We can never imagine and appreciate the upper level since it is a new dimension each time and we enter another world. All our inner data change, our elements change and each time it is as if a new creature, a new creation. This is how the new Reshimot (informational genes) are revealed.

So how can we summon our advancement and think about the Creator’s greatness, about the height of the next level in comparison to the one we are on now? This is why we work indirectly with the help of the environment, by being impressed by it and receiving new values from it, so that a person can imagine bestowal as a connection and love above his ego.

Thanks to the environment, we can somehow depict this picture to ourselves, but in order to advance, we have to demand more from this picture, the uppermost level, which is two levels higher than the one we are on. If the next level is already Ein Sof for us, how can we imagine something that is above Ein Sof?

However, we must imagine that the highest level, which means the revelation of the Creator, is even higher than anything I can imagine. It is then that my appeal to the Creator is right. It is because the upper level is the same state that I want to attain. The level that is above is the one from whom I ask for help to attain the upper level.

I turn to the one above the upper in order to attain the upper. If I present my appeal this way, then it is exactly on a straight line aimed at the Creator. I want to attain the level of bestowal, connection, love of others, and adhesion. But in order to attain this, I don’t turn for help to some unknown factor, but straight to the Creator. Everything is connected in the upper level to one whole: Israel, the Torah (the Light that Reforms), and the Creator.

Israel is me, the one who attains the upper level by the Light, which I receive from the Creator, who is on the uppermost level, but who “comes out” to meet me on the next level. If we have this arrangement we can be sure that we are on one straight line.

The important levels for us are the lower (the current level), the upper, and the uppermost. This is the order of the levels.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/12

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Question: A question arises constantly as to whether or not I’m putting in enough effort because I constantly feel that I’m not working enough.

Answer: Naturally so, and this is very good. You have a constant opportunity to advance, which doesn’t depend upon me. Moreover, your work is measured as the sum total of your actions and the actions of the group as a whole in order to discover among you the point of higher power, the center of the group, its spiritual and moral center, its future, and the source of its strength, with the help of which the group and each individual member changes themselves toward greater integration with others.

In an integral group, people do their own work and pull themselves up on their own. The teacher observes from the sidelines. He organizes the seminars and sets the topics. He leads the students and guides them in a way that, from seminar to seminar, from one lesson to another, they really begin to see their advancement. This advancement can either be in the form of a revelation of greater evil or in attaining some degree of good.

Question: Is this working ability and effectiveness also determined by the group’s integral interaction?

Answer: Yes, by this alone. Nothing depends on the teacher. He acts like a supervisor. If anything can be added, he adds it. If not, then he waits patiently.
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From KabTV’s “Building the Social Environment” 9/25/12

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When reading The Zohar and wanting to imagine the next degree, one should try to join the efforts at this degree and this world, and the internal world, and the group, so that everything is in one structure because there is nothing else besides it.

If one is able to do that and discern “Israel (striving for the Creator), the Torah (the Reforming Light), and the Creator are one,” it is the sign that one has already obtained the right focus, the correct attitude to the true reality, which is correctly represented in it, but not outside of oneself.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/12, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”: Our sages tell us about that, that the world had not been created but for the purpose of keeping Torah and Mitzvot, meaning, as our sages have explained, that the aim of the Creator from the time He created His Creation is to reveal His Godliness to others. This is because the revelation of His Godliness reaches the creature as pleasant bounty that is ever growing until it reaches the desired measure.

How do we, the lower ones, ascend to perfection? We do so by understanding the truth. We ourselves do not know this; however, applying efforts in the given circumstances, we act in an “alternative” manner, and although this is not our goal, we form the vessels for attaining the truth through the “secondary” activities. Then we reveal what it is.

That’s what rising from the lowest level to the level of the Creator means. This is done only through special help from Above. We have no direct connection with those degrees to which we ascend, and only indirectly we initiate this rise, according to the principle “labored and found.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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A long time passes before a person finally begins to not only hear, but also feel and react internally for the need of support and help. And this is not the same support and help that he is used to in our world when he does something and others can help him with it.

The point is the support and help accepted by a person in a group is absolutely necessary for him because he achieves the desired goal not just by the friends’ help, but directly in them. It’s a little different from what we imagine.

