“How wonderful and pleasant it is to sit together as brothers.” These are friends who are sitting together, not parting from each other. At first, they seem to be people in enmity with each other and wanting to kill each other. But afterward, they return to brotherly love. And then they exclaim: “How wonderful and pleasant it is to sit together as brothers.” By doing this, they reach similarity to the integral system of nature and they correspond to it. And in their common love, they reveal the essence of nature, its perfection and eternity.
[79361]
The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Acharei Mot”

Related Material:
To Fill The Heart With Love
Don’t Postpone Correction Until Tomorrow
Love Of Friends

Filed under: Love, Mutual Guarantee, My Similarity to the Creator, Unity, Zohar - No Comments →

We grow only with the help of the environment, like children who take examples from adults. To the extent that I appreciate my environment, it will serve as an example for me. If I see those around me as ordinary people, no better than me, what can I learn from them?

If I work on myself, on my ego, in order to raise the friends, I see them as the Creator’s emissaries. After all, besides a person there is only the Creator, as it says: “There is none else besides Him.” In such an environment I can grow.

I grow precisely with the understanding that there is no one else besides the Creator. I constantly have to see myself in contact with the Creator, and as a result, to check which attributes and thoughts separate me from Him in “words” and especially in “deeds.”

This is woven and becomes a request, a prayer, because a person begins to fear disconnecting from the thought and from this feeling that may be the very first, and very weak feeling of connection with the Creator. If I manage to feel the fine thread that ties me with the Creator, I have to be careful that it doesn’t break or disappear. No interruption can negate the recognition that I have that I am tied to the Creator by this fine thread.

This fear begins to live in me, and so I accept all the troubles and problems that arise in my extraneous thoughts, desires, and confusion, I take as a “helpmate.” I see that the Creator sends me all this in order to let me overcome the obstacles and to strengthen our connection.

I cannot overcome any obstacles by myself, and I must ask the Creator to help me. Then the Creator gives me power, and instead of one thread that ties us together, there are already two!

Then another obstacle comes along and thanks to it, I receive a third thread. Thus, gradually, the threads are woven together and become a thick rope that strongly ties me to the Creator.

I shouldn’t ask that “all the evils that are revealed should die,” which means that all the obstacles should disappear. Otherwise, how would I build my connection with the Creator? I have to ask that the evil be “reformed” and turned to the Creator, which means to use these obstacles, and as I rise above them, to strengthen my contact with the Creator.

If I am constantly careful to preserve and strengthen the thread that ties us together, it gradually becomes a pipe through which flows the energy of life.

At first I receive the power of life only from the feeling of my connection, but later I begin to learn its character, its different faces, its different forms. I accumulate experience: Which obstacles did I face, how did I overcome them, thanks to which request, how did the Creator arrange these obstacles in order to make them the threads that tie us together? So I learn how the Creator treats me as I turn the negative states into positive ones.

I work on this contrast of black and white: Once, I see the Creator’s angry face on the background of some disturbance, and once, His kind and loving eyes. So I begin to know Him according to these two looks, like a father who sometimes turns to his son with a loving, smiling face and sometimes looks strict, and in this way teaches him.

I constantly strengthen the connection between us, and the levels of this connection determine the levels of the spiritual ladder. At first the connection is very weak, just in order to hold on to him like an embryo in his mother’s womb. But later, a person begins to be more active, a state called Yenika (feeding). Then he becomes an “adult,” which means that he knows how to use this connection consciously; he evokes it more or less and through it receives the Light for a certain goal.

All this depends on how strongly a person holds on to the group that provides him with support, constantly learning. Then a connection is formed from the hair of these tiny threads that are created by his endless efforts not to allow this connection to break even for a moment, which brings a person to revelation. But all the work begins from the reverent fear that a person’s connection with the Creator may be cut off.
[79358]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/12, Shamati #61

Related Material:
The Most Expensive Call Home
A Note Of The Utmost Importance
The End Of The Thread

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

Question: What is Shechina?

