How can we imagine the upper state in which the Creator reveals to you that He loves all those that hate you and hates all those that love you, including yourself? It seems that it brings you no good and that there is nothing worse than that. Before you are Pharaoh, Bilam, Balak, Amalek and Hitler all in one and you know how to overcome this because this also comes to you from the Creator, although indirectly.

The more we advance towards love, the greater the obstacles we come across. You overcome them and the “angel of death” becomes the “holy angel” in your eyes.

Question: I don’t understand this state. After all, the Creator is still perceived as good and benevolent. Do I see it together with the suffering of others and my own suffering in the past?

Answer: You see all the suffering that is in reality. This is a horrible picture: monstrous suffering, not one gram of pleasure, not a day of rest, only pain and suffering for thousands of light years. The suffering is everywhere. There is total emptiness in the desire to receive, not here and there, not from time to time, but one hundred percent suffering.

This state is called the illumination of the Shechina, and above it, you reveal the good and the benevolent. Otherwise, how would it be possible to discover Him? If the Creator just brings you goodness, then you discover Him in egoistic vessels. But if you discover Him in the full depth of the black abyss that is in front of you, then He is discovered in your vessels of bestowal that are aimed at bestowal.

Furthermore, you will see that He is good only towards those who are as bad as He is, and bad towards those that are good, in contrast to Him. This is how it will seem to you.

Our work is only in rising above the vessels of reception. If you see that the Creator’s actions do not match bestowal, it appears to you intentionally as an obstacle on the way, above which you have to rise.

Question: And what do I discover after this ascent?

Answer: The desire to receive, the general vessel of Malchut of Ein Sof, in a totally empty form: darkness, despair, worry, and fear, the dreadful trials of Job, and you fill it with the Light of Hassadim and with love.

Question: That means that after having corrected myself I feel good, no matter how much darkness is revealed to me. And now I look at the past and what do I see? Have I suffered or not?

Answer: This is already the next level, which you have to determine. In Gmar Tikkun (End of Correction) you don’t see that you’ve suffered of course.

Question: And what is the suffering that I feel now?

Answer: Now you are not the same person who will attain Gmar Tikkun. Eventually you will not recognize yourself in your present state. The feelings that were left behind are not you.

Question: So what am I now?

Answer: Something virtual.

Question: So what do we need all the present states for?

Answer: You feel them in order to prepare yourself, when you do everything that is in your power. It says: “I have exerted and I found.” You are getting ready until you find, until you rise above the Machsom (barrier), until then, the real “you” doesn’t exist.
[68061]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: During yesterday’s lesson, I felt a great heaviness. Afterward, I went outside and I was so lost that for a long time I didn’t understand where I was. How is it possible to go through and process states like these?

Answer: Indeed you know that we must go through spiritual birth. Birth is complete reversal, like a revolution. A person has to go through a certain number of states through which he acquires a new vision: He sees everything in a usual way, like others, and together with this, he sees the other side, as well, the reversal. And this is what happens not only once, but several times.

He has to get used to detaching himself from his animal nature and existing without perceiving the world through his body. It is not mysticism but special work that we let the Light perform on us. We don’t know when we will fall into these states; it is difficult to predict and locate them in advance. But it happens in order to give you enthusiasm, a feeling that it is possible to see the world in a way not according to what you are used to.

If a person works intensively with authentic books, attracts to himself the Light that reforms, and tries to connect with the group, then he goes through states like these. There is nothing special or dangerous about this. It doesn’t cause any unwanted results, but it is done only in order to accustom the person to see the world and all of reality in an objective manner.

The objective manner is the same form that I clothe. Objectiveness in itself doesn’t exist. Even the Creator, as it seems, is not objective, since He sees everything by way of bestowal, while we now see everything through our egoism. But in order to teach us to see reality from two points of view, they are transferred to us through exercises like these.

In our corporeal world there is no “division” like this since we never leave this one world, which operates according to the principles of egoistic reception. Thus it is impossible to explain to someone that there can be another perception. They see it as sophisticated psychology.