A group is that one soul that we have to attain internally. And then we will understand why the Creator brought us all together, each one with his special traits, internally and externally. All of this is calculated and comes from the Reshimot (spiritual genes), which are revealed in such a sequence and connect together, so that precisely in their connection, we can achieve the correction.

There is no other way; the correction is precisely in the mutual connection. Therefore, that final system that existed already from the beginning is being more and more revealed, and we are in some section of its revelation. Therefore, we need to accept the friends as totally essential parts and that without them the connection is impossible in the path set for us. And if not, then as time goes by, it will turn out that someone will disconnect, each one according to his fate.

As long as such an opportunity is given to me, then “I look for my brothers,” and we need to connect with them. And when I begin to connect with them, then I see how much this affair is not simple, to such an extent that it’s revealed to me as the “Egyptian Exile,” egoistic slavery. But this is considered exile only to someone who wants to be connected with others, and then he discovers forces that oppose it.

These are the forces of exile because they disturb us in achieving connection, love, mutual participation, and self-annulment: everything that we consider to be our salvation. If a person is ready to work in such a way, then this is called a discernment of Joseph, the middle line of the Ten Sefirot. And this work is done in faith above reason, meaning in Sefira Yesod and not in Malchut. And when a person begins in such work, then he feels the interferences that come as help against.

Then the work in the right and left lines are revealed to him, until he finally comes to the middle line. Everything exists in one common inclination, which we must actualize.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/12, Writings of Rabash 

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Question: Yesterday during the seminar, we really felt that we wanted to achieve the goal very much and were completely unable to do so. But then the aftertaste of despair remained: there are no count to these states.

Answer: True. It was what the sons of Israel felt in Egypt, a threat to remain forever under the rule of Pharaoh.

Question: In real life, if a person wants to achieve something, to learn something, he needs to pass the crucial exam. And he comes to the exam in despair because he cannot know everything.

Answer: Our examination is not based on knowledge. The task is not that you give the correct answers, but the fact of what you ask for.

Imagine that I am an examiner. Do not tell me about your positive and negative potential, accumulated during the training. Do not try to soften me with your confusion. You need to act differently here: If you really see that that there is no alternative, then bring the awareness of your own helplessness and the willingness to be changed. No more, just these two things: “I cannot” and “I have to,” and they both must be of equal strength.

So far, you haven’t obtained from the group either the sufficient demand or sufficient frustration. But they are opposite each other and depend on each other: If you do not crave the goal, you will not discover its unattainability. Both poles lack power so far. Yes, both of them have already emerged due to our workshops; however, the matter is how you fill the time between the workshops.

Question: And yet, in this world, there is a date of the exam, which I know in advance.

Answer: The time of the spiritual examination comes when you are able to pass it. Do you want it today? Please. Once you are ready, there is nothing that can prevent you.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: How can we get over the state of heaviness and fatigue that we find ourselves in lately which makes us fall asleep during the lessons? How can we wake up together and get out f this state as one global group by supporting one another?

Answer: This is the point of the exodus from Egypt, about which we have spoken so much, the point of the receiving of the Torah, the turning point, the birth. We know that a birth is accompanied by labor pains and that it is a dangerous state. At the moment of birth itself we feel the snake’s bite, the discovery of the heart of stone, because there is no other way we can be born.

The exodus from Egypt is called a “spiritual birth.” During that time the evil inclination has to be revealed and these are very dangerous states that keep us under great pressure, since otherwise we will not agree to escape from Egypt.

All these states are not so clear to a person yet. Imagine that it is a good state from which we break through to the spiritual world, to the upper world, that from this state we are born and ascend above the Machsom (barrier), above the border to the upper world. Therefore, it is the most tense state, the most dangerous state that can ever be in a person’s life. This is the state of his birth!

We always see a birth as a miracle, and to the last moment we are not sure whether it will go smoothly, although we have such modern medical equipment and we know about the process. Still, we never know what might happen and it is a very critical point.

The uniqueness of this point is that a person is under terrible pressure, and terrible fear. All his previous life has ended or is about to end. He doesn’t see his future life yet and doesn’t understand it, and it isn’t clear what it symbolizes, since in order to reach it he has to create an opening to the new world.

A person doesn’t understand how he can exist, since he has to “close what is open and open what is blocked,” just as it happens during the corporeal birth.

