Question: What does it mean to ask for connection with the Creator when in a difficult state, instead of trying to overcome the difficult state on one’s own?

Answer: Wisdom comes only with experience. We need to feel darkness many times, and then light, and again darkness and light. That is, we need to go through many unpleasant and pleasant sensations where I feel bad or good for all sorts of spiritual and material reasons, and I can do nothing about it.

Thousands of these experiences should change in me until I begin to realize that my perception depends upon my assessment, on the importance that I attach to the spiritual properties of connection, love, and my relationship to the others. I already start to guess what is hidden in this darkness and to feel it. I don’t just feel good or bad, but good and bad because of my relation to the group, because I don’t consider it important or don’t treat friends well.

There are many steps on this path, many small stages, not yet spiritual, but psychological barriers that must be overcome. And then comes the understanding that waking up out of the darkness, I start thinking about the screen, about the time when I can be above these feelings.

We have to go through the good and bad feelings, through day and night, until the end of correction. Although everyone goes through this in his own way, in the end, I begin to feel the need to rise above these feelings. I no longer want to depend on them and be their slave, but I want to be protected against them with a shield.

Let various internal impressions arise in me, but they should not affect my attitude toward the friends, toward the spiritual path, toward the importance of the goal and the Creator. I want to be independent in that from my egoistic desire and its sorrows. This requirement is being born in me: I want to be above the suffering of egoism, similar to the behavior of a true man in this world who bravely stands his ground, and nothing can shake him, no outside influence.

From this moment, I have a direct connection with the Creator because I begin to demand from Him. So far, I have asked for only good feelings, nice states, sweet fulfillment, that is, I demanded for my egoism. Now, I demand to raise me above my egoistic desire, and this the correct requirement for the Creator. I want to relate to the Master equally well, in the same direction, while remaining above emotions, above the sorrows of my ego. This is called the “anti-egoistic screen” (Masach).

Of course, these screens have a number of levels and features, but the work with the Light starts from this first screen. I want to restrict my desire to enjoy. And naturally, I feel everything that happens in it and the worry in myself. But all these emotions, cooking in my stomach, do not affect my vision, heart, and mind. There is a partition (Parsa) between them, which I feel as a diaphragm inside my body. Under this partition, in the “stomach” something is cooked and happens, but I want to identify myself with what is above this diaphragm: with the lungs, heart and brain.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/13

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Question: How can we express our gratitude to the Creator?

Answer: Only by wanting His revelation, by that we bring Him contentment.

These words may sound banal, not fully understood, and artificial, but on the whole, it is the only way to explain it using the language of this world. In fact, it is a very high level and we will begin to understand the meaning of these words only when the Creator is revealed.

How can we bring the Creator, the upper force that manages everything, contentment if we run around like bugs on this planet bumping into one another? Do we want Him or not? Does our mood change according to this? Does He suffer or enjoy as a result (the suffering or pleasure of the Shechina -Divinity)? We don’t understand all this, we don’t even understand ourselves.

In fact, all of humanity are upper creatures, not in the way we see it in our egoistic attributes, but in the way we really exist on the level of the general connection, in full adhesion with the Creator. On that level we are totally equal and identical to Him.

So we have to imagine this level, to act it, and everyone should see himself and his friends as worthy of this level. This should raise us.
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From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 3

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Question: Even Ezra said that the generation that came out of Egypt felt the burden of slavery and lost its spirit. And that is why it could not fight against its master before the new generation of the desert grew up, the generation that did not know exile and thus its spirit was not broken. In what generation are we today?

Answer: We are in Egypt, under the dominance of our egoism, and first of all, we must rise above it. One thing is to become free from a foreign power, and another thing is to fight against it. They flee Egypt, instead of fighting the Egyptians. After all, this whole path through the Red Sea is completely a flight. We have no strength to fight our egoism; we need just to run away from it and rise. Only hatred for our egoism raises and separates us from our ego.

And then, there is a stage when we begin to correct this egoism. We do not return to Egypt to do that; we took the vessels from there and now begin to connect them to ourselves and correct all these desires, which we have risen above.

The first stage of correcting desires is called the generation of the desert when we correct these desires from reception to bestowal. And then there follows the generation of the conquerors of the land of Israel, which is called reception for the sake of bestowal.

Among the people of Israel, there are forces that can go ahead and lead the rest, similar to Moses, who brought the people out of Egypt. There are people with spiritual attainment who have already risen above egoism and have connected with other souls. They understand the entire process, know what to do in the given moment, and have to lead the others.

We are talking about people who study Kabbalah because it is impossible to return to the Source without the Light that Reforms. And this Light can be drawn only by studying Kabbalah, which is designed for this.

There are such people! We are able to move forward and pull a lot of people who are watching our TV programs, studying with us through the television or the Internet, studying in our courses, attending lectures, and thus they advance. That is why they have a real chance to become free with us, to rise above their egoism and feel what is called freedom, what it means to be a Jew, which is to be united with others (Yechud).

They will learn what it means to be in the land of Israel, that is, in the desire for the Creator (Yashar-El), for bestowal and love for others. In this way, we can succeed in all the spheres of our material life and eliminate all the problems around us.

