Question: If the group has someone with an addiction and he has fallen from the general process, what efforts does it have to make in order to be in partnership with the Creator and to overcome our enemy, the ego?

Answer: The Creator doesn’t respond to a person’s individual requests. He actually does respond but not really in the person’s favor, since the person doesn’t give Him a chance to be revealed.

Suppose, I cry out now that I expect the Creator to be revealed to me. I have books and everything that I need! I lock myself in a room and begin to think, to shout, and to suffer.

Will the Creator be revealed to me? No. Why not? Where is the resistance that we build between us? Where is the enemy? He is gone. Where is the place in which He should be revealed?

The Creator should be revealed in the resistance, in the ego, in the fact that I cannot connect with the friends and ask for His help. Only then is He revealed!

But if I think about myself and only mumble: “Well, reveal Yourself to me,” then it will lead to nothing. Why should He reveal Himself?

“I want to rise to you…” what does it mean to rise to Him? It means to become equal to Him, to be close to Him in my attributes. What does it mean to be close to Him in my attributes? One unique and special. This means that the more we connect, the closer we are to Him, and so He is revealed in us.

There are seven billion people in the world. When we begin to rise, then in the next level we will feel that we are like one billion and then like one million, and then as one hundred people, and finally as one. This is the ladder upon which we ascend to the Creator.

But if I cry out: “Raise me, reveal Yourself to me!” Then, how can He reveal Himself? There is nothing in you; you are but a point. Only our world can be felt in a point.

Today, His condition is that you can succeed only if you begin to connect and at the same time worry about the whole world. See what a crisis He has put the world into. This is what Baal HaSulam writes about. Only by thinking about the whole world do we gradually begin to rise.

On every level humanity will feel that it is becoming smaller, more compact, and its members will feel closer to one another like in a group, until we all become one. Only when we become one, will we be equal to the Creator.

So we have no other choice but to start connecting in order to reveal Him and to see that we cannot do it by ourselves,

How many times have we read the passage from The Zohar about Rabbi Shimon’s students who were great sages and were on the level of Arich Anpin of Atzilut, the highest level of attainment, which is the revelation of the Creator, the feeling of the upper world. See how they hated one another so intensely that they were ready to kill each other when they started writing The Book of Zohar.

We have to reach such states in which we demand that the Creator be present so that He will connect us. But the relations between us are cold: I don’t really feel like it; I am in a bad mood… we haven’t even reached the feeling of hatred yet.
[103862]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 3

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Question: People in whom the point in the heart has been revealed have freewill, while 99% of people feel depressed. It turns out that we are one big family that has a goal in life, and therefore we are happy.

Answer: Of course we are one big family since only one vessel, one desire, was created initially. Then it was shattered to billions of individual desires. So there are seven billion people in the world today. Now we have to reconnect, but this time by our collective efforts. This, of course, happens under the influence of the upper Light, since we can’t do it by ourselves. The Light does everything, but we have to take this whole system through the integral connection, which means to become one unique whole again.

What’s going on here? First, we were one unique whole. Then under the influence of the upper Light, we began to feel egoistically repulsed by one another, and our vessel was shattered.

This means that the Light has inserted its opposite attribute into us, and now there are gaps between us, emotional distances: I can’t stand the other and he and I can’t live together, why? It’s because the Light has inserted an ego in us, the resistance between us, the darkness.

If we annul this opposite attribute now, by demanding that the Light influence us, then it will illuminate for us again, but according to our desire to rise above the ego now. So it turns out that if before the Light illuminated us on the level of the Light of Nefesh, which is a very faint Light, now it illuminates on the level of the Light of Yechida for us, which is a great eternal Light.

This is all our gain. In other words, the repulsion that we feel, all the gaps and the spaces between us, have to be filled with the Light.
[103561]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The main thing is the spirit of unity. If we had related to the entire people of Israel with such a feeling of community as to our family members, sitting together with us at the festive table, if we had embraced everyone, this would have been most of the efforts that we need to make to come out of Egypt.
[103598]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Question: What does it mean to address the Creator?