But with us it happens in a materialistic way, since we change our substance with others. When the reforming Light operates on a person, it gives him a foundation that is called the desire to bestow. And the person already begins to see the world through this desire.

And in the meantime, it happens not only at the expense of the person himself, but also simply teaches him, shakes him up a little, and awakens him, like a grown-up who lifts a baby in his arms and the child suddenly sees a new world from above. One that is big and wide. He, himself, asked that he be lifted and held up in order to feel grown up like everyone, and even more than that, since everything becomes visible in front of him.

But does he deserve this height? No, we are those who lift him and want to show him that something else exists besides the childish perception, in order to awaken a desire and urge in him to attain it.

And the exercises of this kind are sometimes given to us from above, with the help of the surrounding Light. Usually they happen suddenly. In these exercises there are sometimes states that are incomprehensible to us, and thus they aren’t pleasant and they confuse us to a great degree. The person totally doesn’t understand how it all can turn upside down and is alarmed because he doesn’t know what is happening to him.

They simply want to show you now that there are other forms of perception that exist, different than the forms that you are used to. In this world there exists something other than what you felt the last few tens of years of your life. It happens this way with everyone.

We go through these kinds of states, until we get used to them. In the beginning, they are considered as exceptions and incomprehensible to the extent that you don’t know what to do with them. Afterward, you already get used to the existence of this inversion. You even begin to identify it in the friends when they lose balance and experience passing from state and state.

Thus we advance. You get used to it and anticipate that the inner states will change as quickly and frequently as possible, because through them you formulate acquaintance with reality. After all, all of reality is within you and depends on your state.

Thus we progress until the Machsom (barrier), where really a true change occurs. And everything that happens until then is designed to prepare for this. Get used to it!

You should be happy that you already have begun to feel yourself as something other than a beast, and that fundamental and highly qualitative changes are occurring in your attributes, in the perception that the Light that reforms brings you. No one is hypnotizing you, but it is simply the real beginning of feeling changes within.
[67343]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, Shamati #148

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Question: If we prepare all day long for the lesson like for a meeting with a king, where it is possible to come with only one request, how would tomorrow’s lesson look?

Answer: You would receive a very great Light. You would feel how much it gives you. Through the material studied, you would begin to feel the spiritual system that bestows upon you. Dry lines (of the text) would be resurrected. They would acquire depth and transparency and create inner volume in everything. It would become clear to you that our entire world is flat, like a picture on the wall. And behind it, you would suddenly see a new dimension, a system that moves the whole picture and assembles its parts. When you feel the importance of the goal, you will begin being in it.

But in the meantime, we belittle the goal, reject it subconsciously, thus, of course, it is distant from us.

In any case, we must advance forward, and first of all to be concerned about understanding its importance. Even if we are advancing now, we must always pass over to the left line for critical clarification and see that it is not enough. With each day we must add efforts to the connection, and only to this.

Besides that, we must thank our friends from all over the world who perform dissemination and distribute explanatory materials. We need to support them in their work, it really helps us all very much.
[67491]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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On the spiritual path a person discovers terrible egoistic desires which show him how deeply he is in receiving. Then his attitude towards others is described as mistakes. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot“: “With this we understand the words of our sages: that one who repents from fear is rewarded with his sins becoming mistakes.”

First the egoistic desires are revealed to a person as sins, and now he passes them to the level of mistakes, to an easier level. On the whole, the correction is always gradual: First we raise the desire to the level of Bina, and then to the level of Keter. First, in the level of Bina, we neutralize the desire.

We cannot bestow with it yet, but at least we don’t let it cause harm. At the same time, we are in single concealment, while before we were in a double concealment: “that the sins one makes extend to him from the reception of Providence through double concealment.”

If both the face and the posterior of the Light are concealed, I am in a double concealment. Then I have to sin because I am under the control of my egoistic desire, the desire to receive in order to receive, until a Light appears from Above and corrects my desire.

