Advancement is only possible through the gap between the inner Light and the Surrounding Light. The inner Light symbolizes the present and the Surrounding Light symbolizes the future. The more we can elevate the future in regard to the present, the stronger the force that pulls us forward, our yearning for the future will be greater. And according to the force of this absence, we attract the Light which penetrates the present state from the future.

For in the spiritual world all states already exist; everything only depends on our yearning to attain the future. If we want it, we feel it as good. But if we don’t yearn for the future, then its Light comes to us according to the developmental program “in its time,” and this causes us to suffer.

Everything depends on the manner by which we increase our yearning for the future and awaken ourselves towards it. This must become our main concern. For this, we need to describe it to ourselves, to draw its picture in front of us, and to play in it as if we already live in this future. We need to behave like children who play at being adults awakening excitement about this within them, helping themselves to grow.

A person can’t grow through trouble and suffering. Suffering, on the contrary, obliges him to gather into himself, to go into a corner, to hide in some shelter. In contrast, happiness opens the heart to grace, to mercy, to bestowal, to love and carries one forward, as if on wings.

Therefore if we describe a good and beautiful future to ourselves, we cause the whole group to be elevated by this, giving all the friends a feeling of hope, confidence and joy about the prospects for the future, from its greatness, the greatness of the Creator, the teacher, the learning, and the group; this will give everyone energy and desire, and will expand their perception. Thanks to this, we attract even more influence from the Surrounding Light to our expanded desires, receive even more power and illumination, and are drawn forward.

So through constantly turning toward the future and receiving illumination from there, a person advances himself. It’s as if I had a rope and were pulling myself upward with its help. Or as if I am sitting in a boat and with a rope, I throw the rope to someone on the shore, and then use the rope to pull myself toward the shore.

In this way, a person works with the Surrounding Light, awakening in himself a yearning for the future, praising the Creator and the future state and thereby gathering deficiencies for himself. With the deficiency that develops, he again thinks about the future and together with this learns that through this he attracts the Surrounding Light from the future. This works on his external vessels that are meant for the future. For they are not internal vessels yet; they have not yet attained correction and fulfillment.

In this way a person arouses his future desire; this attracts him to it so that he advances. He receives that awakening from the future, that fulfillment and power intermittently. With the help of the environment and the study, he creates a connection with the future, with the Surrounding Light that influences his desires that are not yet corrected, and finally he attains the goal.
[104903]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/13

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In spirituality a human being is the part that coordinates between the Creator and the created beings. He is also called “Israel,” which means straight to the Creator (Yashar-El). It says: “You are called Adam (human) and not the nations of the world.” After all, the Masach (screen) that I provide for all of humanity is the real “me,” the human being in me. I take the Aviut (thickness) from the “nations of the world,” the Light from the Creator, and I have to build a Masach in relation to them.

The goal of every upper Partzuf is actually an “adaptor,” a “connector,” the transition that has nothing of its own except the adaptation to the needs of others. This is my work, my designation. Whoever has a point in the heart has to do that, this is what we study.

Question: What do we overcome by that?

Answer: We have to overcome the interruptions that prevent us from helping the world and by that to bring the Creator contentment. According to the fable, He actually wanted to give the Torah, which means the method of correction, to the “nations of the world,” and the Israeli nation received it only as a point of transition, as an adaptor and a connector. The nations of the world have the vessels, the Lights are above, and the Israeli nation, those with the points in the heart, have to adapt between them. So it turns out that we are the upper Partzuf, the adaptor, or in other words, a Masach and Returning Light.

We only need to exert ourselves and nothing more than that. Our desire is small in comparison to the desire of the nations of the world, and so it is written, “You are few among the nations.” We are few not quantitatively but with respect to the desire to receive, since our Aviut belongs to the level of Bina and we acquired all the additions after the shattering. Our only designation is to serve Malchut, which means the desires of the nations of the world, and to build the Third Temple from them. We will have to fill all the desires and the spiritual passions that will be revealed in them.

So it is written: “Wisdom in the nations of the world—believe, Torah in the nations of the world—don’t believe.” Their vessels have to receive the Light of Hochma, and the Torah is the method of correction that exists only among the nation of Israel that is designated to evoke the Light that Reforms, to correct themselves, to calculate things regarding the Masach, and to bring the nations of the world the Light of Hochma. We establish the connection and the system and the nations of the world provide the desires.