If we only yearn for the spiritual birth, we have to imagine this state in a very realistic way, as close to our understanding and feeling as possible, to the extent that we are ready to approach this state and to prepare ourselves to it.

The more we prepare ourselves for this state, the more we will advance towards it. This means that we need strong minds, physical strength, and good organization of all activities that enable us to go through the most difficult state that can ever be. All the roads back are blocked and there is nowhere to go ahead! Just like the escape from Egypt, when your path is suddenly blocked by the Red Sea and from behind Pharaoh’s troops are catching up with you and there is nowhere to hide.

There are different allegorical descriptions of the state of the spiritual birth and they all refer to pressure, difficulty, and threat. We have to approach them by ourselves and not to wait for some force to drag us or to push us in this direction. Otherwise we become lax and only look for how to best manage in order to stall. But we have to bring ourselves into these seemingly dangerous states.

If I understand and am conscious of what I do, I understand that it is only dangerous for my ego. It is pressing and unpleasant, but I approach it knowingly and evoke and summon the labor pains, the feeling of suffering, by myself. It turns out that it is another kind of pain, a sweet one.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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There is a clear plan that we have to fulfill step by step. But we don’t actually hurry or do that since it is hard and unpleasant. It is much more pleasant to think that we are seemingly advancing and that everything is fine. We suffer a little since we don’t advance fast enough and that we receive too little fulfillment, but we cannot call this a state of spiritual birth yet.

We must realize that if we want to finally be born, we have to account for the fact that the state of the global group and the state of every individual is very tense, difficult and dangerous.

We can say the same thing about the people of Israel in the land of Israel, as Baal HaSulam warns us. He calls the people to connect in order to avoid suffering, and this really helps going through complicated and difficult situations more easily. It is like a birth taking place in a modern hospital, compared to a birth 100-500 years ago when many births ended with the death of the baby and of the mother too. Then a birth was a very dangerous experience, despite the fact that people were different and much closer to nature and there weren’t as many disruptions as today.

The more we sweeten this transition for people, no matter how much we work with them, they will still have to go through the difficult states in order to approach their spiritual birth. They will have to go through great pressures. With the help of Ahmadinejad, Obama, and other enemies who are generally called “Pharaoh,” we will advance.

But our group has to be like Moses with regard to the people, by explaining to them what is happening and why and what should be done about the situation. We have to explain to people that the blows don’t strike the attribute of Israel in us but the Pharaoh that is concealed in us. The blows hit the Egypt in us, Pharaoh, while Israel in us continues to live comfortably in the land of Goshen, lacking nothing.

The main thing is to understand that we will have to go through a very tight spot, a very dangerous and unpleasant state during our birth. Both the people of Israel and the whole world will have to go through it. Everyone will have to see themselves in a very dangerous situation, practically between life and death. It is impossible to be born without this! Without such pressure a person cannot detach himself from his ego and be born from one world into another.

Everyone will have to go through this critical point now; everyone is approaching it. It is as if we are advancing in a tube that is becoming narrower until it finally becomes a point. You have to go through this point so that your ego will remain here on this side. To the extent that you can connect with others, that you are ready to go in this direction, you penetrate through this tiny hole with your spark into the spiritual world.

We have to relate to this difficult state as to the most beautiful and desirable state. Here the influence of the environment is very important so that it will explain to each of us and to the whole world that “there is none else besides Him” and that all of providence comes from one source. So we have to see how the enemies of Israel like Ahmadinejad and Obama actually help us. It is like the saying that “Pharaoh brought the children of Israel closer to our Father in Heaven.” But this is only if we are the people of Israel and not Egypt. Then we begin to understand the process and to actively participate in it as we see that all the means to work with are before us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The egoistic mind considers the group to be an alien power. However, a man can use this force and bring it closer to him, and in this case, it will help him. This is the way that one begins realizing that this huge world with all its external circles that surround and squeeze him is created for a purpose.

Help cannot come from the inanimate, vegetative, or animate levels. They are incapable of helping people since they have no intention to rise above their nature. Only the group and friends aspire to rise above their nature. It doesn’t matter whether they recognize this fact or not yet. The Creator granted them a point in the heart, a special desire to seek the Creator and reveal Him. It’s the only desire that one needs to perceive in his friends.