The main thing is the spirit of unity. If we had related to the entire people of Israel with such a feeling of community as to our family members, sitting together with us at the festive table, if we had embraced everyone, this would have been most of the efforts that we need to make to come out of Egypt.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: When we are talking about the holiday of Passover, why do we say: “Remember the exodus from Egypt?” After all, there were other exiles—from Babylon, Greece, and Rome—but we are reminded only about the exodus from Egypt. What is the meaning of this?

Answer: The Egyptian exile is the root of all the exiles. All the other exiles are as if superimposed on it. This exile is the most difficult and fundamental. A person rises above his egoism and, for the first time, realizes what the spiritual world is and what it means to feel the property of bestowal instead of the property of receiving with which we are born and in which we exist.

We perceive the world through the senses that constantly want to enjoy and benefit from everything. The revolution in the sensory organs—when I begin to “exit myself,” to identify myself with the world, to give to others, to feel myself outside of my body so that my heart stays there—is called the exodus from Egypt. All the other exiles already happen outside of me.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: During the Seder meal different generations gather at the table, and the elder is obligated to tell his son about the Exodus from Egypt. What is the message that this story conveys to the new generation that can also be seen simply as an historical event?

Answer: We all come out of Egypt together: young and old, women, children, men, and the elderly together with all the cattle, which means with desires that are on lower levels compared to man. They take from Egypt the gold and silver vessels, which refers to different desires, all the egoistic desires, that can be raised above our ego and can be turned into bestowal instead of receiving. This is called the “Exodus from Egypt.”

This is why we have to connect, to sit at one table and to talk about this, thus emphasizing how important it is for us to be focused in one direction: freedom from our nature.

Question: What does the Afikomen (a piece of hidden unleavened bread) that we search for according to the custom during the festive meal symbolize, and why is it the children who look for it?

Answer: The Afikomen symbolizes our readiness to come out of our ego with all our might. It is the children who look for it because they embody the weakest forces of all the “generations” in a person. They are the smallest, undeveloped desires that lead a person forward.

The older the generation, the more knowledge it has; and the younger the generation, the more energetic it is. The meal of the Seder symbolizes the connection between the generations, when everyone gathers and we all come out of Egypt, the whole family. There is a certain division of labor in this family and the younger generation’s role is to pull forward in the direction that the older generation is showing it.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder,” 3/4/13

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Question: You spoke about our responsibility to the world.

Answer: In order to rise to the next level, we have to connect to pass on this model to the world. We cannot exist only for ourselves. It would mean that we are detached from the other levels. If we act only for ourselves, then we will stay in a state of smallness. There will be nothing more in it except what we understand and feel now.

In order to move on to the next state, we have to become grownups. We can become grownups in spirituality only in order to give birth to another and to fulfill the other. So if we unite in order to fulfill others, in order to pass on something from us to others, then we will receive the upper Light.

It isn’t just our obligation to the world. We need it, so that we will receive the revelation of the Creator, the revelation of the upper force, the system of the upper Providence, the entrance to the next level, to the next dimension. We will not receive and will not reveal anything if we don’t do it for others. We are a transfer system, each of us, the whole group, all of us together.
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From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 1

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There is a kind of “virtual printer” inside me that prints the picture of my world. In other words, there is a program inside me that operates me and draws the world for me. It actually does not exist. Everything is internal, in my feelings, but the program gives them an effect of something that is external.

Question: What happens if the friends decide to focus on thoughts about creating one reality and mutual connection?

Answer: The program also is shows me the group in which I work. It just seems to me that I am among other people and that we make decisions together. The inner attributes project certain images, shadows in different forms, but they actually do not exist.

In the same way, our collective decision and my inner resistance to it are all determined by the program. There is only one way to correct it: If I know about it and about the reality that is projected by it, and I want to unite everything into one, to connect. In that case, I rise to the level of the programmer and understand why he has arranged all that for me.

On the one hand, I get to know the program, and, on the other hand, I see which pictures it draws in my imagination. So, when I correct my imagination through using it, I crosscheck them and unite them into one. Thus, I go through different corruptions and corrections, and eventually I discover the mind of the programmer, the plan of creation. This is the desired effect of the process—to be incorporated in the purpose of creation.

Question: Does this mean that the programmer wants us to be constantly in two worlds, the imaginary one and the real one?

Answer: It is essential that we discover the goal of creation by ourselves. What for? So we treat it with respect.

After all, the ego pulls me downward, offers me sleep and distracts me. If I want to wake myself up, there is only one way to do that: to use this program, the environment, and everything that is related to it, but only if, at the same time, I respect the programmer. This is called bringing Him contentment in Kabbalah.

Question: So, how should I integrate these two systems?

Answer: You simply should be together with the friends. Now, they seem like strangers that are external to me. Later, I will feel that, despite this picture, they are inside me. They are mine, my beloved, mutually connected and incorporated in one. Then, in the connection between them, I will begin to reveal the source, the Creator. All this will be like one whole.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Our desires are divided into two:

• “Animal” desires—related to food, sex, family
• “Human” desires— related to money, respect, knowledge.