But there are states in which the Light is concealed. It is present, but it doesn’t correct. This is single concealment. The presence of the Light still makes me fear to receive: it is as if it warns me, guards me, and keeps me on the level of mistakes, but not sins.

But if the Light is totally concealed and doesn’t deter me, then I lose control and am under the domination of my egoism, which does whatever it wants with me.

On the whole, I am between the force of bestowal and the force of receiving. The account is very simple: Which of the two forces pressures me more strongly? If the force of the Creator, the force of the Light, influences me more strongly, then I will undoubtedly bestow. But if the force of the Light is weaker, then I will undoubtedly carry out the orders of my egoistic desire and move on to the level of “sins.”

It is the same with us: If society, the police, or the family hold me and prevent me from doing bad deeds, then I am okay. But if there aren’t such restraining factors, I begin to “go wild.” One way or another, there is no choice: A person is under the influence of one of the forces.
[67606]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Baal HaSualm, “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot“: Since His Guidance is not revealed, it is impossible to see Him but only in concealment of the face, from behind, as one who sees one’s friend from behind and might doubt and think he is another. In this manner, one is always left with the choice to either keep His will or break it.”

Because the Creator is concealed, He allows us to have doubts, and hence, the opportunity to perform actions. If the Creator were revealed, we would all be His slaves, “robots” that would perform His desire unconditionally. His revelation would oblige us to do that automatically. After all, there would be no “break” between us and the Light, which is what enables us to resemble the Creator independently.

But the Creator brings us the feeling of concealment: He doesn’t just hide, but lets us feel that He doesn’t exist. In this case, we can carry out His desire as if He exists, and we act in His place. Thus He allows us to complete His actions. For us it is an opportunity, a place to work and take pride in the fact that we can fill our doubts with His Guidance.

But where can I find the power to perform this work, if He is concealed from me? I have to understand that the concealment is a kind of “black light” that builds a special form in my desires and thoughts: the hidden contours of the Creator, which I want to complete.

If this form were revealed to me, I would carry out His desire submissively. So how can I create the Creator’s form inside me, so that it will oblige me to act while He is concealed? I have to build His image inside me and only then can I carry out His plan.

And so gradually, a person builds inside him the Creator’s image. And the Creator shows him more and more how deeply and in what manner He is concealed. Thus we advance until we build everything the Creator wants. Then we will resemble Him according to the equivalence of form.

So the point is not to actually carry out the Creator’s desire. Our desire to receive and all the different ways to receive are a means. The point is in building the Creator’s image inside us.
[67375]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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We are in a state of concealment, and we must understand that we are in concealment. A person is born and lives in this world in a state of total detachment from the true reality. He doesn’t know where he is and whether there is anything besides that. If there is, can it be seen?

When we feel the presence of something, it could be that it is hidden or revealed. So, the concealment is part of the revelation because I already know about the existence of something that is hidden. This means that people who are in a state of concealment are already on the way to the truth, although it is concealed from them at the moment.

This is already an advanced state because ordinary people don’t feel that something is concealed from them.

We go through four phases: double concealment, single concealment, Providence of reward and punishment, and eternal Providence.

As far as the two concealments are concerned, it isn’t detachment any more; neither a state of unconsciousness. In double concealment, I know that I am detached from reality and that I don’t see that the Creator determines everything that happens to me. In single concealment I feel that my life depends on my being in front of the Creator. But something that brought me to concealment instead of revelation depends on me.

So in a double concealment, I determine that I am detached from the Creator, and in single concealment there is contact, but I don’t perform His desire.

In the next phase, the phase of revelation, I receive reward and punishment according to the degree that I perform His desire. The punishment is eventually also a reward, because thanks to it, I advance. It shows me where I still have to correct myself, that is, where I am “behind” the present level, because a person is not demanded to do something that is beyond his power.

Eventually, I move on to eternal Providence after having corrected all my attributes, and I reach total mutual understanding with the Creator.

All these states were meant to make us understand the Creator’s Providence. This understanding is the sign, the means, the basis for all our success and wellbeing. If I know that I receive blows for some reason, it isn’t meaningless sufferings anymore, but a punishment that will do me good, or the good itself. Everything here depends on the level I am on and on my attitude towards the punishments.

