All our work is not to exert ourselves for a payment but to make the work the actual payment. This is our goal, to reach a state in which my exertion, my work, the chance to bestow upon the other and through him upon the Creator, will become the desired payment. In order to reach that I am ready to prepare all the possible means, since my correction depends on that.

Then we will stop feeling the past, the present and the future—time will disappear. It is because time is measured only according to deficiency and fulfillment. But if there is no deficiency and fulfillment, but everything is the same, everything is whole and complete, then I will stop feeling time.

If I don’t feel any difference in fulfillment—not here and not in greater distances, not in other times, and not in the relations between everyone—then, the whole world becomes only one great opportunity for me to exert myself, which is my payment at that point, not before that and not after that, but right now. And then all of reality becomes the simple white Light that fills all of reality.

For me everything is based on my exertion, but in it, I immediately discover bestowal and pleasure as the goal. Thus we rise above time, motion, and space, above the images and manners of this world, and exert ourselves only so that everything in the whole level of Aviut (thickness) is revealed, we will correct ourselves to such a state that we feel no more trouble but only pleasure from what we do.

It is the same in our world; if I enjoy a certain action, I don’t perceive it as painful, as an effort, but simply as a pleasure. Although the body may expend a lot of energy and calories performing this action, I will not feel that I am losing something and that I have to compensate myself for that, but will feel pleasure and fulfillment.

Here everything depends on how well a person understands that he and what is external to him, which means the other, are the same, whether he sees that the whole world belongs to him. Then he will not feel any exertion. It is because all the exertion is only in the relations between me and what is external to me when I have to do something outside myself and give to others in order to receive something from them in return. But if the whole world is one body, then the exertion disappears and so does the passage from me to others and from them to me.

All my fears, anxieties, insecurities, and sufferings disappear because they don’t exist in one body where everything is one. So all our work is to reach this feeling by the environment, by my efforts, by the Light that Reforms, that there is nothing outside myself. In the true perception of the reality there is only one state and one place. This place is called Shechina or Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) and the one state is called adhesion.
[101937]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “A Sage’s Fruit”: During a common prayer a person is prohibited to separate from the others and to ask for himself, even if he wants to bring pleasure to the Creator, but he is going to do it himself, and not with the others. After all, he who disconnects from society and asks for his own individual soul does not build it, but on the contrary, he damages his soul, by becoming the “proud man, with whom the Creator cannot be together.”

It’s not easy to overcome this difficult psychological problem. Our ego does not allow us to understand, to remember, to learn, and to adopt the rule that only by coming out of the boundaries of our body will we find the vessel of our soul. And everything that I psychologically see now as my “I” exists only in my fantasy so that I must cancel this thinking, annul myself, and see myself outside of it.

To accept this fact, this worldview, and to live with it, we need the strong support of the environment and studies and hard work in mutual guarantee. Any action of correction starts from this because every time more egoism is added to us, we have to work with this additional load in order to decide that, in spite of it, our vessel is above it.

These messages: “That which is hateful to you, don’t do to others” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself” seem to us simple rules of courtesy, “cultural” behavior, moral homilies. But no, we talk about an internal orientation that must exist in a person if he wants to find his inner part, his soul, and begin to correct it.

That is why the one who prays for himself not only does not advance in spirituality, but also causes great harm to himself because by this he cuts himself off from the others, worsening the breaking. Although it’s clear that negative actions are also inevitable because a person needs to come to the realization of evil before he understands and feels that this is an incorrect attitude.

But we are about to complete this work, and that is why we must understand and constantly reinforce the general opinion that spiritual existence, advancement, and the result of work are only in “We,” not in “me,” but only between us. This where we need to draw all our forces, trying to accustom ourselves to this view and replace ourselves with “We” in order to live inside the soul.
[101778]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Item 4: To understand these questions and inquiries, the only tactic is to examine the end of the act, that is, the purpose of Creation. For nothing can be understood in the middle of the process, but only at its end.

This is the rule, only by observing the end of the act can we understand all the details, the phases, the reasons for everything, and the whole process. It’s because only at the end does it become clear how essential every detail is and to what extent all these details had to be arranged one after the other in this order; only at the end do we see that everything is complete. The complete end is possible only when all the details are arranged correctly. But how do we reach the end if we are in the middle of our path?

