Question: How can I create a daily schedule to reach the property of bestowal sooner?

Answer: Along with all our groups, together with all the friends around the world, whether they are now watching the lesson, working, or sleeping, let’s agree to support each other so that no one forgets that we will reveal the Creator only in unity. All the time, I will be thinking only about how to reveal Him in unity and nothing else.

Our unity will become a means, the desired result of the breaking. Then, in this unity we’ll reveal the Force of bestowal and love, fulfillment and eternal life. Day and night, let me be consumed with the concern that no friend, no person with the point in the heart forgets about the main thing: that only in unity we create the vessel for revealing the Creator. We’re not required to do anything impossible: If together we will by all means think and worry about this, then He will be revealed. It’s in our hands. Agreed?
[81606]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Let’s talk about shame, a very elevated concept, which is only characteristic of man. As much as you may try to induce shame in the representatives of the still, vegetative, and animate natures, there will be no reaction since this root is not instilled in them. The beginnings of shame are only manifested on the human level of our world, and not even within everyone.

It is because the human level is separated into five levels of development, and only on the last one of them, a desire of a sufficient “thickness” emerges, a large egoism, which allows one to feel great shame.

Regarding the previous levels, Baal HaSulam describes them as milestones on the way. Some are ready to cause others any kind of evil in the presence of everyone and they are not ashamed of it. Others are somewhat shy or are being careful, and that is why they prefer to cause harm secretly. Others are truly ashamed and not due to the fear of punishment. However, they reconcile their shame and justify what is happening by the retributions known to everyone: “He deserves it,” “I have the right to do it,” “Everyone does it,” and so on.

And only the people, who possess a large egoistic desire, who have experienced great shame, begin to work with this property. As their point in the heart awakens, they begin the spiritual work and arrive at a different kind of shame then, which does not lie on the plane of this world but on a higher level.

In our world, I am ashamed of receiving something that I have not earned, have not paid for. I cannot accept such an “acquisition” because, as a rule, it is not difficult to figure out from whom this good is coming and whether I deserve it or not.

However, I have a problem with the spiritual world. I do not see whom I am receiving the gifts from and that is why I am not ashamed. First, I need to reveal the Bestower, the Root, whom all of this is coming from, and this requires many more calculations. For example, “Must I earn the good from Him? If He created me, then surely He must also provide for me?” Another option is: “I did not deserve the help, but due to no other way out, I will pay for it later.” In other words, in the spiritual world, like in our world, we move by the steps of shame.

In reality, shame is the foundation of creation. Because of it, Malchut of Infinity carried out the restriction and has initiated all of the subsequent development in order to become equivalent with the Creator in the end. Shame is a source, the initial point, impelling us to arrive to the similarity of qualities with the Creator, to become even with Him, to pay off the debt to Him, and to stop receiving gifts as before.

Baal HaSulam gives the following example: A rich man meets his friend, a poor man, at the market and he brings him home and gives him all kinds of goods. The poor man feels that the rich man is helping him from the bottom of his heart without any calculations for himself, enjoying this bestowal. However, while receiving the abundance directly, the poor man simultaneously receives the feeling of impatience and shame, which burns him up from the inside and becomes unbearable. It’s all in the separation of personal receiving on the one hand, and the bestowal by the rich man on the other. Such is the law: When I feel that I am the one receiving, not like the one bestowing, this evokes the shame in me.

This feeling is so huge, that Malchut of Infinity restricted and decided that she will receive pleasure from the Creator only in the similarity of qualities, only for the sake of bestowal. Only in this case will she feel the expediency of receiving. While the point is not to neutralize one’s shame, on the contrary, she begins to value it. Since it is thanks to the suffering, which it brings up, can she now make a different calculation directed at reciprocal bestowal to the Creator.

Shame does not only prevent receiving, does not simply make one restrict one’s egoism and to receive for the sake of bestowal, avoiding suffering, but it allows me to arrive at true bestowal. And that is why I value shame. It is said that this feeling is prepared only for the high souls. In the spiritual world, it is good and beneficial to experience it because shame becomes a means for him, helping him realize the necessity of bestowal, to demand the revelation of the Creator. And then the point is not in the egoism anymore and not in the shame, as such, it’s just that by its means I can truly assimilate to the Creator and become a bestowing one. Let the previous factors remain inside of me, the desire to receive and the shame, but only as necessary conditions above which I can build the relationship towards the Creator and move towards merging with Him.

