Because the created being is opposite in its nature from the Creator but has to reach equivalence of form with Him, we as created beings have these two opposite forms inside us. Our inner form, our desire to receive, is opposite from the Creator and the external form of the desire has to be similar to that of the Creator. This collision, this conflict, breaks us; we cannot get along with it unless we begin our true spiritual work.

Here we develop as every spiritual vessel. First there is only a desire to receive, and then it is restricted. After the restriction a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light appear, and then there is the receiving of the Light and the fulfillment. This fulfillment is not in the vessel itself in the desire to receive, but it is received in the form of bestowal, which the created being has corrected by himself in resembling the Creator.

These two opposite parts are constantly in the created being who has achieved an equivalence of form with the Creator. On the one hand, it is opposite the Creator according to its natural desire, but on the other hand, the form of the corrected desire is in equivalence of form with the Creator.

So sorrow and joy, emptiness and wholeness coexist, and it’s this oppositeness that makes our work whole, since by that we can detach from our “self,” which means from the desire to receive, to rise above it and to speak from the desire to bestowal, from the height we have attained and built above us. This is why there is a Mitzvah (commandment) to work for the Creator with joy, since this is the general formula. We will always feel the oppositeness and the emptiness in our desires to receive, and we should be happy that we have a chance to work above this feeling.

Even if I have no energy to pray and have nothing to pray for or don’t know what to ask for, it’s also a sign that I am on the right track, since I feel a bitter taste in my desire to receive. Here the two opposites meet: On the one hand, I have no energy to pray, I cannot turn to the Creator, there is nothing I can ask from Him and I have nothing to give Him, but on the other hand, I am very attracted to it and I know that I have to attain it.

This area already with two forces, two lines, two opposite directions, indicate that my desire is in a correct process of correction. This alone is a good enough reason to be happy! The main thing is the awareness that I have managed to rise a bit above my desire to receive, towards bestowal.
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From the Preparation the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/12

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Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: Kabbalists have found that the form of the four worlds, named Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya—beginning with the first, highest world, called Atzilut, and ending in this corporeal, tangible world, called Assiya—is exactly the same in every item and event. This means that everything that eventuates and occurs in the first world is found unchanged in the next world below it, too. It is likewise in all the worlds that follow it, down to this tangible world.

There is no difference between them, but only a different degree, perceived in the substance of the elements of reality in each world.

Imagine a family: Yesterday, we had a fight and today, there is love and peace between us. The general system that is made of seven billion people also reveals new relationships in the network of its mutual connections in the same way. In the world of Assiya there is a bit of indifference, in the world of Yetzira there is renewal, in the world of Beria we are in a state of openness, and in the world of Atzilut we reach fulfillment.

The system, itself, is fixed and rigid. Suppose there is a husband and a wife, children and grandparents; all this makes no difference. Only the mutual relationships among the members of the family can change. This change of attitude is what determines the transition from one world to another.

Thus, I don’t change anything in the structure, but only hasten my development, my ascent up the spiritual ladder, the ladder of relationships. If the relationships within my family are corrupt, I am told, “Something needs to be changed. Try to give in a little.” I answer, “No! No way!” and this is our current state, the current position with regard to the correction. “I should give up my ego?!” Here, we must rise a bit above our stupidity.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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A person comes to study since he wants to know, to understand, and to feel the spiritual world. In the meantime, however, he doesn’t really understand what receiving for himself and bestowal upon others are. He only knows how to take care of himself, to act according to his desire to receive; all his work is to perform actions that will draw the Light that Reforms.

The only thing we should think about is how to open ourselves to the Light and to give it a chance to operate and to impress us and change our attributes. We must constantly worry only about how to attain the best state for this kind of bestowal, to increase our connections with the group intentionally, and to organize everything that is necessary.

Our role is to implement this whole sum of conditions in the best way possible, so that the Light will impress us. The Light is fixed, and I have to constantly turn to place myself under its influence, once on one side and once on the other side in my thoughts, my intentions, and my actions, in working with the books, with the group, with myself, in my relations with people who are close or distant from me, in everything.

If a person constantly thinks about it and bases all his hopes on that, understanding that nothing else will help him except for the influence of the Light, he reaches the result very soon. This means that he is “expecting the Creator’s Light,” as if expecting dawn. He feels how his values change by being turned to bestowal and love, by exiting from himself towards the friends, towards the concept of the group, towards its inner form and image.