Question: This mission doesn’t seem very difficult. We only have to pass on something to the nations of the world like messengers; what’s so hard about the work of this “adaptor?”

Answer: First, on the level of the forefathers we broke off from the vessels of AHP, that is, we left Babylon after having corrected our vessels that belong to GE. Then on the level of the sons we corrected our AHP by the exiles, especially the exile in Egypt, and have acquired a whole vessel, but its two parts are ours since they belong to the level of Bina and that is not enough. So after the Exodus from Egypt, the conquering of the Land of Israel, and the building of the Temple, our whole vessel was shattered and fell to the level of the nations of the world, to the fourth and last exile.

Now we have to start correcting things, but not the correction that was before. Then we didn’t go through the shattering, and today we have to take our “vessels” out of the “nations of the world.” This is already a great deal of work. In addition to that, the representatives of the nations of the world also join us.

First we have to reconstruct ourselves as the one vessel we used to be and then we begin to work with the “nations of the world,” as the connection already exists since the days of the exile. So even though we start our self correction now, it is passed on to them, and, thus, we don’t just reconstruct ourselves but also include everyone in the correction and rise to much higher levels.

When Israel rises again, the nations of the world immediately follow them and then they have whom to ask for, for the real AHP and not for the “undeveloped” AHP of Bina.

So the role of “Israel” is to take the deficiency of the “nations of the world” and with it, rise to the Creator and prepare the vessel of the Shechina (Divinity) for it. It’s built of the different desires of the nations of the world, no matter how ready they are. The main thing is that they feel that the filling from above goes through us. Then they are able to adhere to us and to receive it.

Thus we bring the Creator contentment. Since it’s to them that He promised to give the Torah, to the real vessels of receiving, and we are only the means for the correction of these vessels.

So it’s clear how important it is to disseminate all over the world. The “Torah” is a general, inseparable system that is revealed everywhere. It turns out that we are connected in a network and cannot break away and escape from it. This network, the connection between people, is the “Torah.” It exists on all the levels all the way to the absolute connection when everyone become “as one man in one heart.” The Torah is the general vessel and the general Light in it is called “The Creator.” Today we must correct the desire to receive in order to connect above it in mutual bestowal upon the Creator.
[104827]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/13, The Zohar

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Question: The situation in the world is changing at a very high speed. Does the method of integral education also change accordingly?

Answer: In the world everything changes, but not with us. The issue is that all structures of matter are very rapidly moving to connection and unity, except for the human being, the highest level that exists in creation. And that positions all of humanity and each one of us, as an inseparable part of it, in an unpleasant situation.

The main law of nature is the law of balance of all its parts, and if we are not in balance, we suffer accordingly. The suffering is distributed on several levels. There are ecological problems felt more and more seriously: volcanic eruptions, typhoons, etc. It’s also the global ice age that is tirelessly approaching and already afflicting both Russia and Europe, judging by what’s happening with the climate. There are also political problems and, of course, mostly economic problems.

But all of this can be solved only through one method: the balancing of humanity with the surrounding world, with the entire system of nature.

We already spoke about this many times: If we begin to connect and unite on different levels, each one in his family, in his work place, within his area, in cities, in countries, and between countries; if we stop the “bustle” on the Internet and begin to seriously use it as a tool for our connection, for mutual understanding, then we will prevent all these problems and really come to a good level of existence.

Together with this, the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature can quickly come to the correct order according to our advancement. Through our behavior, our mutual coming together, we will reconstruct and heal it. Everything depends only on us.

Thus, our main problem is to explain to people the meaning of the closed system in which they exist, and in what way we can influence it. We need to do this in the quickest and most efficient way in order not to perform unnecessary and harmful movements and to begin, as fast as possible, in the shortest and most effective way to implement the correction of man, of society, of the world.
[104650]
From the Virtual Lesson 04/07/2013

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Question: A women’s community sometimes lacks mutual warmth and support, and consequently, the relations between women are not always kind. What can we do about this?

Answer: First of all, this is natural for women. There a natural competition between them unlike an artificial competition between men. With men there should be some specific reason for them to start competing with one another. While with women it isn’t this way, strife between them is dictated by nature, and therefore we constantly have to calm them down.