Shame develops together with the desires and expands them, enriching them with a multitude of details of perception. We see this even in our world, the Creator has only created the initial point of development and everything else has developed thanks to the gaping emptiness, the perception of the difference between the creation and the Creator.

The Torah tells us that Adam has experienced an explosion of egoistic desire, described as the emergence of Hava (Eve) beside him. He has merged with this desire, what is called, has tasted from the Tree of Knowledge, meaning, has received the fulfillment and then has perceived himself as nude, barren of his clothing, and has become ashamed of it.

The Creator is showing an example here. He has created the dressing for Adam and Hava and later, as a consequence, we enrobe ourselves into all of the dressing by ourselves. Their root is the Reflected Light. If we wish so, then we can follow its example and form our own personal dressings. And all of this is not simply done in order not to be ashamed, but in order to assimilate to the Creator and by means of this, to give Him pleasure.

We rarely mention the concept of shame. In our original sources, it is found occasionally. However, in reality, we are always guided by this feeling of separation between the Creator and the creation. Shame is the “trigger,” that point of beginning with which the creation is awakened towards assimilating, merging, like in the example with the poor man and the rich man.
[80772]
From the Workshop 6/17/12

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 30, “The Most Important Is to Want Only to Bestow”: The most important is to want only to bestow because of His greatness, because any reception is flawed. It is impossible to exit reception, but only to take the other extreme, meaning bestowal.

We are present in a single state: in the field of information belonging to the property of bestowal. There is only this force field, and its force is the force of bestowal. This is how it is revealed to us.

Within this force lie its foundations, which we do not attain: abstract form and essence. What we attain, as the Kabbalists tell us, is the force field whose force is characterized by bestowal.

In order to exist independently within this field, we were created from the opposite force, the force of reception. If a person simply experiences whatever was determined by his or her nature and does not change himself, then within that unified field he feels the reality called “this world.” Each one can personally absorb this picture in oneself and live through it. This world is called imaginary because we don’t feel what really exists outside us and it is as if we are existing in an unconscious state and seeing a dream inspired by the vibes of imaginary perception.

Within this dream we are developing more and more towards awakening and awareness. Our entire evolution, our whole history fit into this process.

How can we feel the external, true reality in which we actually exist? How do we probe for this field of upper force that created us, sustains us, influences us, and constantly develops us in order to attach ourselves to it?

There are two paths:

1.      The first is called “the path of suffering”: Whether we want to or not under the influence of the field of bestowal, we will keep developing and still come to want to know the One who governs us, influences us, develops, and guides us. Suffering will compel us to get to the root of its cause and we will discover that we suffer because of Him, because this is how He affects us.

Then we will have to come to know Him, to draw closer to Him in attempts to change His governance. And, like the first Kabbalists, through suffering, we’ll discover that this field, this Force acting on us, wants us to become similar to it by uniting with each other. This is called the law of equivalence of properties.

Why is this necessary? The fact is that through this, we will be the same as Him: eternal, whole, and perfect, and at the same time will remain independent. After all, if we were within Him, under His complete governance, then it’s as if we don’t even exist. However, our development contains a polarity: Inside us, a force grows which is opposite to the field of bestowal, and at the same time, we need to work on ourselves in order to become similar to Him.

2.      If we do not want to go through the path of suffering but by the path of Light, through the good influence of the field of bestowal, then we reveal a simple law: In order to remain independent, we need to demand from this Light all the changes that accompany our growth. If I demand and the field executes it, then there is no problem with remaining independent while at the same time being similar to Him. After all, I myself, against my own desire, ask for it to change me.

In this way, during the course of development I include two forces in myself:

• The force opposed to this field: the field is wholly aimed at bestowal, while I’m wholly aimed at reception;
• The form of bestowal, which I clothe on my force of reception

Inside of me is a force of reception, the cruel egoistic desire yearning only for personal gain, while on top of it I clothe the opposite form, the force of bestowal and love. But how can I know how to ask for the force of bestowal? After all, I don’t know what that even is. Whatever I may be imagining, all of my speculations are based on the force of reception and won’t allow me to truly demand changes in myself. Anything that I ask based on my own nature will always be directed at reception, sometimes concealed or camouflaged, but reception nonetheless.