It could be that as a result of the blows on my egoism, I will feel so happy that I will rise above these feelings and enter a state of Hafetz Chesed. So I have nothing, but I don’t suffer. Apparently this is impossible? Where is the envy, the lust, the honor? Everything remains below, but a lot of work is required in order to reach that.

So we gradually go through the phases of concealment and revelation, and go up the levels of the spiritual worlds. It is about individual discernments, about a person’s internal states, but it is clear that they are realized only if I try as hard as I can to be incorporated in the right environment. Otherwise I won’t be able to rise.

Sometimes it is hard to tie all the internal work with the work in the group. But actually, it isn’t a problem, I should only check and connect these two components more carefully. All the work is in the group; all the feeling is inside me.
[67378]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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We have to go through a long process of clarification. From the beginning of creation to its completion, all we do is clarify how we can be pleased relative to the giving force, the source, the Creator.

We go through some of our clarifications unconsciously, without our sensations and understanding, as a preparation to the states that will follow and will require our understanding and feelings. This is in the same way a small child grows or any other development happens. You have to go through several steps and all kinds of calculations and remain in them for quite some time until you start sensing that there is a new level of sensitivity, comprehension, and clarification, and you ascend to a next level.

Later, the novelty of a new step as if is erased and slips from our memory: We get used to it, and as we know a habit dulls the flavor. Over and over again, unconsciously we try to break through and move ahead as much as we can until new sensations arise and we arrive at new conclusions.

The major discernment is who will rule over us: the Creator or Pharaoh, the staff or the serpent? Obviously, on the surface each of us is ready to rise to the level of the other bestowing nature. But how do we get there?

That’s where the struggle between the Pharaoh and Moses or Aaron within a human being takes place. It happens within a person. The dispute is over for whom do I strive? When I am told that no matter how hard a person tries, it won’t help, why should I bother trying?

On the other hand, it is said “No one can help me except myself” and “I have labored and found!”  The problem is that a person is unable to realize that changes have to be of an internal nature and have to occur from within. Only due to inner changes does a person enable himself to make a new round of calculations.

Any change totally depends on the mercy from Above: it will either happen or not. But we still have to continue working, and our job is to find mercy in the Creator’s eyes that gave us this support.

In fact, it really proves the phrase: “I labored and found!” That is, our request is not a request per se, but rather a test of the intensity of our work that is split half and half.  One half is completed by us, which makes the Light, the other half, comes from Above and makes the correction.

The staff must not be dropped to the ground because it will turn into serpent, which means that we shouldn’t give up on our knowledge; on the contrary, we have to hold it up high. “Faith above reason” stands for the work that we perform with our intellect to the best of our capacity letting the Light manifest and correct us.
[66935]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/12, Shamati #59

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Question: Can one remain in the sensation of the material world and attain spirituality at the same time?

Answer: A person who attains spirituality does not lose anything in his sensations. On the contrary, he feels this world much more as a source and motive to enjoy.

The spiritual world means that you attain the reason why you are alive. Then this entire life in the reality that you feel in your body, called “this world” is also worth it.

The spiritual world is the Creator. By collecting your previously dispersed and broken attitude to others into one, relating to them as to one whole which is yours and dear to you, you begin to reveal the Creator within that attitude.

Through this entire world, like through a focusing lens, I focus all of my attitude to it – in love, unity, and connection, and in this point of focus I find the Creator.

It’s as if many rays (forms of my attitude) enter this lens (the group, humanity), come out of it, and focus on one point (the Creator).

Therefore, nothing disappears, but on the contrary – I use this entire world. Without it there is nothing for me to do. Until the full correction (Gmar Tikkun) I have to be in this world, and if I didn’t finish the correction, I have to return to the same reality, to its observation.

What does “this reality” mean? I return to the same qualities of perception, to the same desires that I did not finish correcting. And then I once again see a certain reality, feeling this world the same as now or maybe somewhat different. But I have to see reality in the intention to enjoy, in my flawed receiving desires, which I still retain, until I correct all of them. Then this reality disappears because it becomes unified.