And it is clear that there is no act without a purpose. We see this today in modern science, where everything does indeed operate according to a cause and effect relationship and according to absolute laws. At least on the level of the still, vegetative, and animate, nature, I discover great wisdom, logic, and common sense; there is nothing redundant, and everything is arranged so that every small detail is connected to all the other endless details. I can thus come to a conclusion regarding the level of the “speaking”: that the corruption I see in it stems from my corrupt personal perception, which doesn’t allow me to see the wonderful order that is also on the level of the “speaking,” but on the contrary, shows me a picture that is opposite from the truth. We actually see corruption and great disorder in human society, but it’s because we are causing it.

Of course, there can be another explanation for this phenomenon: We can say that the Creator is good and benevolent and that He includes everything and does everything, but that he has abandoned His creation. Baal HaSulam brings different examinations of this approach in his article “The Peace.” However, if I already respond to what I see in life and use different approaches, I understand better that it’s preferable to look at the end result. By the experience from our studies, we see that nature develops according to a certain goal, and so, Baal HaSulam says that we should first look at the goal of creation since it’s impossible to understand anything half way, but only by looking at the final result.

I know that there are those who cast over their backs the burden of Torah and Mitzvot (plural for Mitzva), saying the Creator has created the whole of reality, then left it alone. Here, Baal HaSulam refers to people who don’t believe that everything was created for man, that man is in the center of creation, and that only from this point can we develop correctly. Everything was created for me—our whole world and all the worlds—and I have to accept this, to reveal it, and to control the situation; “for me” means that I can correct it and use it. This use is called “observing the Mitzvot” which I do by the help of the Light that Reforms or the “Torah.” Thus I reach the goal of creation.

Indeed, without knowledge they have spoken, for it is impossible to comment on our lowliness and nothingness before we decide that we have created ourselves with all our corrupted and loathsome natures. It’s clear that we are not whole, but it’s impossible to decide that the world is lowly if we don’t see how everything in it gradually reveals its wholeness.

The question is: If the Creator is whole, then hasn’t He created evolution in a perfect way from the start? But that can’t be, since there also has to be a reality in the created being. This reality is opposite from the Creator, and so it has to be incorporated of two opposite parts: the attribute of the Creator and the attribute of the created being. The two attributes have to grow in creation and within it face one another; it’s in the middle between the two attributes, building itself of the two forces: the force of bestowal and the force of receiving.

This means that if we don’t understand the goal, we definitely won’t be able to justify creation and will find different justifications, such as: The Creator who is whole is disappointed with us, left us, and is found somewhere in His wholeness. Other versions are that the Creator is not found in these two forces at all, the good force and the evil force, or that there may be many good forces and many evil forces, etc.

One way or the other, it’s clearly impossible to justify what is going on unless a person receives the Torah, which means, unless he reaches the state that he understands that he is in a corrupt system and that it’s that way so that he will become part of it, will correct it by the Light as he draws himself each time more towards operating the system. Then he discovers that everything was created for him and it was impossible to reach the level of the Creator without first correcting the system, or to be more accurate, to install it. In the same way children build themselves through games by collecting and putting their toys together, it’s the same in our work, in the connection of the parts. So we have to play games of connection, unity, and mutual guarantee in order to understand the goal.
[101574]
From the 4^th part of Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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Everything that happens is for our benefit. All the concealments, judgments, and problems arising show us those places in which we need to put efforts at this time, at this step, in order to advance. Therefore, first of all, we should try to obtain a correct view of the entire reality.

Everything that we see in front of us are our own faults, our inner world, that result in this picture of the world. That is why we see only negative around us. If you want to use every revelation correctly, you must rise above every state by faith above reason to try to see a perfect picture, the world of Infinity, through this earthly reality that is visible to our eyes.

If you cancel your negative attitude towards reality and approach it positively, then instead of the picture that you see now, you will see the Light clothed in desires.

The main thing is to justify the states through which you pass, understanding that they are given to you so that you would overcome them and decide that they are sent by the Creator with the best intentions so that, through them, you would change your attitude. Nothing needs to be changed but the attitude. A change in attitude, that is, intention, changes the whole reality.
[101953]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/13

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The Zohar is a unique quality, the upper Light that comes to correct us if we are ready for the correction and discover the place that needs to be corrected. This place is the connection between us, and since we are a result of the shattering, we have to try to connect in order to find the common attribute of bestowal between our vessels (desires).