How can I ask this field to give me a true force of bestowal so that it would start to be revealed in me like the force of reception, so that I would have two forces opposite to each other?

For that we were given a special existence: We see ourselves as living in the world filled with people just like us. And if I want to obtain a desire aimed at bestowal, a request for bestowal, then I can unite with others, with at least one other person. After all, the minimum plurality is two. But Kabbalists say that it is better if there will be at least ten of us, since this is a whole quantity. I need to start uniting with them in order to reach the desire for bestowal.

How do we unite? The Kabbalists who discovered the method explain this also: I need to sit together with them, eat and drink, study among them, and most importantly, maintain the intention: What do I want to achieve through all these actions? It’s important not to forget that my intention is to obtain a desire to bestow. This is what Baal HaSulam writes about: “The most important is to want only to bestow.”

It turns out that I work with people who desire the same thing, we are together in one group, and someone teaches us. How all this came to be, we don’t know, as if by accident. But in reality, that very same field drives us in the same way that an electromagnetic field places iron filings along the lines of equilibrium. In the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Baal HaSulam writes that the Creator brings a person to a group and says: “This is for you, take it. Here is your free choice.” And the choice is only to be strengthened together with the friends on the path to the desire to bestow. We cannot achieve the desire itself, because that desire is the Creator. However, we are obliged to want this desire among ourselves, and then, feeling the need for it, I will feel in my heart that I am lacking bestowal and that I want to be a giver.

Why? I don’t even know. It happens on its own after a long time, five, maybe ten years. This is why we were given this life. Little by little, in the heart of a person, a desire and need for the property of bestowal appear.

Everything here is subject to simple “physics of forces”: The more acutely my heart experiences the need to come to bestowal, the more powerfully the field of bestowal affects me. This is how we come closer: I according to my need for it, and it according to the force of bestowal directed at me. As a result, we begin to feel each other, and I obtain internal changes: In addition to the natural force of reception, a force of bestowal appears in me.

This is how a correct form is developed: A receiving desire inside and a giving desire on the outside – a form of man (Adam), similar (domeh) to the Creator. His receiving desire, the “material” of creation, remains, while on the outside it’s covered with a garment, a “wrapper,” a desire to bestow.

So first and foremost, I need to want to bestow, and when this desire reaches a certain degree of tension in the heart, the field influences me by induction, introducing into me the force of bestowal.

Finally, it clothes in me and I become a sort of a sentient “probe” or “sensor” for this field. Suppose I received inside me ten grams of desire to bestow. First of all, through this, I was born; in other words, I begin to sense the field that surrounds me, I feel that I exist within it, I feel its properties, its attitude toward me, and my attitude toward it. In addition to the current material level, I enter into a connection with this field on a new level that is called the spiritual world, and this, in essence, is how we attain the Creator.

This field contains all the information about the past, present, and future, about everything that happens to me and to the whole world. A person who maintains connection to this field begins to understand how to make contact with it correctly, what to ask of it. Through this, we find ourselves in an enormous flow of information that fills all of reality. Here we learn who the Creator is, what this field is, how to establish contact with it, and how to operate the entire system. Thus man ascends higher and higher, more and more is included in the spiritual world. And all this only from the desire to bestow that he received in himself from this field.

Returning to the desire to bestow: A condition is embedded in it—one needs to want to become a giver. And who would want that? Special people with a point in the heart, that is, with a small charge that directs them for the field of bestowal of which they are a part.

And what of others? Others cannot strive for that. Like the first Kabbalists, they can reveal this field through the path of suffering and misfortunes, anguishing, not understanding the reason for what’s happening and in general, what they live for.

To the measure that this state is becoming formed, we are arriving to the present, singular point in history. The path of suffering of the world has more or less been revealed today. Many people, even if not all seven billion, are already asking the questions: “What do we live for? What is the meaning of life? What are we suffering for?” This question, coming from them, cannot receive an answer. Moreover, they don’t know where and how to direct their suffering. After all, they don’t understand and don’t feel anything except for this world.

Here comes the turn of the people with a point in the heart: We are obliged to become for others what the Creator is for creation. After all, it is we who are able to connect them to the field of bestowal, and this is our purpose, what Baal HaSulam describes in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).” This is why we awaken en masse toward the upper force, while others receive this awakening from us. This is our work.

