert described in the Torah. “You have discovered your evil? Great! Now you will learn how to correct it and continue on the path.”

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/10, Article “The Purpose of the Association – 1”

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