When we discover that it doesn’t exist among us, we regret it and want the Light to influence us and turn the hatred and repulsion that occurs between us to the bestowal and mutual love we want to discover. So we will demand that the Light perform this work and turn us from those who are repulsed by one another to those who come closer and connect to one another and are united.

Then, to the extent and the intensity of the connection between us that we attain, we will feel the common force of bestowal that is called Light of Hassadim. If we really want to make an effort to bestow upon one another in order to discover the Creator (which is already a different, more sublime kind of work), then in the same Light of Hassadim that is revealed among us, we will see what needs to be done, which special inner efforts, and in them we will discover the actual action of bestowal called “the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.” We will feel how we bestow and bring pleasure to the same force, to the same thought, to the same root. We have to try to attain all that here and now in the connection among us.
[101856]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/13, The Zohar

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Question: If we draw a picture of a bright future, we seem to realize it, don’t we? As they say, “You want to be happy, be happy.”

Answer: In general, it is true because thoughts work. If we cultivate positive thoughts, then naturally we will create the positive field in the integral circles and everywhere else and will generate the positive forces of nature.

On the other hand, the field will also educate us. That is why it is desirable to be in a good mood all the time with good support, and then a relatively easy life is guaranteed.

We are in the absolute of nature and all sorts of data flow inside of us, which we perceive as the flow of life. That is why, if we perceive the same data flowing through us now, differently, life will seem quite different. It turns out that we ourselves regulate the quality of our life: what it is, good or bad, purposeful or meaningless.

You cannot imagine how much we affect each other! Even if a person does not go outside, he still affects others! It is the same unified field!
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From KabTV’s “Professional Secrets” 2/10/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 5: Therefore, common sense dictates that we grasp the opposite of what appears to be on the surface, and decide that we are truly noble and worthy creatures, of immeasurable importance, actually worthy of the Worker who had made us.

Question: How does this go along with what Rabash once said to you: “Now you are a rag like I am?”

Answer: There are many discernments and elements in the term “rag”: I am incapable of anything, I am dependent on the Creator, and I am happy about having discovered this fact. By that I see the beginning and the end of my actions, and in every action I have to make efforts in order to attain the concept of a “rag,” and then adhere to the Creator and by that obligate Him to do something.

So the state of a “rag” comes after all the exertion, according to the principle “I have exerted myself and I have found.” It’s the final stage and it’s a very important level in which I understand better that I have nothing, that I am totally “squeezed,” powerless, lacking energy and motivation which I must receive from the Light.

I can’t fulfill the correction, I can’t accumulate the necessary discernments, but I can attain the necessary desire to exert myself that I get from the environment. I could stay on the “animal” level forever, if the Creator did not let me rise to a higher level about which Baal HaSulam writes.
[101781]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/13,”Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: In his letter No. 29, Baal HaSulam writes that “prohibition is the same as permission, since the key that is good for locking is also good for unlocking.” What kind of “key” does he mean?

Answer: The key is the Light of Hassadim, the intention to bestow. On one hand, we can lock ourselves with this key and thus bar the Light from entering our egoistic desires. On the other hand, we can open ourselves for the Light that dresses in the intention to bestow. Under this condition, the Light is allowed to enter the desire to receive. Bina refuses to receive; therefore, Bina is against the Light of Hochma. How does it open itself for the Light of Hochma after restriction occurs? It turns itself into a “garment for the Light,” into a condition. We are ready to receive treats from the Host’s table under the condition that He allows us to think about Him, rather than our stomachs.

If we keep thinking of the Creator while we continue receiving pleasures, if we feel Him and understand that He enjoys us, then our sensations become a million times bigger than those that we get from direct self-indulgence. We multiply the pleasure because we understand the significance of the Host and feel love for Him. And that is how we become ready to accept the treats.

So, Bina blocks only a small amount of the Light (Nefesh de Nefesh) that it could have received directly in the desire to receive. It opens itself to the Light of NRNHY, the infinite Light of the Creator. This implies that the key that locks the door also unlocks it. As it is said: “Open a tiny space the size of an eye of a needle for Me and I will open gates through which carts and chariots enter.”

We can’t receive directly more than a thin ray of Light that supports life in all of us and revives the entire world. The intention to bestow multiplies a tiny live spark and expands it to the size of the Creator if we strive to bestow to Him.