Thus, “the most important is to want only to bestow.” We are able to desire it with consciousness and awareness, because we were given a particle, a spark of its field, and with its help we can aim our course, and aspire towards this field in order to reveal it. By uniting our sparks, we will be able to demand from it the force of bestowal. While the others aren’t capable of this, they need our guidance.
[81119]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/12, Shamati #30

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Question: How can I see the current situation as unbearable in order to yearn for the next state?

Answer: You need the Light for that. Don’t we sometimes feel that we cannot stand ourselves? Don’t we torture ourselves when we see that we are wasting our lives by using everyone for our own benefit? Don’t we condemn ourselves for wanting to rest and for looking down on everyone?

However, we cannot bring all these feelings together. The problem is that a person thinks that he can do something by himself. A person is successful and is very lucky if he understands that without the Light, he can do nothing.

A person should not search himself, but, on the contrary, he should say, as it is written, “Go and tell the craftsman that made me.” Let the Light correct you; this is the only option.

The Creator wants to evoke you and spur you on to contact Him by every bad feeling he sends you. This is the reason He created evil: so that we will use the Torah, the Light, as a “spice,” as a means for correction.

So any bad thing that happens to you gives you a chance to turn to the Creator. However, if you don’t turn to Him, if you look for help elsewhere, this is called “other gods,” as if it weren’t Him who sent you these troubles.

This is where the group comes in, in creating a consolidated perspective, a clear understanding that everything we receive is from the Creator. The moment we feel a flaw or a defect, we must turn to Him. If this is the general approach, then I will certainly not forget this.

We forget these simple facts in our spiritual work because we don’t make sure that it should be the common, general protocol, the general atmosphere in the group. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t waste our time.

Question: However, I turn to the Creator not so that He will solve my corporeal problems, but so that He will help me demand a greater connection since the connection is the solution.

Answer: Yes, the solution is indeed in the connection among us. The Creator sends you a problem in such a way and on such a level that you will identify it as a problem.

If he sent you a problem in its true form, as lack of bestowal upon the friends or lack of love, then at that moment you wouldn’t feel sorry about it. So, instead, he presents it differently to you.

You didn’t exert yourself as you should have in working on the connection among us, and this corruption is depicted to you as a totally different external problem such as a flat tire, for example. You come out in the morning and see that you have a flat tire, so you curse life and the Creator, and change the tire with the spare tire if you have one.

Thus, the real problem takes on a different form that enables you to feel sorrow and pain. Now, besides the necessary external actions, your work is to understand that the Creator has called you since you are not connected to the friends and do not reveal the Light. Otherwise, what do you need troubles for?

Question: So, how can I turn to the Creator now? After all, the Creator is a force, the law of nature; it is useless to pray to Him and to ask from Him.

Answer: “Praying” doesn’t mean to ask something from Him the way we see it. By praying, I discover a deficiency within me and a need for the Light so that it will come and influence me. Praying means to discover a deficiency that is aimed at correction, at the right filling, by the force of bestowal, by the Light. It is the attribute of bestowal by which I want to be filled. This is called praying.

However, I never discover such a deficiency. Instead, I feel that I lack something. How is it possible to turn the egoistic deficiency, the fact that I lack something, into a deficiency for the attribute of bestowal? This is our internal work called “God’s work.” When, together, with the friends, I switch from a corporeal deficiency for my self-benefit to a spiritual deficiency for the attribute of bestowal, I summon the Light that Reforms, and my desire is fulfilled.
[81454]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How can I empower the environment so that it can make me feel the importance of the goal?

Answer: If you see the environment as important, it will convey the importance of the goal back to you. Don’t pay attention to how this environment behaves. What you see is irrelevant since you don’t see anything in its true form.

You must simply, constantly, invest in your environment as if it swallows everything. Your job is to make the environment feel that the goal is important, that the Creator is important, the spiritual path and the studying are important. In response, you may see that they all disrespect one another and that they disrespect you since this is also something the Creator has arranged for you.

You must understand that you are working vis-à-vis the Creator who is depicted to you in the form of the society. The Creator may present the environment to you as totally corrupt, but this doesn’t matter. You still must make efforts and bestow upon it in one direction.

The other direction is your receiving from them, which is meant only to teach you how you should improve yourself and, despite everything, impress them with the greatness and the importance of the goal. Leave all the calculations of how much you can get from them. All such accountings are egoistic. If you begin to think about how they offend you and how they treat you, it is all ego.

