In order to transcend to a new level we have to attain a state in which you have no idea what is happening to you and all the old forms disappear. You cannot work with them nor can you hold on to them anymore, and you feel puzzled and confused both in your mind and heart.

The world seems so strange and unfamiliar that you don’t understand which world you live in. you are like a seed that was totally rotten in the ground and has lost all form and direction. You have already lost your old form and have not received the new form yet. Thus you move from one state to the next.

You will see how different this is from what you see in your corporeal, healthy egoistic mind and heart. A state of disorientation, helplessness and confusion becomes the beginning of a new man on a new level. To the extent that this seems undesirable from a realistic egoistic point of view, it is actually desirable for a person’s advancement.

There is a law that the individual and the general are equal. So the whole world is in the same state today, feeling this confusion, not understanding where it comes from. The whole world feels powerless and in despair. People don’t know what to do next: All the old views, all the old paradigms, the whole perception of life is disappearing and going bankrupt.

It is the first time in history that we are in such a position. There are no leaders, no dogmas, nothing. No one is saying that he knows what needs to be done anymore. Where are the revolutionaries of the past like Che Guevara, Marx, they are gone. It is a sign that all the ideas and views, all the previous approaches have rotted, like the seed that rots in the ground, from which something totally new has to grow now.

We have reached a state of Ibur (conception) and from now on the new world will begin to grow and to develop. The old form is lost and soon a new form will be depicted. The world doesn’t know it yet. But we, those who engage with the wisdom of Kabbalah, are the new Reshimo (spiritual gene) for the world, transferring the world from the old state to the new state. The world needs guidance growing in this state, and we have to fulfill the role of the Reshimo and reveal to the world how to advance and grow onward.

In all the other states what needs to be done is revealed by itself according to natural laws. It is instinctively clear to the still, vegetative, and animate nature what to do and how to grow. But on the human level this growth has to be done consciously by special efforts. It is by this that man is different from an animal.

Our body is an animal, but the mind has to be human, like Adam, which means “Domeh” (resembles the Creator). So we have to advance to the new state consciously, knowingly, by our own powers. Here we need to wake people up, to arrange them, to guide them. Therefore, Israel is called Li Rosh (I have a head). One can only grow by understanding, consciously and by making efforts, and we do it gradually. We grow by getting closer to fulfilling this role, and the world becomes more and more desperate and ready for us to raise it. It will happen very soon.
[113817]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”: … a far more rapid development than the other nations has come to us. And because the members of the nation developed so, there was always the necessity to go forward and be extremely meticulous with all the Mitzvot of the Torah. And because they would not do it, but wished to include their narrow selfishness, meaning the Lo Lishma, this developed the ruin of the First Temple, since they wished to extol wealth and power above justice, as other nations.

But because the Torah prohibits it, they denied the Torah and the prophecy and adopted the manners of the neighbors so they could enjoy life as much as selfishness demanded of them. And because they did that, the powers of the nation disintegrated: some followed the kings and the selfish officers, and some followed the prophets. And that separation continued until the ruin.

During the period of the Temples, the people of Israel experienced spiritual blossoming, attaining the entire reality of the universe. However, the split did not take long. If one part of the nation wanted to keep the straight path to attainment of the upper force, the other part wanted to use at least a bit of attainment for the needs of material life.

Life was very difficult in those days and people were forced to work hard to earn their keep. Besides that, wars sometimes took lives, sometimes several thousand lives a day.

As a consequence, it was a delicate moment for people to decide every time whether it were possible to use the spiritual forces that were available. It was not easy and that is why we should not falsely accuse all those who went astray. People, then, were not on our stage, and they faced severe internal situations with the hardest problems, which were according to their knowledge and thus aligned and balanced them to make free choice.

They were unable to resist, and in principle, it was not so much their fault as the general program of creation in which the inherent destruction of the Temple, and the four exiles, the final complete redemption, the beginning of which we now are experiencing. The program is predetermined. The end of the action is provided in the original plan and Kabbalists have known about it since ancient times.

However, on the other hand, we do not succumb to fatalism.

On the whole, we need to treat the descriptions of the events that occurred at that time carefully. We should not superficially divide people into right and wrong, good and bad. I repeat, we are talking about people who had spiritual attainment and received the burdening of the heart of the corresponding force.