Look from aside at this entire reality, which appears before us, and at the spiritual reality. We have to see the will to enjoy and how much we feel in it – for the sake of reception or for the sake of bestowal. According to this, we are in one reality or another. And our life cycles are like a change of Partzuf, one after another.
[67327]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, The Zohar

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The Zohar tells of how the upper Light operates and bestows on us and builds from all of our attributes something that is similar to the Creator: not of our flesh, but from our inner essence that is called, “mind” and “heart,” from all of our thoughts and desires that constitute the person’s “I.”

I don’t know what He needs to do with them. In the meantime, all my desires and thoughts are involved with what I see before me in order to benefit myself. This is the way the ego, which stands behind them, operates.

And the Light that arrives during the reading of The Book of Zohar doesn’t leave me anything from the previous thoughts and desires, but begins gradually to give me other values, yet at the level of the state that I am in. And then later, it begins to detach me from the present reality, as each time He performs some changes in me. On occasions, I rise above this reality and then on other occasions, I again sink within it even more.

Thus, through all kinds of exercises and changes, He helps me stop being dependent on this reality, until eventually it isn’t important to me if I am in it or completely separated from it. And I can use all these forms just for the sake of one goal. Even if I were given all the King’s treasures, and even if I am a poor person living in the forest without even a shirt, it isn’t important because I am dependent only on the intention, something more exalted than my state. I agree with it and want it, above everything that can appear in my vessel (Kli) of reception, both in thoughts and desires.

If I arrived at such a state, thanks to the exercises, that is the work of God on me, and from this moment onward, I begin to see what the The Book of Zohar speaks about.

We hope that with each day and with each moment, we will enter such a state where the Light reaches us, the upper force, which will begin to change us and to raise us above all the desires and thoughts so that we will begin to be dependent on the Giver that bestows upon us.
[66681]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/12, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” (50): However, before that, when the writing speaks only from the perspective of one concealment, the text ends, “they will say in that day: Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?”

In other words, a person feels that he has no connection with the Creator because he lacks the equivalence of form with the Creator, and as a result he feels bad. It could be that he made a lot of money in the stock market and that everything is fine, but he feels bad because he has no contact with the Creator, meaning that he lacks the equivalence of form with the attribute of the general bestowal called the Creator.

“This means that they still believe in Providence of reward and punishment, and say that the troubles and suffering come to them because they do not cleave to the Creator…”

This means that I understand that I am bad, that I didn’t bring about the correction, and so I was “punished.” I have sunk into concealment. But on the other hand, we can also see it as a reward because I feel a negative response and thanks to that I can correct myself. This means that I have to “kiss” the stick that helps me be aware to how low I deteriorate. Otherwise I could deteriorate without even feeling it.

So the difference is in how I judge: according to how I feel my present state, or according to the state itself, as is. I have to determine the state as bad in relation to the required correction of the desires in which I am not adhered to the Creator. These vessels are broken, and the evil can be felt in them in a different way. I may feel bad because I am empty, and I may feel bad because I am detached from the Creator. I can also feel empty and feel good about it because I feel the shattering that way. Finally, I may feel bad because I feel the detachment. In any case, I feel that I am detached from the Creator.

So everything is determined according to the present state. It doesn’t depend on you and you can’t randomly jump from one state to another (like the arrows in the drawing). Rather, you have to examine what you have: “Do I feel good or bad? Suppose I feel good, what do I feel: detachment from the Creator or a connection with Him? Detachment: Does it bother me? No, I feel good. But can I still see the evil in this situation? Not at the moment.”

You should determine your accurate feeling and your attitude to the real state. This is the inner clarification of the state you were given. Then you feel the demand: “How can the group and the reforming Light and the other means help me correct my attitude?” It’s impossible to correct a good feeling or a bad one, or the state of detachment. The group can only correct my attitude to the situation.
[67224]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/12, Shamati #1

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