You should see the group in such a way that you don’t care about anything that is in regard to you. No matter how they respond to you, you only need to give in return, just as you treat little children and wait until they grow up.
[81451]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, Writings of Rabash

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To get a sense of the Light, we must practice, and exercises are possible only in the group. For example, a dance teacher begins to perform various movements with me: a step forward, a step backward, a spin, and so forth. The group is in front of me, and I can feel it, work with it, and thus advance.

Yes, this is very unpleasant to my egoism because, every time, I must give primacy to the group, not me, but it leads me in this “tango.” Friends express their desire, and I should follow it. As it is written, “Nullify your desire according to His desire.” I am learning how to bow my head, to accept the desire of the group as my lead partner, and come to cooperation, unity, with friends. I begin to feel their desire. It turns out that my dancing partner is reliable and close, devoted and faithful. I act for him, and he acts for me. Then, our unity turns into a real group.

The “group” means a single desire of friends to be united with each other. There is neither “me” nor “them” in this desire that is being born between us, but there is one whole, a new reality, not connection itself, but its result.

This is the spiritual fruit that came out of the mother’s womb. In it, we perceive the One and the Light; the Creator is revealed in it, in that desire to which we gave birth and created, which we have achieved by becoming one whole. There cannot be a divided multitude, but unity reigns in it.

Baal HaSulam writes about this in Letter 13: Besides the great power hidden in it, you should know that there are many sparks of sanctity in each of the friends. And as you collect all of these sparks into one place, as brothers in love and friendship, certainly you would have a very exalted degree of the level of sanctity at that hour.

A person can be included in the group in different ways, can come and go in waves, wholeheartedly or half-heartedly. Nonetheless, each of us has a unique particle of the Light that pulls him out of the bottom of this world, and that is why we must appreciate everyone. Moreover, this applies equally for men and women.

Our sparks are a true gift from above. A person is called a human (Adam) if he has this spark pulling him toward becoming similar (Adameh) to the Creator. If he does not have a spark, he still belongs to the “animate” level.

We are not speaking about some inadequacy. Some merely get a “dual” task to be born earlier than others and help everyone else to be born spiritually. They are similar to the head of humanity and must lead it forward.

That is why we need to understand that every friend has received a special attitude from above, from the Light that dressed into him. In his soul, in his spiritual root, there is something very special placed in him, so he is close to the light and receives this assignment.

Of course, he does not rise egoistically above humanity. We respect the friend because he was granted a special role to serve. We don’t treat others with disdain because this mission doesn’t depend on us.

That is why I must respect each friend. He was chosen from above, by the Light to become my partner. I cannot be born without him, and neither can humanity.
[81447]
From the Miami Convention 6/23/12, Lesson 1

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 208, “Labor”: The efforts that one makes are but preparations for achieving devotion. Hence, one should grow accustomed in devotion, since no degree can be achieved without devotion, as this is the only tool that qualifies one to be rewarded with all the degrees.

In order to ascend a new step of the ladder, one must apply effort. Only after one applies effort does he attain a new level, but how does this happen?

At the present stage, one possesses a number of qualities, but the next step involves a higher level of qualities. How can we acquire them? We should plead for the Light that Reforms to affect us, to correct us, and thus leads us to rise.

All our efforts are meant to awaken the Light. How do we do that? We elicit the Light only by trying to simulate the higher step, although we are totally unable to do that since it is hidden from us. How can we become somewhat similar to it? For that, we have to follow several instructions defined by Kabbalists.

Our next step is in fact a greater effort to bestow as opposed to the current phase. It means that we have to invest determination into unity with friends, annul ourselves in relation to the group, and try to feel to the best of our abilities that there is none else besides Him in all our problems, issues, impediments, and hindrances. Everything is sent to me by the Creator, including the interferences that conceal His oneness and hide His unlimited power over the whole universe. We have to connect everything that happens to Him; our efforts should be directed to regard the group as a mechanism through which He reveals Himself to us.

Our determination has to reach a point where we feel that our efforts cannot grow any stronger; this is when we surrender ourselves to a higher state so that it can govern us. We still do not have the correct sensation, nor do we understand our next spiritual step; all we do is simply entrust ourselves to the next step by directing all efforts solely towards attaining it.