Answer: Shechina is all the desires created by the Creator united into one equivalent desire that merges with the Creator in the same kind of bestowal as He is. That is, the desire to enjoy is fully corrected to bestowal.

But in relation to us, Shechina is “in the dust.” The Creator created the desire to enjoy, and brought it to the final correction: the final, third, corrected state already exists. However, we feel like we’re outside of the Shechina, to such an extent that we are hidden by concealment, fog, and deception.

Therefore, we feel as though we don’t belong to that common, corrected desire, and we need to work hard to unite with it. Imagine that everyone is completely corrected but you, and you see the world completely corrupted. Therefore, you must correct your perception and join the rest of the world, the Shechina.

You should ask the Creator to make you equivalent to Him; that is what it means to belong to the Shechina. But how does one ask since it cannot be done artificially? The request comes from the depth of the heart in a way that it cannot be stopped.

Imagine that all the desires of your heart were visible to everyone on a big screen, as if the sensors to a cardiogram were attached to your heart, showing everyone your desires, your thoughts about others, and your dreams about the future. And you were unable to stop this broadcast, and you had no control over your heart. Obviously, you would feel ashamed if you related these desires to yourself. But if you link these desires to the Creator, knowing that He sends them to you, that you have nothing to be ashamed of, then you are not ashamed of the desires waking up in your heart. You only feel ashamed about something that you could have done to correct your heart but haven’t.

And then you start checking that. You see that the Creator sends us different desires, making us think about forgery, theft, murder, violence, about ways to deceive and use everyone. You would see such pictures if your heart were displayed on a screen. But all these thoughts are awakened in you from Above, and you are not the master over them.

And along with that, you would see that you had the opportunity to make every picture like the Creator, but you didn’t use it. And now you are ashamed of the fact that you didn’t correct yourself or ask about correction. Perhaps, you didn’t even make an effort to correct anything, or possibly tried and realized that you cannot do it, but didn’t ask the Creator for help.

All of these states which you could have corrected but didn’t, cause a feeling of shame in you now. This is what you feel ashamed of but not about the most terrible pictures that unfolded in your heart and come from Above.

If you try bringing everything that you have in your possession into equivalence with the Creator, then you begin revealing all the details: where it comes from, why, what for, how to ask for help, and how to make it work. But if you have no intention to correct yourself, then you do not even open the package sent to you or realize what comes to you.
[79451]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/12, Shamati #50

Related Material:
All Desires Are Needed, All Desires Are Important
A Beautiful Woman, A Beautiful House, And Beautiful Vessels
A Gift Is Appreciated Only as Much as the Receiver Values the Giver

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, My Similarity to the Creator, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee):” With this collective responsibility, each member of the nation was liberated from worrying about the needs of his own body and could keep the commandment, “Love thy friend as thyself” in the fullest measure, and give all that he had to any needy person.

This means that we will receive such a great pleasure in our feeling that in our corporeal life we will not need anything but what is necessary for our existence, just as animals have no need for cookies, but only for the natural food that is enough for them. If our desires, which are not on the animal level, will stop confusing us and will rise to the “Human” level, we will get rid of all the surpluses that only pollute the earth and will leave only what we need for our basic necessities in the corporeal life.

By the connection with others we reach the fulfillment on the “human” level, similar to the Creator. Then, of course you don’t think about self-enjoyment except for what is necessary. We discover the Creator in the connection with others and so of course we give all our powers for the needs of others. This is why it says: “I reside within my people.”

Since he no longer cared for the existence of his own body, as he knew for certain that he was surrounded by six hundred thousand loyal lovers, who were standing ready to provide for him.

It is the supportive society that raises the importance of the connection in my eyes and provides a sense of security that I will not lack any of the basic necessities, which allows a person to care for everyone.