At the beginning of the process, everything happens at the level of the First Temple, when the Light of Hochma was revealed in the community of the people. It would seem that if the Creator has been revealed, what more? Where will the ungodly come from in this state? Yet, one potential corresponds to the other, and we always balance on the point of the freedom of will.

Baal HaSulam writes about “the kings and the selfish officers.” In those days, an officer was not just a member of the nobility or a high-ranking commander, but a leader managing people with his spirit, that is, spiritual attainment, not to mention the king.

In short, today we do not understand those contradictions, and the most important thing for us is not to despise the “fallen” who seem like villains to us.

Anyway, the overall program leads to the complete deliverance of the entire world, but first it applies to its small part that Abraham led out from Babylon. Therefore, even if the people of Israel had made huge, heroic, incredible efforts, the Temple still would have been destroyed. The signs of this began to appear seventy years before the collapse. It was impossible to stop the process because the program of development must be implemented.

At the same time, we must make every effort in the struggle for bestowal, counteracting the division and lack of unity. One does not negate the other. Everything must be directed at bestowal. Not one little thing can be used for one’s own benefit.

In the days of the Temple, it was not about luxury on the current level of well-being, but about allowing people to slightly ease the hard living conditions, that is, bringing some drop of self-love into the altruistic aspiration, to add purely symbolic and seemingly deserved “dessert” to the minimal “diet.”

However, this drop spoils everything and disturbs the general course. As a result, it no longer leads directly to the Creator, but diverts to the side, even if just a little, but the result is failure.

In the Second Temple, it was even more conspicuous, since the beginning of the separation was publicly displayed by unvirtuous disciples, headed by Tzadok and Bytos.

The calculation should be updated constantly and become more accurate. Otherwise, we lose our way, looking for a foothold in the external environment and presenting it to defeat our opponents who want to keep the old, original way. Thus, Israel was captured by the Roman Empire because some of the people agreed to descend into egoism and take a fraction for themselves. However, there is no part for oneself in altruism, and even the basics we get only in order to live in pure bestowal.

Today, the nation is far from these calculations. Who sincerely speaks of love and bestowal, unity and support, brotherhood and mutual guarantee today? On the contrary, a man is proud of his superiority over others and boasts of his ability to trample on others. The main thing is to be strong. The power of the fist, the power of the official, is what reigns over people today.
[113673]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: “Now that we have learned all the above, we can understand an unclear phrase in “Masechet Avot” (Chapter 3, Item 16). It reads as follows: “He (Rabbi Akiva) would say, ‘All is in deposit, and a fortress spreads over all of life. The store is open and the shopkeeper sells by deferred payment, the book is open and the hand writes. And all who wish to borrow may come and borrow, and the collectors return regularly, day-by-day, and collect from a person knowingly and unknowingly. And they have what to rely on, and the judgment is true, and all is ready for the feast.’”

Question: What is “true judgment?”

Answer: Judgment is according to the relations of the Lights and the vessels. There is a law that although the Light (+) and the vessel (-) are opposite from one another and there is a huge gap between them that is divided into 125 degrees, the vessel still has to move with its attributes towards the Light through all these levels. This is the first principle—equivalence of form.

We were given 6000 years in which we can go by two paths in order to reach equivalence of form.

In addition, humanity is divided into two groups:

• Israel (GE) – that yearn to reach the Creator by themselves.
• The nations of the world (AHP) who were not given this yearning.

Thus there are rules that are not determined by us. In this world, we don’t choose anything; all our desires are managed from above. The Light comes and evokes a certain deficiency in the desire and leaves us no choice but to try to fulfill it. Why? We are not asked.

The desire comes first and the mind and the different accounts are the outcome. They are the means that allow us to escape the sufferings since a deficiency that is not fulfilled and sufferings are actually the same thing. Only later do we acquire deficiencies that are felt as pleasures thanks to the yearning for love.

This development can be compared with the roller that is moving on us from behind and forces us to run forward. This is the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) of the first type (OM I), general, shining on everyone, protecting and advancing everyone in a mandatory way. We think that the world is ruled by politicians, the elite, etc., but in fact, as it is written, “The hearts of ministers and king’s are in the hands of the Creator.”