Answer: To address the Creator means to demand from the inner forces of the world that hold and control it to be clearly manifested in us. We have to know this force, be in contact with it, and to act with its help. That is why we ask, demand, it to be revealed.

It does not matter to the Creator how you address Him. You can curse Him, just do not leave!
[103681]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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Question: How can I connect with this gigantic European family if I am not acquainted with anyone personally? On what level is this connection realized?

Answer: I also do not know anyone here, except for 10 – 15 people that I came across personally, and I don’t even want to know. What does it matter to me what their names are?! I never remember names and don’t know whether it is this person or another. This isn’t important at all! What is important is that he has that same desire as you, and therefore you are both attracted to it, and together you have already become some kind of whole. From this connection is the whole of our method.

What is the connection to the bodies of people here, where they are from, what language they speak, what their characters are, or if it is a man or a woman? It doesn’t matter. We need only the connection of our points in the heart and nothing more. In any case, ultimately, in another few decades these bodies will no longer exist in our world, and only the points in the heart will be left. And those we need to connect in order to feel eternal existence in them.

All matter gradually disappears; nothing is left from it. The main thing is our eternal point! When you begin to pay attention to only this point in the heart, you will begin to relate to a person completely differently. I often scold my students, you know how I am, but I very much love this point in them.
[103499]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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

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

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

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

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

The older the generation, the more knowledge it has; and the younger the generation, the more energetic it is. The meal of the Seder symbolizes the connection between the generations, when everyone gathers and we all come out of Egypt, the whole family. There is a certain division of labor in this family and the younger generation’s role is to pull forward in the direction that the older generation is showing it.
[103530]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder,” 3/4/13

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Question: What do you mean by the word “to ask” when you say that “we need to ask to rise to the next level?” Is it a request that pragmatic requests stem from?

Answer: To ask means to desire.

Of course, we are all pragmatic, and we all want everything only for ourselves. I want to connect with everyone only for myself. I want to connect with Europe, and then with the whole world, only for myself. I want to enter the upper world. Even if the inclination that everyone should feel good awakens in us, it is also egoistic.

When the Light comes, it will correct us and show us in the united desire that we have to be different. It will make us like that, something which we cannot do by ourselves. Unless the Light corrects me, I remain the way I am, and I don’t need to conceal this from myself.
[103397]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 1

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Rabash, “What is Because of Impatience and Hard Work in the Work”: We need to work hard because it is only the sufferings of hard work that make us cry out to the Creator with a whole desire that the Creator will save us from the dominance of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. This means that it is from a state of lowliness that a person senses that he feels worse than all the other people and this pushes him to cry out to the Creator with all his heart so that He will help him. But he believes that the Creator hears his prayer since He has revealed his evil to him and so He will surely help him and take him out of the evil too, which is called redemption. This means that he believes that the Creator let him understand that he is in exile and He will surely take him out of exile afterward.

We advance by two forces, but for those who don’t know where to go, there is only one force that pushes them from behind and forces them to move forward. They are constantly trying to escape from it, trying to be saved from the “roller of evolution” that catches up with them from behind and pushes them to advance.

But the path of the Torah is different from the path of suffering. A person is given the wisdom of Kabbalah so that he will build up the force that will illuminate before him and will pull him, in the hope for a better future, with great hopes, positive examples, a feeling of awe that is felt by the connection and spiritual elation.

The goal must be as glowing and as attractive as possible, and depicted as wonderful and good. Although the advancement is by the ego, which we must constantly reject, we have to try to use this method: to draw the Light that Reforms, so that it will do all the work. The approach here requires subtlety, like in anything. If you know how to enter it, then it is very easy for you to do it. Someone who doesn’t know this feels great difficulties and constantly runs into a wall.

We have to arrange the right environment in which you will soon begin to suffer because of the lack of connection and because of your envy, lust, and desire for respect. You will see that others are more successful than you. You will envy others that succeed in connecting so strongly and you will also want to attain that.