Within us, men, women extinguish problems associated with moving forward. Whereas within women we have to shut down problems associated with backtracking because when various squabbles arise between them, it means moving backwards. Conflicts between men usually come up because of swings caused by the influence of the Light, from the sensation of the spiritual advancement when the upper influence collides with our egoism, but not because they are against one another. Women’s conflicts stem from their interactions on the corporeal level. Thus, we, men, have to help them in this, while they have to help the men.
[104653]
From the Virtual Lesson 04/07/2013

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Baal HaSulam, “The Secret of Gestation is Birth”: And this is the sign that a creature is worthy of the Light of life, since he has the power to at least perform a contraction for some reason, since then the Light of life appears and performs the expansion and the first movement of life is created. Therefore this movement does not stop and the creature becomes alive and moving.

This first movement is called a soul, which means the spirit of life one breathes, as it says: “And He will pass into his nostrils the breath of life.”

But the level of still nature, the vegetative and the animate do not have the power to perform an inner contraction in any way. Therefore, the Light of life cannot be dressed in them and lead to an expansion.

He gave a law that cannot be broken, that without the contractions and the expansion the vessel will not be able to expand beyond its limits. Therefore the still level of nature, the vegetative and the animate are doomed to eternal death.

The speaking is indeed totally capable of life, but he is born dead, since he needs a cause and a factor to operate on it, and to bring about the first contraction at least, which is caused by the cold air that comes from the Torah and good deeds.

Humanity is divided into levels: the still, the vegetative, the animate, and the speaking, according to the roots of the souls in Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity), according the four levels of the depth of their desire from the first phase to the fourth. Only if the fourth and last phase awakens in a person, is it a sign that he can engage in spiritual work actively and independently.

Other people who have a desire on the level of the still nature, the vegetative, and the animate, cannot be awakened to work independently. They are carried by the current according to their level.

The level of the speaking in a person is called the point in the heart. But even if a person is already born with a point in the heart and after his previous lives is already prepared for spiritual work, it doesn’t mean that he can be awakened by himself yet. He needs some external factor that will force him to contract as a result of pressures, despair, and different unpleasant events that make a person feel that he is under pressure and threats. These pressures force him to think about how he can transcend his nature.

So a group of Kabbalists goes through different unpleasant states. The people who have already been prepared are incorporated in the group and want to advance. They don’t run away from the problems and don’t just watch things from the side but actively participate in the group’s life. They feel a cold wind as a result of the unpleasant events and the fears that force them to contract.

Wind is not a still state. It takes a person out of the level of the still nature he is on, to the vegetative level. The wind itself is air, but its source is Bina, the soul that fills it. Thus a person tastes what air is for the first time, what the feeling on the level of Ruach is.

This unpleasant event forces the cold wind into a person, which makes him contract. But by overcoming the contraction he expands himself, which means that he performs the opposite action. He wants to receive the cold air without freezing and contracting with fear, but rather expanding in Hassadim and bestowal. In order to do that he has to rise above this state by the force of bestowal in adhesion with the Creator and then for the first time he can perform a spiritual breath. The wind has been put into him by force, and he already exhales it and is ready for the new action.

After several such actions that could be called the plagues of Egypt, a person begins to “breathe” independently. He may even be ready to “contract” by himself, which is called “I awaken the dawn and it isn’t the dawn that awakens me.” This means that he doesn’t wait for an external reason, but begins to breathe on his own. Thus he becomes a living soul (Nefesh Haya).
[104770]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” item 33: …any contentment of our Maker from bestowing upon His creatures depends on the extent that the creatures feel Him—that He is the giver, and that He is the one who delights them. For then He takes great pleasure in them, as a father playing with his beloved son, to the degree that the son feels and recognizes the greatness and exaltedness of his father, and his father shows him all the treasures he had prepared for him…

“Playing” means that I feel the Creator’s desire, His attitude, His need to create us because of His desire to do good to His created beings. I feel the unending love that flows from His level. He created us in order to allow us to feel His love, and we can enjoy this love only if we understand it, to the extent that we can value it.