In every circumstance, both these and those are related to this world; there is nothing spiritual in them.

Regarding the lower group of this world, it’s possible to say that these are “personal” desires. And the upper are “social” desires. And above, all of us are one family. In any event, we strive for this.

Question: Which of the desires arouse gossip and slander in us?

Answer: In particular the desires for respect and control.

Question: And how do we contend with this in order to be one family?

Answer: In crude language: shut the mouth and the ears, to harden the heart. This is the work. Nobody demands from the other to be corrected, but it’s necessary to understand the need for correction and to want it, or at least to aspire to this desire. You see if the desire is ready, then from the point of view of the Light, there will not be any hindrance. And meanwhile I raise, as it is called, a “prayer before a prayer,” a want to want.

Question: How do my negative thoughts separate the family that we want to build?

Answer: This is the same thing as boring a hole in the side of the shared boat. You see, one hole is enough to sink everyone. Moreover, even if I don’t add my effort, my support, this is already harmful. We need to want with all our powers to be one family. In it there are no beautiful and ugly, wise and foolish, good and bad; the Creator gathers us, and we need only to love one another. All are beautiful, all are wise, all are good, all are loved.

Question: Our group is one Partzuf. Does a similar division of desires exist in it?

Answer: If we already become one Partzuf, then all of our particular desires are mixed together, are included in each other. Overall, we are working with a joint account. And within it everyone receives a different Partzuf, not as it was before. With this merit, those desires in each one are integrated in a new form. Thus we are combined in thoughts and receive an immense driving force towards advancement, negatively and positively alike.

Question: What are the minimal compulsory desires in a group?

Answer: I don’t have anywhere to acquire new spiritual desires from if I am not included within the group and I will not begin to receive a new “model” from the friends. I have no other possibilities. In general, according to the degree of advancement, we gradually build a Partzuf, which includes and covers everyone together.

Malchut of the world of Atzilut in itself is a point in which there is nothing, an empty place, into which we enter and join one another. Everyone strives to work for the sake of the others, and then we have a shared request for correction (MAN).

Suppose, that five people are gathered, each one has a part, a desire, ready to unite with the others. Malchut de Atzilut connects all of these parts, takes care of them, helps them to contract all the rest, and builds from them one shared desire that is not realized yet. That is what rises to receive the Masach (screen) that at the end of the matter, everyone receives. From this Masach everyone gets back what he invested.

Thus, everyone works according to one desire. According to that principle, interaction exists between the neurons in the brain, the cells of the body, the synapses, which build different integrations with every action, and so forth. There is one principle everywhere: to gain a common desire, to process it, and to prepare for the next step. Every state, every moment on this way, is not like the previous moment, and in the end we correct them all.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: As much as a person is in more adhesion with the Rav, the group, and study, then his desire to receive grows more?

Answer: Of course, otherwise how would you grow? That’s why it is said: “The one that is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than his.”

Question: So how do we restrict our desire?

Answer: I do not restrict the desire itself, but rather the use of the desire. I don’t want my desire to become smaller or to completely disappear. No, I relate to it with all the respect that it deserves, with love not hate, because it is help against it. I deliberately work on myself in this manner of recognition and try to guard the limits of my desire in all my discernments. They become a real treasure for me, and I give them high regard.

Then all my life becomes something very important, precious. In front of me, as if in a game, parts of this very complex mechanism are passing and I do not neutralize them, do not restrict them; I want to rise above them. This is the ascent, the rising in the spiritual ladder. The restriction itself is made by the Light and I do not do the work of the Light. That would be like asceticism and there is nothing good about that. We need to receive the things as they come, rise above them, and then use them in the correct form.

Question: How does it happen? It is very easy to drown inside a desire.

Answer: I ask all the time to be in faith above reason, in the middle line. My desire that I rise above is the left line; the bestowal that I achieve is the right line. And the order of the mutual relations between bestowal and receiving is called the middle line. This mechanism rises higher and higher as if by a jack.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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There is only the desire to receive. The Creator created nothing but it. And the desire wants to become like the Creator.

In what could it become like Him? In bestowal. The desire is filled with a sensation of the Creator, and this is called his “soul,” the “Divine part from Above.” The sensation of correspondence, similarity to the Creator that the desire experiences performing actions of bestowal, is called its fulfillment. It is fulfilled by being similar to the Creator. If it needs to receive to do this, it receives, and if it needs to restrict itself to do this, it restricts itself. The action is not important, what is important is to become more and more like Him.

This is the Lights of NRNHY, which fulfill the desire. I enjoy not them themselves but the fact that I adhere to the Creator. That is why fulfillment could be a tiny spark of the Creator, which gives life to our world, and nothing else. Everything is in the realization of the importance of the Giver; this is what fulfills me. The similarity to Him is what I long for, and this is a spiritual fulfillment for me.

Initially, there is only a spark, which emerged as “something out of something,” and a desire, which emerged as “something out of nothing,” such a primary “elementary particle,” and nothing else. And the rest is being “spread out” from the Creator, from His actions.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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