Due to this level of self-sacrifice and complete devotion, a person receives a soul from the higher level. Our efforts have to be directed to realizing that there is none besides Him; we have to strive to reveal Him and His oneness through bestowal and unity in the group. Let the upper govern our senses and intellect without any disparagement on our behalf.

This state comes to us gradually, step-by-step, to the degree that we elicit the Light that Reforms by attaining more similarity with the higher level. Similarly a fetus turns to its mother, allowing her to nurture it. Step by step, she augments his desires (in our realm it bears the form of supplementing its flesh), but his “job” is to refuse new desires by completely entrusting himself to her.

Over and over again, he merges with the upper one and admits that there is none else besides Him, the One who is good and does good, in spite of all the problems, difficulties, and obstacles that the new “flesh” (desires) awaken in him

The fetus “attaches” all of its parts as well as the whole world that surrounds him in his mother’s womb to the upper force, and eventually reaches the level of devotion and self-annihilation, which is called “nine months of conception” after which he is born into this world. The process of birth is excruciating; it is accompanied by tremendous labor pains (“birth contractions” – tzirim) under very constrained (tzar) conditions that cause incredible afflictions (tzarot). Through enormous pressure that originates both by the upper force and the fetus itself, the fetus transcends the narrow passage, and is born into the world of the Light. During the process of birth, the child has to completely “bow his head,” flip upside down. Then, when the process of birth is over, he lifts his head up again.

All of this is a result of our efforts. We have to realize that we will never attain the next step on our own; therefore, our task is to elicit the Light that Reforms so that it produces essential changes in us and, as a consequence, prepares us for the next step.

So, our work is to make actions that effectively elicit the Light that Reforms. Now, we are talking about our unity. By investing efforts into connection between us, we raise its importance with the help of the Light. At the same time, the Light demonstrates to us that we are not yet able to unite. The force that inspires us to bond conflicts with predicaments that prevent us from attaining unity, recognizing that there is none else besides Him. We still continue to think: “if not me, then who?”

This is how we approach the critical point that allows us “to be born anew” at each next level.
[77472]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/10/12 in America, Shamati #208

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Question: How should we direct our “Prayer for the Many” before the convention in the North so that it will personally influence each one of us so that we will feel the importance of the group and for the world?

Answer: Conventions of this kind are very beneficial. I saw it also according to the groups I visited lately. We need to maintain the intention of bestowal for all of our friends all over the world. It is very influential and advances them significantly.

Each time, I happily discover that the gap between the groups shrinks more and more. It is especially now as the groups opened to meet the general public, when we support the unity of the congresses, and especially with the workshops, the groups feel a very, big change. The distances between us disappear, all gradually become one group, and this causes great happiness.

The convention in the North will begin on Thursday of next week. I very much hope that our friends can get away from work and their other involvements. Nowadays it is not so simple, since it can cause unpleasantness on the side of the employers. I warn you: Don’t put your position at work in danger and don’t leave if there is no possibility to take a vacation.

We will try to have a continuous live broadcast.

As to the preparation, the main thing is the connection. This means a really deep, internal connection between everyone, between all the groups and all the friends so that not one of us will be forgotten. We must prepare for more consolidated and dense activity. From Sunday of next week, we will devote special lessons to this. Be with us, and everything will work out.
[81520]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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No More Distances
The Attack Has Already Begun

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Everything that we feel is the essence of the desire to receive in which a certain form is revealed. In other words, the desire receives one form or another under the influence of the Light that operates on it. The same desire is the foundation of all the worlds, but there are different forms on different levels.

Everything that we see now is on the lowest level of the desire. A more advanced form appears when the desire takes on the intention of in order to bestow, if the former is replaced by its form to shape the spiritual form. In other respects, there are no differences between various parts in different worlds and in different degrees. Each time, it is simply as if we put on different glasses and thus see the world differently.

The desire remains unchanged and there are 620 sub-desires in it that are all connected in some way. All these degrees come all the way to Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity). Now too, we also see Malchut of Ein Sof, but from our level according to our vessel of perception. This is what is meant by the phrase: “One judges according to his flaws.”

Question: How can we explain this to a person who doesn’t study Kabbalah?