It is by that, that he begins to see his life. He feels that there are two desires in him: One is the natural egoistic desire to receive, which remains in him for the time being. The other desire is the hunger that gradually grows in him, the need, the empty vacuum, the deficiency, which he wants to fill by his yearning for connection.

After a person feels the two desires in him, thanks to the Light that has created an empty space in him, he can already receive some direction. First he only had a point that had no direction, and now between these two vacuums, there is a connection, which determines the directions from “myself” to the “others,” and thus a person advances.

The main thing is to constantly turn yourself by aiming at the maximum influence of the Light that Reforms, in the best most efficient way.
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From the Preparation the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/12

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Question: If I understood you correctly, Kabbalah is a science that helps us advance. Can we say that everything is in our hands and what happens tomorrow depends on us? In other words, life doesn’t depend on chances, but rather on our efforts, intentions, and work.

Answer: There are no accidents in life! The more we penetrate into this world the clearer we see that nothing is accidental. As little children, we simply don’t know the laws of nature when we exclaim, “Oops! It suddenly fell and broke!” It’s not an accident; it’s a lack of knowledge since we are unaware of the circumstances that caused this occurrence.

So, there is no such thing as an “accident” in nature, starting with the smallest particle and ending with the most complicated structures. Everything is predetermined and compliant with the laws of nature. We should learn and follow them and then everything will be good.

There is a very simple solution to this problem. Nature shows us the problems of our imbalance with it in the form of crises. Problems! Let’s say, I have high blood pressure; it’s a problem. There is a normal condition and there is an abnormality that I can measure and compare with normality and balance them out. We call it treating a disease or regaining balance, even if it is done artificially.

Same applies here. We are in a state of imbalance with nature, which we regard as various crises: in science, culture, finances, economics, human society, terrorism (you name it!), including the ecological crisis. We have to balance ourselves with nature, it’s absolutely the same system: “What is inside, same is outside.”

Kabbalah teaches us how to stay in balance with nature. We certainly observe harmony in nature, but Kabbalah helps us learn faster, nothing more than that. “Cutting” off (getting rid of) afflictions is the only problem being solved here. We’ll arrive at this point anyhow. However, the problem can also be resolved in a very dramatic way that’s much more intense than the hurricane we just survived.

Imagine that a hurricane happened in some other place, not in New York, but let’s say in one of many underdeveloped countries. How would that country cope with its aftermaths? It would be thrown back to the middle ages and it would be impossible to help them. Maybe they would get a couple of airplanes with flour, that’s it.

We should think about these issues. It’s a pity that people do not realize how effective “spiritual medication” can be in fighting serious symptoms of the disease.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Lesson 1

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Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah:” A revelation of Godliness does not appear at once, but gradually, over a period of time, depending on the cleansing of the attaining, until one discovers all the degrees from Above downwards. And because they come in an order of attainment, one after the other and one above the other, as do rungs of a ladder, they are called “degrees” (steps).

Everything is built and was prepared in advance in great detail in every way possible. So we cannot change anything in any way. We climb the same “tree” from the bottom up the way the levels descended from the top down according to the law of a branch and a root. There is nothing new on this way back by even one millimeter. The states are fixed and everything is predetermined according to the desire, the Masach (screen) and the Light on every level. There can be nothing new here, since there is an unchangeable law between the Lights and the vessels, and “iron formula.”

There can be nothing but Lights, vessels, and Masachim (screens). So, from the whole state in Ein Sof (Infinity) to the most shattered, smallest state in this world, everything is predetermined by the cooperation of these three elements. There is nothing new on the way from the top down, and nothing new in the correction from the bottom up. This is called “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before.”

The Creator is the one who bestows, “something from something,” and the created being is the one who receives, “something from nothing.” There is a formula that determines the extent of the equivalence by the Masach. In fact all the levels differ according to the Masach, which connects the Light and the vessel to a greater or lesser extent. So the one general law of the equivalence of form operates always and in everything. This is what determines the difference between the Creator and the created being or between the Light and the vessel.

In such a case, what is the role of the lower? Do they exist if everything is determined by the mutual integration of the two forces? If nature rules everything, what upper or lower are we talking about?

But when two forces collide, penetrate each other and influence each other, a new condition is born, an attitude, a response. The combination of these two forces, the receiving and the bestowing is called a “creation,” and the point is that this creation will want to resemble the attribute of bestowal, the force that bestows, by itself and that it will awaken before an action from Above; before the two forces obligate me to take steps of “in its time” along the path of suffering, I can wake up by myself and summon their action upon me. Then my ascent up the spiritual ladder is bringing contentment. This is the whole difference.