Later, this will also disappear and I will receive everything thanks to the unity with the society; I won’t have to see the system that provides proof for the love and concern of those around me. The love I feel for them will fill all my vessels.
[79445]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)“

Related Material:
Fanning The Spark With Mutual Guarantee
Mutual Guarantee Is Something To Envy
Exchanging Despair With Anticipation

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Love, Mutual Guarantee, My Similarity to the Creator, Unity - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Preface to The Book of Zohar,” Item 33: So is the matter before us: All these images and changes begin and end only with the impression of the souls. Yet, by the will of God, they appear as though they are in him himself. He does that to enhance and expand the attainment of the souls to the utmost, in accordance with the Thought of Creation, to delight His creatures.”

The gap between me and the desired picture, which I imagine, should be filled with knowledge. We must make efforts to understand and clarify and thus expand our vessels.

Eventually we attain a reality that is 620 times greater than the initial reality, and this addition comes from the head of the Partzuf. The desire that was created by the Creator stays the same, but it receives an additional understanding and recognition, and by that it grows qualitatively. Thus I attain not what I have received from the Creator but the Creator Himself.

Question: If I fill this gap with knowledge, what is the role of the feeling?

Answer: The Creator wants only one thing from us, that we will build a mind above the feeling so that we will understand, attain, and reveal Him. By that our vessels of feeling expand as well, because the mind operates on feeling; if I know whom I receive pleasure from, then it is 620 times greater.

Before I was offered a candy, but I didn’t want to taste it. Suddenly I discover that someone I respect gave it to me and so the candy immediately tastes differently.

It all depends on our evaluation. Suppose you were served fine, vintage wine from special reserves, and you are also told about its history, of course you will pour it and enjoy every sip. But what if suddenly it will turned out to be a mistake and that the wine was actually from a barrel that was intended for an ordinary supermarket?

Our tastes and preferences depend on our values, it all depends on our evaluation. If I value something, I feel its taste. Then according to this taste, I evaluate other things. However, without any initial evaluation, I am like a computer without software, just a piece of metal. Of course there are genetic discernments of tastes, but the filling of my desire is what determines the set of values.

Therefore, the addition of 620 times provides me with a mental evaluation, recognition, of the one who brings me the pleasure.

Question: How should I establish the right evaluation if I see before me a picture that is totally opposite from the right order of priorities?

Answer: This picture was given to you on purpose so that you would correct it. I have to see the importance of the one who sent me this corrupt form that allows me to be corrected. Without the broken puzzle I wouldn’t put the separated parts together and wouldn’t acquire the mind of the artist through this process.

I exert myself in order to put the pieces together and eventually, by completing the original picture, I discover its message: “I love you.” What is more, now I know who is saying this to me and what His words mean.
[79259]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, Baal HaSulam “600,000 Souls”

Related Material:
Not In Quantity, But In Intensity
The Taste Enhancer
The Void Where The Supreme Thought Dwells

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Perception, Q&A - No Comments →

A ladder, which divides the worlds into levels and the Light into portions, descends from Above, from the whole state, all the way to our world, until the total concealment. The concealments were created so that we will grow and fill them with our recognition, our work, with our exertion and efforts.

Instead of working with the vessels of receiving, we should begin to work with the vessels of bestowal, which means with the desire to receive in the intention of in order to bestow and not with the intention of in order to receive. Thanks to that, a person acquires freedom and independence, knowledge and the feeling that he’s in the Creator’s world, in the upper world.

In order to bring a person to this state, he’s shown concealments from a certain point in his development, which is happening in our times. For selected individuals this already happened in previous centuries, but today the whole world feels the concealment, a kind of obscurity, confusion, helplessness, and disorientation. There’s a feeling that we can no longer advance with the old attributes and forces to calculate our exertion and our desires to make plans and achieve results.

There is nothing to yearn for since the world is covered by a shadow. But this shadow is the same concealment, which we have to balance and to fill with our exertion. We know that this concealment was given to us on purpose, not in order to divert us from the good goal, but on the contrary, in order to bring us to the good but consciously, by understanding and feeling it as grown-ups.

Accordingly we have to determine the right way to advance, by clarifying what is required from us and how to organize all the means we have and our vessel, so that they will raise us above the concealment. We don’t annul the concealment, but we rise above it.