But in addition, there is the Surrounding Light of the second type (OM II). This is our Light; it applies to those who have the point in the heart (•). It affects us, moves us forward, makes us get up to study at 3 in the morning in order to change ourselves, to help humanity, etc.

The law operates here too since we were not asked whether we wanted to be awakened or not. In The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 4, Baal HaSulam says: “The Creator Himself puts one’s hand on the good fate.”

Which means that He brings a person to choose the environment and says: “‘Choose for yourself a good part in My land.’ He places him on the good part and tells him: ‘Choose this for yourself.’”

You will strengthen the Surrounding Light by incorporating in the group. This is already the very personal Light that a person can provoke by himself thus creating the beginning of his connection with the Creator.

So when I make great efforts in the group, I begin to establish the relationship with Him only in the group, since it cannot be done outside the group. Only here can I connect with the source of the Light. This means that it isn’t about the Light or the changes that it evokes, not even about the group, and certainly not about me. The only important thing is that it ties me to the source, to the Creator. Everything else is just the means.

And so if I build a chain, I do all that is required: I evoke the Light, incorporate in the group, and annul myself before the friends. The most important thing is to constantly develop and to strengthen my connection with the source of the Light. Thus I work with the private Surrounding Light according to the private arrangement that is in accordance with the group and the general global development.

Question: Does that mean that I have to totally justify the judgment and understand that it is right?

Answer: There is no judgment from above. The Creator brings you to the group and tells you “Choose for yourself.” In other words, grow stronger in it, work with the friends, and continue to advance.

He “places your hand on the good part,” so do you choose it or not? If you don’t, then to the same extent that you ignore your role, you immediately summon trouble upon yourself. Not only is your personal incompleteness taken into account here, but also the negative outcome that will affect everyone. All this returns to you like a boomerang and begins to pressure you. So it isn’t the Creator who sends us all the problems. Only love stems from Him. You discover this later.

So why did you feel so bad? Because you didn’t fulfill your role towards yourself and towards others and so you felt the outcome of your failures. Because of your lack of understanding, you thought that it stems from Him, but in fact it is you who caused your own troubles by yourself. When you eventually see that, you don’t have any complaints to the Creator.
[111061]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The term “sacrifices” in Judaism refers to the desire to give of oneself to society. From the meat of the animals that were sacrificed at the Temple, the poor, the Levites, and the people held meals, and this was called “the work of the Temple.”

The desire to give of oneself to society was expressed in the form of a commandment a person should perform, in the form of tithe, which was used for educating the people.

Everyone had to bring a sacrifice according to the sin he had committed or something that he did wrong. The people were on a spiritual level at that time, and everyone determined his egoistic sins by himself since the others didn’t see them. A person felt where he had gone wrong and where he had sinned, and then according to Rabash, he had to have a feast, invite friends, sit together, and connect with them. This is called “God’s work.”

This is how people connect. At the same time they did very intensive, internal, spiritual work as to why they were doing all that. When a person has a feast, he raises and awakens others so that they will impress him more next time and help him not to fall again.

Everything is done in a very peaceful way as we also do today. Why do we need a corporeal Temple? We have a place where we meet with the group and there you bring your “sacrifices.” But everyone has to first clarify things in an anti-egoistic manner since otherwise all this is meaningless.

The sacrifices, the work in the Temple, and all the other activities are totally different from what we were brought up to believe. It is all aimed only at the connection between people.

The Temple is a place where all the desires and all the corrections gather. It is the place from where people went out to every region to teach the people, and there wasn’t anyone who did not know how to read and how to count. Everyone knew how to do everything; they all knew the spiritual work thanks to the tithe they gave to support the Temple.

No one followed anyone! Everyone had to do this, otherwise you were not considered one who bestows, who gives. What’s more, if a person gave unwillingly and only because he was forced to, it wasn’t considered a tithe. As it says on the two tablets on which the Ten Commandments were engraved:”Everyone should give as his heart wills.” If it doesn’t come from the heart, it is not considered bestowal.

The Torah, “Exodus,” “Jethro,” 20:22: And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.