There are numerous spiritual sparks in our friends; if we collect them together, it will be quite enough to reveal a spiritual vessel. Then, we’ll start sensing spirituality and the upper force that fills the entire reality.

This explains why it is so important to get together, connect with, and inspire each other. Although, the most important thing is to justify our friends, no matter how bad they look in our spoiled eyes. It is said: “One judges according to one’s own flaws.”

It seems to me that I am higher than everybody else and that I understand and sense more than others. It doesn’t matter that my friends have not reached full revelation yet; the main thing is that they bear a spark inside them. The Creator implanted in each of us a particle of the upper world; it is as if He used tweezers to insert an element of the higher realm in us.

Our fellow group-mates’ sparks are in fact my “friends.” We should only take interest in the sparks that reside in our friends’ hearts. All we have to ponder are the sparks in the hearts – the particles of the upper world in us. We have to connect with them and never pay attention to anything besides them, neither to physical bodies, nor to the hearts per se. We should ignore the other kinds of desires. We shouldn’t pay any attention to them at all; the main thing is the spark.

We have to understand that we are not attacking an external enemy. We have to fight with internal obstacles that inhibit our connection with our friends’ hearts. This is the first step towards truth.
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From a Talk at a Meal Dedicated to the Commemoration of Rabash, 9/20/12

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A spiritual Partzuf is a manifestation of one’s attitude (or desire) that is focused on one’s neighbor. “The neighbor” is either somebody that one senses inside himself after he corrects his attitude or it is the Creator Himself.

A Partzuf reflects the degree of one’s bestowal and its “shape.” All Partzufim (Aba, Ima, YESHSUT, Tvuna, Zeir Anpin, Nukva, Atik, Arich Anpin) denote various forms of relationships and different systems of connection.

A Partzuf is a system of connections between the Creator and creation. The Creator is called Keter and creation Malchut. The rest of the Sefirot stand for the properties of bestowal that come from the Creator; creation’s task is to acquire (copy) these properties. A special form of connection that is imprinted in a snapshot is called a Partzuf. It’s a unique type of relationship between the giving force and the recipient, meaning either between two people, or between a person and the Creator.

Out of His general desire to give, the Creator transfers to us eight effects: Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, and Yesod. Our personal properties and the desire to receive allow us to perceive His bestowal at the level of the last Sefira (Yesod), which is the place of assembly of all bestowing qualities; after we attain it, we act accordingly.

We sense ourselves and our desires to receive pleasure as pleasant or unpleasant. If we feel bad, it means that the entire system acts in a way that doesn’t allow us to trace who particularly is responsible for our pain. It seems to us that all our sufferings are the fault of others, and suddenly, we discover the entire world around us.

If one begins correcting oneself by making an effort to justify the Creator, or one tries to love his neighbor, and by doing so attains the Creator (meaning one sets the right relationships with the external world), then one discovers that everything is pre-arranged solely for his own benefit. One begins changing oneself so that at every given moment of his life he can regard everybody as wonderful, kind, and positive.

For that, one needs to constantly change oneself; it will eventually correct him. If we want to see the world as a perfect place, we have to perpetually change ourselves and correct our egoism to be adequate for a new perception of the world. It’s called “loving one’s friends”: We continually strive to maintain harmonious, loving and caring relationships with others, which will eventually lead us to the Creator. This mechanism constantly changes us. One continually keeps altering internally, but at the same time, one should retain a vision of his friends as great. If he manages to act so, one certainly self-corrects.

This is the way one works on the structure, on his Partzuf, which connects him with the Creator. It’s not perfect as of yet, so one doesn’t sense a reciprocal connection within this structure as between two people who are in love with each other: “I am for my beloved, and He strives to be with me.” However, one has to grow up into this condition.

Look at what great possibilities for work that the group and the environment give us. It’s totally enough if we perpetually test ourselves by asking, “What do I think about them? How do I support my friends? How do I connect with them? Are we together or not really?”

Everything is right in front of us; there’s no doubt that it’s oriented directly to the Creator. It happens automatically, since He is behind it all. One can be totally confident of this fact; there is no need to check it out. Of course, one has to maintain the right intention towards the Creator, since the final action is already included in the initial thought, so we have to direct ourselves toward the Creator in the first place. However, we have at our disposal a wonderful tool for measuring that clearly demonstrates to us what we are supposed to do in our current state.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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