Everything depends upon how a person accepts these states. It says: “and each man shall help his friend,” the group has to give each one the powers as well as to constantly remind him that “there is none else besides Him,” and that we must ascend the levels of bestowal in “faith above reason.”

Then all the concealments will turn into a shade of Holiness by which we acquire vessels of bestowal, which are called “holy.” If we forget that, both we and the group, it’s a serious problem because we no longer exert ourselves in order to rise above the concealment; we are not thankful for the concealment and don’t accept it as something that’s desirable, as a springboard to ascent. Instead, we are angry about the concealment and ask for it and all the unpleasantness in life to be removed.

The concealment can be very strong, but a person should remember that there is none else besides Him. A person is only required to determine his relationship with the group correctly in order to raise a request and to draw the Reforming Light, and then he will attain adhesion above the concealment. This is how he will advance.

Otherwise it will turn into a shade of the Sitra Achra, of the egoistic forces, which will lead to a greater fall, which won’t allow him to fulfill himself correctly. No matter what happens, he should rise again and start everything anew. The main thing is to determine a framework for himself: a schedule for studying and for working in the group, which will remind him in every state that his obligation is to differentiate between the shade of Holiness and the shade of the Sitra Achra.
[79182]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/12, Shamati #8

Related Material:
Until The Shadow Clears Away
Checking The Connection With The Group
“Until The Day Withers And Shadows Will Flee…”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Perception - No Comments →

Question: How can the desire to receive bestow?

Answer: A person has a chance to work with his desire to receive in order to bestow for the good of others. In our world, there are situations in which I feel that I depend on someone, and then I try to make him happy either for my own benefit or to avoid troubles.

I also may perceive the other as part of myself if it is my child or a beloved person. Then, by making him happy, it is as if I make myself happy and even more.

This is one of the forms of the influence of the upper Light, which brings us the right feeling. On the other hand, if the Light disappears, a person sinks to the bottom of his existence, losing all contact, and any sense of belonging even to people who are closest to him.

When the feeling of closeness is taken from us, we are left with the desire to receive by itself without any sentiments. Then, I don’t take anything into account except for any possible damage that I may cause myself. At the same time, the upper Light can influence me in such a way that I suddenly will feel a quantum leap and will want the other to feel good, not because I will benefit from it, not egoistically, but I simply want him to feel good.

How can that be? We don’t know, but Kabbalists tell us about this. They also say that we all should reach this feeling: “You have no other choice, and, if you don’t listen to us, you will experience great suffering, so you will want it one way or the other.”

Only the upper Light can provide me with a new, altruistic attitude toward others. I can never acquire it by myself.

– “So let the Light influence me!” I am told.

– “No, it will influence only if you want it to.”

– “But how can I want it if I am an egoist?”

This is why you were given a “point in the heart” in addition to your desire to receive, a grain of understanding. I admit that bestowal is special, and this candle, which you didn’t light by yourself, burns within you and evokes you.

Besides that, the upper Light flows upon this point or this candle, bringing you to the group, to the study, and placing you in such an environment that enables you to resemble the actions of bestowal, the forms of bestowal. Like a small child who imitates the grown ups, you were given a bit of a desire, so use it.

By that, you will summon the Light that will influence you more strongly, and you will suddenly acquire new attributes. Then, the other, which is the friends, humanity, nature, and the Creator, will become more important that your own self.

The Light does all that if we raise a request for correction and do “good deeds,” which means that we play together in bestowal as if we want it and, by that, reach a prayer, a demand: “We have done so much, and where is the result?” Then, we begin to pray, understanding that only the Light can give us the form of bestowal, and so we advance.

Today, you have no connection to bestowal except for this game. In order to bestow upon the Light, we must resemble it, which is possible only by connection and unity in the group. This is the only form of bestowal that you can express and exhibit in our world in order to resemble the Light and to summon its influence upon you.

– “Okay, we are holding hands. We really want to unite. What’s next?”