An altar must always be higher than you, above your head, “above reason,” above your knowledge and your attainment. This means that bestowal should always be higher than all your calculations.
[111351]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/4/13

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Israel is a point in the heart that yearns to know what the taste of life is, to discover the secret of life, the source of life. It determines a person’s inner connection with the upper force. A person cannot imagine this connection, but it already exists. Because of it, he is called Israel, Yashar-El (straight to the Creator), since he has this inclination towards the Creator. But this force doesn’t belong to him; rather, it stems from the point in the heart, which is the Godly part from Above that is in him. He has nothing of the upper other than that and will never have anything but what he develops of this point.

As we ascend the 125 levels, we discover our 613 vessels. This is on a person’s part. On the Creator’s part, we are given the point in the heart and the Light that Reforms. We can use these two means in order to correct our shattered vessels.

It turns out that I have an inclination towards spirituality and I have 613 egoistic desires. There is also the Light that Reforms if I want to draw it. So what do I lack? I lack a group towards which I fulfill my 613 desires. This is why I am brought to the group.

So I have a point in the heart, 613 shattered desires, a group, and the Light that Reforms, everything that I need. Now I only have to connect them correctly. If I integrate all these components correctly, the Light operates and influences my 613 desires; my point in the heart is strengthened by them and then the Light can be revealed in these 613 desires, which is called the revelation of the Creator to the created being.

Thus we end one state and everything happens over again from the beginning. The point in the heart is also renewed since it has become stronger by the corrected 613 desires on the previous level. It begins to illuminate and to burn more strongly since against it are the 613 new egoistic desires that are crueler than the previous ones. In contrast to them, there is a stronger Light that Reforms if I want to use it. I also have a group in contrast to them, which according to the new ego is depicted to me as much worse than it was before. So once more I work in order to connect all these components correctly. On the whole this is all I have to do: establish the right relations between these four components.
[111214]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash

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The day of the Ninth of Av is the worst and most tragic day of the year since it is the day of the destruction of both the First and the Second Temples. On one hand, we know that Rabbi Akiva rejoiced and laughed when he saw the destruction of the Temple. On the other hand, we experience terrible sufferings, but on the other hand, if you are connected to the goal, you can rejoice in them.

This is especially true when we refer to our times when we have received the chance to return to the land of Israel and now everything depends on us. However, during the exile, these sufferings were absolutely necessary. It’s the same secret that Jacob wanted to reveal to his sons before his death, but eventually didn’t.

If you know exactly what will happen in the future and how it’s connected to the goal, you will not be able to actually suffer and to reach despair, to request, to cry out, or to pray and raise MAN. This is the reason that the wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed for such a long time so that the people will not know why they suffer. The whole world doesn’t understand why the “chosen people” experience such afflictions and they think that it may not be the chosen people any more but rather the persecuted people.

They had to go through all these afflictions corporeally in the most humiliating, primitive, and genuine form, without any mitigation of the Dinim (sentence). The reason is that the mitigation of the Dinim requires the prolonging of the exile and even greater afflictions.

So for ages it was forbidden to reveal that the destruction of the Temple and the afflictions of exile were necessary. If people had known that they had to go through them, they would have felt the connection between the suffering and the goal and wouldn’t have suffered so much. They wouldn’t have felt such sorrow, confusion, and helplessness, and they wouldn’t have felt the gravity and the acute pain of the exile.

Therefore, Kabbalists have forbidden the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah since it explains why things happen. They were forced to do so despite their sorrow in order to shorten the exile.

But having returned to the land of Israel where we can build a state according to spiritual laws and set an example for everyone and draw the whole world to the same form of life, we now have to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah to its fullest and explain it to the whole Israeli nation and to the whole world. It’s because we are on the verge of the complete redemption! Of course, the correction will be through the Israeli nation to the whole world. But there is no reason to prolong our sufferings since it’s time for the end of correction!

Today, the wisdom of Kabbalah has to be totally revealed. We have suffered throughout the exile and we had to suffer, but now there is no reason to go on suffering. The previous sufferings were enough in order to start the correction from now on. This is the reason that the wisdom of Kabbalah was concealed for so long.

During the 17^th and the 18^th centuries, Hassidim had the custom of going into “exile,” besides the fact that they were already living in exile in different remote places where they suffered afflictions and pogroms. In order to shorten the exile, Kabbalists used to leave their villages and towns and roam around. Thus they hastened the end of the exile. We have to learn the laws of the general development of the vessels and thus understand our whole history and the reason for all the events we went through.
[111053]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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