The envy forces you to demand your change. You already know how to evoke the Light that Reforms, you begin to change under the influence of the Light, and thus advance. The main thing is to develop the drawing force that is called “I shall hasten it.” It is because the troubles, the sufferings, the natural force of evolution “in its time,” is not up to you. We should understand that the sufferings come to a person in order to wake him up; we need to develop the pangs of love by ourselves instead of corporeal sufferings so that instead of the evil that catches up with us, the goodness will illuminate in front of us.

Instead of the natural course in the grip of time, we should rise above time in order to determine the pace of our advancement by ourselves. This means that it is all in your hands! We have to feel elation and a sense of awakening since it all depends only on us! If we want it today, it will be today! If we really want it now, it will be now! Everything that we want to attain by the path of the Torah can be promoted and achieved.

It is very important to emphasize this in the work: to operate and integrate all the components, all the means that we have in the way of “I shall hasten it” that will help us advance. We have to develop all the means and to connect them correctly in order to see that there is certain method here instead of following the path of suffering by developing under the pressure of our nature. A person can advance by rising above nature in order to advance before it and to open the gates for it.
[103267]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 20: And the same “body,” in its bad form that is given to us in the present, this too does not spoil our essence as this and all its properties are about to be annulled completely together with all the system of impurity that is its source, and everything that is about to be burned is as if it is already burned, and is considered as if it never existed.

The essence of the soul (Nefesh), clothed in the body, is merely at this stage of desire, but the desire to bestow is derived from a system of four worlds of ABYA of sanctity; it exists eternally, because this form of the desire to bestow is in equivalence of form with the source of life and is unchangeable.

We exist in the reality of Ein Sof (Infinity) and all the worlds (olamot), meaning the concealments (alamot), are only filters that adjust the picture of Ein Sof for us; the degree of concealment exists only in our perception and they will vanish the moment we are able to annul our body,” the desire to receive for itself.

However, this desire still needs to be revealed. Where does it really exist? In fact, today all my desires are actually acting at the beastly level. The real desire in order to receive is revealed only when I begin to work in order to bestow and find out everything that is opposed to the desire to bestow. Opposing the right line, the left line is revealed; against sanctity, impurity is revealed.

Here below, under the line of spiritual perception, we are in the imaginary world where our desires, as it is said, “All look like beasts.” But if by work in the group, in dissemination, in connection, for friends, for humanity, and finally for the Creator, we reveal our inclination toward Above, then we reveal our corrupted “body,” meaning the desire to receive with the intention to receive.

In order to correct this desire, the intention needs to change to in order to bestow. The desire to receive itself stays and above it I build a desire in order to bestow that is called soul (Neshama). Its essence is in my bestowal to everyone. By giving to everyone, loving everyone, I develop the soul above my “body.” And in this form, we are reach correction.

Then this world disappears, and I can see all the worlds to the world of Infinity.

Now we also exist in the world of Infinity. And now, too, everything depends on my intention. Nothing is immutable and constant, as everything is being depicted and happens only in my qualities.
[102676]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 

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Question: Can we measure the desire of the group?

Answer: Yes, if it’s really a group, meaning that it has a formed system in which you see the ten Sefirot. After all, a real group is something that exists on its own, a spiritual mechanism, a spiritual structure, a spiritual body.

Question: What stands between us and such a group now?

Answer: A lack of connection. We need to establish a correct relationship between us that is infused with dedication, unity, and support. We need to feel that there is no alternative, that this is our duty; otherwise, we will not achieve the property of bestowal and will not bring contentment to the Creator through the friends and teacher. We will not advance without connection, we will not be able to save the world, and will not be able to delight the Creator.

Moreover, without strengthening our mutual connection, we bring damage, like someone who drills a hole in a common boat. Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Peace,” that society punishes theft, but if a person does not add his efforts, there is no punishment. Meanwhile, he who “prays,” does so for himself and he damages society. After all, the real prayer can be produced only by a community of people who want to bring contentment to the Creator by mutual bestowal.

Alone, none of us is capable because I do not have that “place,” that desire, from which I could address Him. There is no Creator without the unity of created beings who want to mutually bestow upon each other, thus giving Him a “place” to be revealed between them and to enjoy. Once and for all I have to understand that I have no “place” to be filled, no force that will help me to bestow; there is nothing. Everything is only in the connection between us.
[102759]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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