This isn’t enough. You don’t connect like a football team; you want to feel the need for bestowal. You lower your heads before one another and unite. What is this for? It is in order to reach the One who bestows.

In order to do that, you should know that you must have the right attitude toward Him. So, please, take a book and read about how to do that. If you want to be big, read what the big ones have written, what they do, and how they prepare their actions of bestowal upon the Creator.

If you really want that, play at it like a child who wishes to resemble a grown-up. Unite with the friends equally by wanting to reach mutual guarantee and as an expression of mutual bestowal. Yearn upward for bestowal upon the Creator, use the sources, and advance together toward the goal.

Then, you will be influenced by the Reforming Light and will reach your goal. Without the Light, nothing will happen. You only evoke a desire that is as correct, as efficient, and as intensive as possible, to the fullest.

You will reach the desirable measure of exertion so that the Light will turn from the Surrounding Light into the Inner Light. In other words, it will bring the attribute of bestowal into your desire, and you will perceive this feeling as the Light itself, as life and vitality.

If you were given the feeling of bestowal now, it would seem to you as hell. The only difference is that, by correcting yourself, you will be prepared for bestowal and be happy with it, whereas now it only will cause you pain and make the darkness seem like death since the Light of Hochma that isn’t dressed in the Light of Hassadim will be like a knife that cuts your whole life.

A small portion of this Light brings about our descents by evoking us to look for the way to rise to Hassadim. You are drawn upward, asking the friends and the Light for a bit of the attribute of bestowal that will pull you out of the descent. By that, you are begging for Hesed (mercy), for the dressing of the Light of Hassadim. When it comes, you receive a little vitality and come out of the abyss.

So, the Reforming Light is different from the Light that does not reform by giving you a Masach (screen), which means the readiness to stand bestowal and even to accept it as the real life.
[78503]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“

Related Material:
Lighting Your Candle
Only The Light Elevates Me
Only Free Will You Realize You Were A Slave

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam: “600,000 Souls”: It is said that there are 600,000 souls, and each soul divides into several sparks. We must understand how it is possible for the spiritual to divide, since initially, only one soul was created, the soul of Adam HaRishon.

On one hand, a person sees a picture of a broken and divided world, and on the other hand, it is clear to him that he is the one who is broken and divided inside and this is why he sees the world this way. It says that by the correction, a person tilts himself and the whole world to merit. When I reach my private Gmar Tikkun (end of correction), I should see the whole world as corrected. Now when I look into myself I see that the world is corrupt; this is how my flaws depict it for me. But when I correct myself I tilt myself and the whole world to merit because I and the world I see are the same. The world is the essence of my vessels.

And what about other people? Do they exist or not? Will they also reach Gmar Tikkun? Or does Gmar Tikkun depend only on me and others only assist me along the way? Could it be fair to everyone? Could it be that the others don’t exist and that I am facing my shattered vessel that is depicted to me as egoistic people who oppose me? Does it mean that I only have to attach them to me?

In short, where do the general and the particular meet here? Could it be that it is really my vessel before me and there is nothing else in the world but one soul in which the Light, the Creator, has to be revealed?

This means that if I penetrate more deeply into my soul, I will discover this vessel—in uniting all its parts, in mutual spiritual cooperation with the Creator. The imaginary picture of the world with billions of people will disappear and by the connection of everyone into one soul I will see that there is none else besides Him.

Until then I will perceive the world as divided into independent parts, into many separated souls.
[79262]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, Baal HaSulam “600,000 Souls”

Related Material:
Not In Quantity, But In Intensity
Divided Unity
Correct Yourself, Correct The World

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Unity - No Comments →

In our longing to rise above our ego, to correspond to nature, to its attributes of bestowal and love, we need to be careful not to postpone our correction until “later.” This is what our ego pushes on us in its resistance to be diminished. Whoever postpones his correction from “ today” to “tomorrow,” “That which changes today for tomorrow for you,“ will discover his mistake only after many years of lack of advancement, “And he that can wait until tomorrow will get lost after years, G-d forbid.”