By that I begin to know, to appreciate, to value, to thank for, and to love these conditions, the one who is Above who has created them for me and prepared everything that I need. Why? Because it is in my attitude to these states that I feel that I am alive. We will have to acquire this reality.

So there is a spiritual system with an immense amount of details, most of which are not described by Kabbalists so as not to “overload” us. Since we, with our limited understanding, need to be free for what is important. So no matter what they write, it is all meant only to help us increase our intention to bestow, so that we will acquire the right and positive attitude towards the upper force.

But we shouldn’t think that the wisdom of Kabbalah is just some schematic description of the upper worlds with drawings and explanations. It includes all of creation, including our world and everything in it. If we understand that all this helps us ascend the spiritual ladder, then we perceive that all the events are part of the method of preparation of the Lights and vessels, or the two lines, or the force of bestowal and the force of receiving, the connection between them through the Masach. And the Masach should be stabilized not “in its time” but in “I shall hasten time.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah“

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Now we are reading The Book of Zohar. How can I tie this text with the Light that Reforms, with the changes I have to feel that I go through, and by them to reach the goal of creation? How can I feel that? What do I have to do when I read or listen to The Zohar?

Actually I am required to find an inner expression to what the authors of The Zohar say. In what desires, in what feelings, in what internal states or changes do I see the fulfillment of what I read about in the book? A person is a small world. All the worlds are in a person. All these states, all these patterns are already inside me. I only need to reveal them; I want to see them. I want to reveal in me what we read about in The Zohar.

Question: Does it mean that I must always look inside myself and try to find the inner reactions to what we read about? But we always try to incorporate in others and to feel them.

Answer: Of course, everyone is in you, and you also see us inside you. The same system by which you reveal everything, including the Creator is in you.

Question: I can understand it in my mind…

Answer: No, it has to be in your feelings. Gradually you will feel that everything is inside you; there is nothing on the outside. All this resistance, all the conflicts between me and what is on the outside is gradually erased, this disparity, this distance is emotional. It disappears.

The more we speak about the fact that what is external to me is increasingly more important for me, all the way to “love thy friend as thyself,” when your friend who is external to you becomes more important to you than yourself, the more you erase the distance and you advance towards the state in which what is external and what is internal become the same for you or close to that. You begin to perceive reality in a more realistic way and that it is inside you.

Where does this perception come from? From the fact that what is on the outside becomes emotionally closer to what is inside. This is where the feeling that all of reality is internal comes from. This is how a mother feels her child inside her, although he is actually on the outside. Therefore, first he is in her womb and then he comes out.

These are the phases of our development. But it doesn’t mean that he is getting further from her. On the contrary, a person grows, gives birth to children, and what is external seems to exist internally too. In fact there is no internality and externality, everything becomes one whole.

Here we have to overcome an emotional barrier, so that I will feel that what is on the outside is equal to what is on the inside. Then I will discover that all of reality is inside me. It isn’t in our mind but in our feelings. The mind is already a result of this correction.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/12, The Zohar

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The wisdom of Kabbalah is the only means that actually enables me to have control over my fate. No president or prime minister will help here, since the same fate that is in the hands of the Creator also “pulls them by the ear.”

But I don’t reach the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to pray and beg: “Please! Let me feel good!” I don’t want to reveal the Creator, to know His plans, to discover how to influence them, or how to be part of them. It isn’t just any revelation; I am given access to the “keyboard” from which the orders to all of reality are sent.

In addition to that, I am taught how to act, how to control, and to manage my fate and the fate of the whole world. I am told about the structure of the worlds and of this world, about the history of the process, its reasons and its direction, the nature of all of creation, the system of the leadership and the system of Providence. In short, there is nothing that is not included in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It tells us about nature and its absolute laws, which we don’t know. If we know them, we will have control over everything.

The Creator isn’t random outbursts of emotion, and not someone’s capricious desire that leaves me an opening to the truth at the last moment. The Creator is the general law of reality. If I study it, I know how to relate to it, how to incorporate in it, how to manage it.

If I want it, I will have that chance. With time I discover that I first have to understand the Creator. When I understand Him, I immediately agree with Him, just as a person agrees with his mother when he grows up and sees that her desires were only in his favor.

The opportunity to manage the absolute law is free of contradictions: By the revelation of the general system I see that only the right integration between Him and me is necessary here. I only need to change myself and I fulfill it on the levels of the spiritual ladder. On every level I turn to the Creator, and we are incorporated in each other and reach an agreement in the middle line, after which we are together in harmony and peace. We reach equality in the current state, in every moment of my life, because we both value it as the best.