We are together in this mutual love like two lovers, like a father and son. They play together, but the son perfectly understands his father and is adhered to him. They are incorporated in one another in their desires, and each one can fill the other. They are originally opposite from one another by nature, but thanks to the correction, they are united and have endless opportunities to develop. This inner contradiction is not an obstacle, but rather, allows them to reveal infinite love above the separation.

Question: Why do we talk about evil so much and so little about the good?

Answer: First, you should talk about the good with one another, about the goal of creation, and about the work and the group.

Second, we study and examine our vessels, our desires, and this is not more or less, but a lack of desires. Our study and raising a request for correction stem from the lack of fulfillment in the desire. We learn how to reach the right desire and to raise it in order to receive the forces, the Masachim (screens), and the correcting Lights in response. Only then do we reach fulfillment and eventually are rewarded with pleasures as a result of the adhesion, the unity, and equivalence of form with the Creator.

So, all our work is done under pressure, but if you value it, if you appreciate this pressure, if you remember that you are working for a reason and to serve the Creator, if your faith is strong enough—which means the forces of Bina, the forces of bestowal—then, even if it’s about overcoming unpleasant states, you still will enjoy it. After all, you have another force, the force of Bina that raises you above Malchut. Although you don’t feel comfortable in Malchut, Bina gives you the feeling of the ascent.

It is difficult to express this dualism in words, but this is our work. We make efforts, and then the question is whether we enjoy them or not. That depends on for whom are we making these efforts.

In any case, there aren’t so many words about excitement and pleasure in the story about this work. The work, itself, is most of the story.

Personally, I enjoy most of the states I go through. Sometimes, you are thrown into an unpleasant feeling and sometimes into indifference. Anything may happen, but you should try to hold on to the ascent and to enjoy every state. After all, if the Creator manages you, if you are constantly in His hands, even when He cuts you off and throws you out, eventually there isn’t a moment without pleasure.

Back to the playing of the father with his son: We actually feel it in a state in which you don’t receive anything. It is in contrast to our perception. There is nothing in your vessels. The Light of NRNHY is not the fulfillment that you receive from someone, but your attitude toward the Creator that is built on top of the emptiness inside you. It is this attitude that reveals to you a Light that is “in the air,” the attitude itself. It is the Light of bestowal and love that comes from you.

We say that the abundance of the Light comes from the Creator and is revealed in all the worlds, but, in fact, it doesn’t mean that you are egoistically filled with pleasure—no. It is because it happens above the first restriction, in the attribute of “to bestow in order to bestow,” and then, in “to receive in order to bestow.” It is in complete contrast to our current views, and it is impossible to explain this.

This is the reason we cannot describe the pleasure that we experience to others when we play with the Creator. It is all a result of self-annulment and devotion, above the Machsom (barrier), outside yourself, in your aspiration outward, above the pangs of love.
[104741]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/09/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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There are a large number people in the world who have wanted to discover the program of creation, its purpose, which is to say, its entire journey where it leads and its reason. Many have wanted to understand what is taking place in this world and to understand why everything happens specifically in the way that it does and how we should act correctly in this world.

For in this world now it is as if we are blind in a dark room, wandering in the dark, causing only harm to ourselves and to others and bumping into each other all the time. This is not useful for anyone, not even for someone who succeeds in winning over others, but for what does he win?

It is up to us at least to know what is happening and where are we found, why we are called humans! The nature of the silent, the vegetative, and the animate acts in an instinctive manner and never errs. An animal never errs because nature compels it to behave correctly according to the commands of nature.

The Creator controls every particle in creation including the still, the vegetative, and the animate parts in us, but the speaking part in us is given freedom of choice. The person develops according to a natural evolutionary process called “in its time,” in an instinctive form due to his ego. And on his way he constantly errs because he doesn’t invest effort in a development, which is called “I will hasten it.” And therefore, all of our lives are one great suffering.

So, what is the reason, where is the turning point found where I can change my fate? We must attain awareness, understanding, connection, and adherence with the higher supervision, become conscious of the Creator, and to be like Him. It is up to us to take the reins of control over all of reality from Him.

In order to carry out this task, first of all we need to want this wholeheartedly and to understand it intellectually. Through our mind and heart, we perceive new levels of the higher supervision from the Creator all the time as it pertains to us, and against our will we realize them in ourselves.