Answer: The desire to receive is matter. An atom consists of particles that are actually energy, or in other words the desire to move. If a particle doesn’t move, it disappears. The particles are actually energy, light. They interact with each other, connecting and creating different connections. The collective desire is formed by this connection, according to the four phases or the four types of nature: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

It is all a desire. It can rise and it can descend, it splits into “plus” and “minus,” but its essence doesn’t change. The images of matter we were used to do not match the scientific concepts, and not only of quantum physics, but also of the fields that deal with the perception of reality. One way or the other, it is clear today that matter is energy. This also has to do with us and with how we perceive ourselves. Of course, not everyone can understand this, but at least they will believe scientific evidence. We perceive many things in life as facts without bothering to check them.

So if all of creation is a desire to receive, we can speak about similarity or differences and closeness or remoteness only in terms of the desire to receive. Equal desires are together. The more they differ, the farther apart they are from each other. Opposite desires are infinitely distant from one another—from adhesion all the way to total oppositeness, and all the other intermediate states are in between. Everything is measured according to the desire.

This means that our work is simple. We have to check the desires and accordingly move forward. Like a psychologist, I look at myself from the side, examining my desires from the outside, checking their parameters: What forms of desires are there in me, to what extent do they control me and to what extent do I control them? According to our current level of understanding, I determined the desired form and equalize it with the current form.

Later I look for a way to move from the current form of desire to the desired from. Kabbalists say that we can do it with the help of the Light that Reforms. This means that I have to determine my current state as undesirable and the future state as good and desired. The distance between the two states causes me great pain and at the same time summons a yearning in me and enables me to exert myself in the group.

Everything is determined by the ratio between the desired and what is. I discover the bitter truth in the current state and yearn for the next state and the upper Light does its job, since it is the Light that should put me through the necessary changes in order to reach the new more advanced forms of desire.

So it is a simple method, although there are many components to it: the group, the teacher, the books, the Creator’s greatness, the studying, the image of reality, the worlds, etc. Eventually, if we attribute all this to externality, I remain in my present state, which I should see as unbearable and the next state as wonderful and that if I don’t attain it, then I’d rather die than live. And where is the Light? It comes through the group, since the next state is the essence of the connection on the new level. These conditions make me act.
[81457]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: Is it true that we need to perform internal actions only—an internal intention to fulfill the friends’ desires and not physical actions?

Answer: Yes, but how can I be sure that I have done everything correctly, and that I am not deceiving myself? If I support the physical actions in this world, I can be sure that my intentions are correct.

Otherwise, I can tell you how much I love you, but how can you believe if this is true or not? And it isn’t about the fact that I may be deceiving you, I am not sure that I am not deceiving myself. What can I do so that it will be the truth?

It is for this reason that we are in a group, in a physical world. If the action and the intention go hand in hand, it proves that we are acting correctly, honestly, and that we are not lying.

If I cannot perform any actions and only intend to bestow upon the friends, it means that my intention is false. If I only act without the right intention and do not intend to reach the Creator through the friend, the action is false, and we are actually doing it for our own benefit. So there must be a state in our world in which we have to perform physical actions that can be accompanied by the spiritual intention of bestowal.

When we are in a group, we have a chance to check ourselves. Therefore, this world was created on the lowest level on which we can perform false actions: smile at one another, help each other as if we bestow, but it is all for our self-benefit. If we begin to work on our intention in the group and to draw the Light, as we want to reach bestowal upon the Creator through the group, we begin to see our true intentions. There should be a combination of the two worlds here, this world and the spiritual world.

So we reach the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) when we climb all the 125 degrees, only if we exist in this world in a physical body as we do that. If we haven’t managed to go all the way up during our lifetime, we return to this world. After all, we must constantly exist in the two worlds: in the intention—in the spiritual world, and in physical actions—in the corporeal world.

This is why the situation today is so special. We’ve reached such a state in the corporeal world that pushes us to develop the intention to bestow. Otherwise, we will not be able to survive. People call it a crisis, and we call it a new path, a new phase in human development, in which we have to discover the spiritual world and to connect it to the corporeal one.

Only a person who studies Kabbalah can do that. This is why we have to develop as fast as we can in order to teach the world. The world won’t be able to it independently since it is only possible to reach a connection with the upper world if you have the “point in the heart,” an aspiration to rise spiritually. Therefore, we have to think about the whole world and to hasten our development.
[81350]
From the Miami Convention 6/23/12, Lesson 3

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