Thus I manage my fate, since on His part it is managed in the same manner. What can be better for a person?
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: Currently the entire Internet is buzzing with prognoses that some unpleasant events will take place in December of 2012. What does Kabbalah say about this? Please reassure the world!

Answer: How can I calm you down?

I think it all depends on us, including you. I am not going to calm you down, but completely the opposite because we indeed exist in a very sharp freedom of will and December and the entire next year depend on us. In addition, these states, which we will have to go through, are completely determined only by our world group and by no one else.

Thus, I will not be calming down anyone of you. On contrary, you have to feel very clearly that the entire world depends on you. You have to consciously realize this, meaning that you need to have a serious attitude toward our task, a constant mutual aspiration in your hearts.

Do you feel how our hearts are gathering more and more into one ball? Only this will save our situation and will make it wonderful. It will be wonderful in the sense that we will remember that we have to be closer and more united until we get all of our one heart together. Then we will not be fearful of any calendar.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/6/12, Lesson 3

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Baal HaSulam, Introduction to the book Pri Hacham (A Sage’s Fruit): The sages said there are three partners in a man, the Creator, the father, and the mother. The father gives whiteness, the mother gives redness, and the Creator gives a spirit and a soul.

A father and a mother are two lines, the force of receiving and the force of bestowal, matter and form. Everything is arranged according to the middle line, which we have to put together by ourselves. We are given three lines from Above: father (Aba), mother (Ima), and the Creator. We have to put the father and mother together, below, build and reveal them inside us in order to find the middle line. Then I come in contact with my middle line, which means the human being (Adam) in me, and resemble the Creator, forming adhesion between us.

A human being is made of two things—matter and form. Matter is what we call the creation. And form is the Creator. It turns out that we have three partners:

• The Creator, who gives the soul;
• The Light, which revives the vessel called the phase of Divinity and that Divinity resides in the vessel;
• The vessel originating from the father and the mother, his father gives the whiteness and his mother the redness.”

Baal HaSulam divides the influences from both sides into different types and gives them different names: father and mother, matter and form, a desire to receive and a desire to bestow, and so on. The point is that, together, these two factors present us with a choice by evoking us to put them together into the form of a human being.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We experience life in family relations in our connection with each other. We are not talking about external things here, not about me and my spouse, but about the way that we connect the images of our spouses that exist in each of us with the images of us that our partners have. These reciprocal images unite to the extent that they eventually become one whole. We are changing all the time, so we should continue working on these images of each other and developing them and their relationship.

Currently, we already subconsciously link with each other this way. Let’s say, when you are talking with your boss, you create his image inside you, then, based on this image, you choose what to say to him. Only in a family, we want to be conscious of this connection to be able to manage it and make it good.

In fact, we are already acting this way. Similar adapters work in nature, technologies, and biology. Without them, it would be impossible to maintain liaisons between us. Even if we are connected in a wrong way, our bonds still bear the same form.

In other words, I have to create an image of my spouse inside me; reciprocally, my spouse has to help me by creating my image inside her. And this is a whole process because none of us knows or understands oneself well enough and does not understand our partners. We have to gradually talk over and clarify all potential questions that exist among us.

Women usually complain that their husbands do not talk with them, do not pay attention to them, and do not show much interest in them in general. All of their complaints can be immediately satisfied. Women’s complaints are true and correct since they correspond to spiritual needs that exist in the part of the female, Nukva to the male part.

Our partner’s images are comprised of their desires and aspirations, of their habits, perceptions, views, and attitudes. We have to behave as actors who play certain roles and for this duty we enter the internal image of the character we play. Your physical body remains the same, but your whole inner world of thoughts, desires, and habits dress up in a new way. This is what we should strive for.

And when you build yourself this way, you will understand the internal world of your partner. You will look at the world as if through his or her eyes and perceive through his or her habits and his or her natural qualities. You will begin to see the world through them and then you will better understand what she/he expects from you and clearly see what kind of connection with them that you are capable of. In other words, we will conduct a deep survey of the system that opposes us instead of gliding on its surface; we will perceive it internally by dressing in it. We will build a buffer, an adapter, between our spouses and us. Wives will do the same in regard to their husbands. Usually, women handle it with much more ease then men since men are built more primitively than women; so women understand men better, rather than the other way around. Wives know their husbands much better since women are granted the ability to see their men in the correct way by nature.
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From a “Talk about a New Life” 7/16/12

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