And when we advance in this way, step by step, we become like the Creator. Even though we don’t want to be like the Creator, which is to say to bestow and to love, with the help of the environment we must gradually acquire desires and abilities like these, drop by drop. It is up to us to submit ourselves and ask the Creator to give us a possibility of being like Him, which is to say, to transform ourselves and control our part, our portion, our spiritual body, which is the beginning of the spiritual Partzuf.

It is explained that on the animate level, there is a unique organism whose head (its thoughts and its desires, heart, and mind) is developed in opposition to the Creator, and it corrects itself to be like Him.
[104677]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can a student who lives far away in another country receive the same special force felt in the group that is physically beside you?

Answer: I want to clear up these doubts once and for all. If a student is 10,000 miles away from here, somewhere in Chile, for example, and receives an impression of “one ounce” during the lesson, it is equal in value to being right here in the study hall and receiving an impression of “100 ounces.”

It is the same. You are simply not taking into account the influence you feel here. There, it is one hundred times weaker than here. And when you come here, it seems that you exert yourself by one gram, but here everyone exerts themselves by one hundred ounces. You see that here the tension is a hundred times greater, and so you worry as to what you should do.

But you are not taking into account that the force of the magnetic field operates on you even from a distance, but only weaker. At the same time, you exert yourself relatively more compared to those who are here in the center. So although it may seem that you are missing something, you are not missing anything.

The Creator receives a person’s exertion taking into account the state he is in. The question is only whether you are building your environment correctly wherever you are. Do you make the best of your group by annulling yourself before them, before the Creator, and by that reach the revelation of the force of bestowal in order to bring Him contentment? If you do that wherever you are, then nothing more is required of you.

If you are thinking about moving to a place where a greater impression is felt, I am not sure that this is the right thing to do. It is because exerting yourself in another place according to different conditions equals a person’s exertion here under the conditions that I provide for my group. So you may very well gain more being far away than being here.
[104613]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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From Rabash’s Letter 5: … you should do more in love of friends. It is impossible to achieve lasting love, unless through Dvekut [adhesion], meaning that you will unite the two of you with a tight bond. And this can be only if you try to “undress” the clothing in which the inner soul is placed—the clothing called “self-love”…

And when you feel that you are at war, each of you will know and feel that he needs the help of his friend, and without him, his own strength will weaken, too. Then, when you understand that you must save your life, each of you will forget that he has a body he must keep, and you will both be tied by the thought of how to use the enemy.

Love of friends is attained by way of a war for its sake. It is impossible to attain adherence that indicates constant love without striving to leave the clothing of the evil inclination in which the soul is clothed. To leave this clothing of self-love is possible only if you exchange it for love of the other, for the screen and the Returning Light.

This, specifically, is what we must reach. When we begin to search for how to do this, we feel that everything essentially depends on our relationship to the other, things that are so contemptible in our world. All relationships in the world are established according to laws, protecting the rights of the individual, of democracy. However, when we see some of the truth through the influence of the Surrounding Light, we then understand that it is specifically through connection with the other that we realize the entire program of creation.

The other one, whether a friend or the Creator, is the same; there is no difference. If I want to rise above myself and reach the Creator, it is precisely then that I see that I require help from a friend. As long as all the friends have not come to my aid, according to how much I give myself over to them, I cannot do anything.

What we require is mutual cooperation where we depend upon each other. As much as I give myself over to others, to this extent they can help me, and when they come to help me, I stop thinking about myself. In spite of myself, I rise above myself.

However, the friends can come to help me only if I subdue myself with respect to them. With this, I oblige them to be concerned for me. This is saying that everything depends on the work of the individual regarding his environment. The more I subdue myself and am ready to adhere to the environment, to the teacher, to the books, to learning, to dissemination—which is to say, to all means for attaining the goal, trusting like an infant, surrendering myself to the lowest level—the closer I come to my spiritual realization.

I must begin my spiritual ascent from zero. The more I approach zero with my thoughts, desires, and deeds, the more I adhere to the group and oblige it to be concerned about me. I begin to receive the right influence from inside the group. Whatever level on which it is found at the moment is not even important. This influence makes it possible for me to nullify my self-love, departing from the egoistic shell (Klipa), from the evil inclination, and to start the spiritual work.
[104446]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13

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