The reason for such a loss is the negligence in relation to the efforts in loving his friends, in relation to the necessary and sufficient methods of correction of all our ego.

We must understand what a huge force is hiding in the unity of the group and in each one of the friends. After all, we are not dealing with friends or a group, but with the huge force of nature. Each one of us is in unity with it, only the illusion of this world around us and all of its parts confuses us and hides from us the great forces and attributes of nature, of its system of governance regarding us so that each one of us will attain the attributes of bestow and love.

If we connect our forces to each of nature’s representatives, then in the assembly of friends, in love and friendship, we will discover forces that change us to be similar and to become equivalent to the upper force of nature.
[79150]
From Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham (Fruit of the Wise), Letter 13, 1925

Related Material:
Equality For The Final Goal
Straight through Two Points To Infinity
Myself Is Actually Not Mine

Filed under: Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, Mutual Guarantee, My Similarity to the Creator, Unity - No Comments →

Question: In what way is the giving of the Torah different from the receiving of the Torah with regard to the holiday of Shavuot (Pentecost)?

Answer: The Torah was given from Above, and the question is whether we receive it below. Therefore the holiday of Shavuot is called the “holiday of the giving of the Torah,” meaning that if you went through the early stages of the preparation, then you are given the opportunity and you are given the Torah which you should receive under certain conditions.

According to the way it’s described, we see that it isn’t enough just to reach Mt. Sinai; we also have to discover that it’s the mountain of hatred. This means that we return from the “right line” to the “left line.” Why do we need it after the escape from Egypt when I have already detached myself from the ego? But the Torah isn’t given just like that, I have to evoke the “Egypt” in me again, my evil inclination, while standing before this mountain and connect it with the Creator, with the Light that can correct me.

Then, by standing against the Light, I see the conditions that are revealed in my ego, I see what relations I have to establish between them, so that “the darkness will shine like Light,” so that the ego will resemble the Light by fully dressing in bestowal.

In order to do that a person undoubtedly needs many external forces of bestowal because I don’t have these forces and never will have them. So where can I find them? I am ready to connect with all the friends under conditions of mutual guarantee, and this enables me to connect with the general power of bestowal, meaning the upper Light, with the Creator. Thus the main condition is revealed: If we receive it, we will advance towards the Light, towards life, and if not, “here will be your burial place.” This is the condition of mutual guarantee; I annul myself only in order to connect.

If I accept this means, meaning mutual guarantee, the goal of creation, which is mutual correction of all the vessels of bestowal until adhesion into one whole according to the principle of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are One,” then I accept the method, the instruction, called the “Torah.” Then I enter the desert and start correcting myself. Each time new parts of Egypt, of the “left line,” are revealed to me; each time I find sins, mistakes, and evil inside me and correct them by rising to the level of Bina.

When I rise to this level after “forty years in the desert,” I will be worthy of working with the desire to receive in receiving in order to bestow. This is already the work in the Land of Israel, meaning in the desire that is aimed directly at the Creator (Yashar El). By fulfilling these corrections, I build the Temple, a special vessel into which I draw the Reforming Light and the Light of fulfillment. Thus I reach my Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction).

Then new vessels, which do not belong to Israel, are immediately evoked. Where do they come from? The point is that I didn’t take into account all the vessels because I selected and corrected only part of them in order to include Malchut in Bina, and not more than that. Now when the desires of Malchut itself are evoked, I see that my Temple is in the Land of Israel, meaning in Malchut that has joined Bina. But this isn’t enough. We have to reach the state in which the Land of Israel will spread all over the world, to bring Malchut back from the level of Bina to its place.

Thus the third Temple will be built from the desires of the whole world that will go through complete correction. Therefore it’s clear that all our history was only a preparation for the final correction, which we are fulfilling today.
[79012]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/12, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Shavuot Is Full Of Light
Celebrating The Giving Of The Light
The Giving Of The Light

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Holidays, Mutual Guarantee, My Similarity to the Creator, Q&A - No Comments →