We “use” the Creator as a magnifying glass and amplify a thin ray that formed all of creation, all of matter. We increase both the matter and the pleasure proportionately to the greatness of the Creator in our eyes. This opportunity is granted to us by a “tool” that is called “the intention to bestow.”

It is called “bestowal,” but due to it we receive the opportunity and acquire the ability to increase our desire to receive that was shaped by the Creator “out of nothing.” It’s similar to a tiny grain of sand, a tip of the needle that we can multiply proportionately to the Creator’s “scale” so that it can be filled with the Light that is as powerful as the Creator Himself.

It happens because we begin working in bestowal “on the tip of a needle,” on a “tiny grain of sand” of a desire to receive that was created by Him. We receive one gram of delight and simply cannot “fit” more into this small desire that is as little as a grain of sand. However, if we manage to expand it for the sake of bestowal, it is crucially important for whose sake we do it. Thus, we multiply our desire and the delight proportionately to the scale of His love for us, as an infant who smiles at his mother and thus causes huge joy in her.

It’s the “patent” we use, a miraculous opportunity granted to us by the Creator. We use its power and the strength of His love for us by expanding ourselves with its help. Otherwise, we would be the lowest creatures in the world. All other levels of nature (inanimate, vegetative, and animate) fulfill themselves directly, whereas by the mere fact that we are born as people, we go through all prior levels (inanimate, vegetative, and animate) and there is only one thing left for us: a point in the heart that is completely empty of any fulfillment.

Because we are so unhappy, a tiny spark awakens in us. It’s a desire to receive pleasure at the speaking level that now still remains empty in us. If we fail to receive the Creator’s power and won’t take “advantage” of His love and His kind attitude toward us by using it to “magnify” ourselves by this quality, we’ll be left with a scanty and hollow desire. Even death is better than such kind of life…

Luckily, we are given a chance to receive the power of the Creator if we treat each other in a correct way. That’s why the shattering and all other kinds of preparations from Above happened, so that people can feel a need to love or at least realize the necessity to unite.
[101404]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Letter 29”

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We advance from concealment to revelation and discover what already exists. “There is nothing new under the sun,” there is nothing that was not created and nothing just suddenly appears out of nowhere, except for the revelations which we constantly add by our efforts according to our advancement. We open wider the picture that already exists and discover more and more of it.

It is as if it were dark and I gradually turn on the light by slowly twisting the dimmer knob. It gets brighter and brighter and I can see better and understand all the details in the picture.

It isn’t a simple light, but the light of the mind, the light of our feelings. It allows me to penetrate this picture and to discover it, to connect more strongly to it, and to influence it. I discover the system that connects to me. I suddenly see that I am in it, incorporated in it, and not simply observing it from the outside like an independent researcher. I live in it!

We discover that all of the upper world already exists; this is all our work: to discover the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) as the fixed, eternal, true state. Everything else is only its concealments that we have to get rid of by rising above them. All the concealments are necessary, only so that we will be able to gradually, from one level to another, adjust ourselves to the world of Ein Sof.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot 

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Fate changes very much as we advance. Each one is given his or her own difficulties, but you should not envy others. There are such internal problems that are not visible from the outside and it may seem that a person has all the best, that his life is successful, and that he has never had any problems with money. However, we do not know what internal or external obstacles, invisible to the external eye, he overcomes. No one gets favors in this.

The more internal the correction, the more qualitative it is, and, thus, it is more powerful in its strength than correction by external problems. It is similar to a worker who needs to labor an entire week to earn the same amount a specialist can earn for a day or even an hour of work. It depends on the root of the soul.

We are engaged in the most important work. It is low, dirty work to correct the world at its most insignificant degree where it is now, and this work is the most special and honorable. We need to feel this, understand it, and give thanks.

We work on our own vessel. All the problems that become revealed to us are the means for correcting the broken unity. Every day I repeat that dissemination is necessary for your own good; that it is your own vessel and you aren’t doing anyone any favors. The Creator does not need your work. You, yourselves, need it first. Otherwise, in what vessels will you get revelation?

However, if a person is stuck inside the breaking and wants to perceive the world from there—not correcting himself—then he is like a child who does not want to grow but demands to be given at the age of two the same things that grownups have. This means that he is delayed in his development and does not use the opportunities that he gets.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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