In Mitzvot and transgressions, only the intention is what bestows on our general system, on the revelation of the upper Light, on the ability to resemble the Creator. Of course, it also includes the simple relations of the corporeal world relating to others, the world, humanity, nature, and ecology, since your attitude includes all of your feelings. But the Mitzvot and transgressions exist only in relation to the connection and resemblance or lack of resemblance to the Creator.

This is so at each level, inanimate, vegetative, and animate, whereas the last level, the speaking, is the one that executes all the transgressions. If the desire to receive at the level of speaking that is going to connect to the Creator, to resemble Him, does something that is opposed to connection, then that is called a transgression.

“Israel” who longs for the Creator, is the one who makes the transgressions, whereas the “nations of the world” don’t make transgressions. With them there exists only seven Mitzvot of the sons of Noah. The man who in the meantime does not enter the path of direct ascent to the Creator, which is called, “Israel” (direct to the Creator), also needs to relate kindly to others: to maintain nature, its balance and ecology, to have court houses, provide for justice at the level of humanity, not to eat meat of a still living animal, etc.

But the spiritual Mitzvot and transgressions belong only to the ladder of the spiritual levels, to the right and left lines. Without any feeling of a transgression, you won’t be able to discover your evil inclination and won’t feel your need for the Light that Reforms. Thereby you arrive at the middle line.

Thus it is said,” There is no righteous in the land who hasn’t sinned.” We need to discover all the transgressions of our ego, since without that we won’t have a need for correction. If it is written that “the righteous is as full of Mitzvot as a pomegranate,” this means that in the beginning he discovered within him that same number of transgressions.
[76525]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/02/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: Our task is to transform common people’s routine desires into a plea to the Creator. How do we do that?

Answer: A mother clearly understands why her baby is crying, although the baby does not realize why he cries. The same principle applies here: We have to transform people’s desires, otherwise they won’t match the Light. People cry about troubles in their material lives, but the Light won’t respond to their complaints since He was the one who created them.

It is said: “Come to Pharaoh since I hardened his heart.” It’s the Creator who arranges our troubles and I cannot ask Him to release us from hardships, why then would He have sent them? We have to refer to Him with a different request—our appeal to help us rise above our woes and allow us to choose going through anguishes because only by doing so can we perceive Him. This is how we rise to bestowal beyond receiving.

But we are incapable of achieving this state! We are deeply sunk in egoism; we suffer; we strive to at least rid ourselves of pain as we are unable to sense enjoyment.

We should demand from Him: “Give me the power that allows me to stay above my pain.” We particularly need to be aware of our unwillingness to experience pain and our desire to stay above it: Let my body suffer, but I still can be a step higher than my body; affliction will help me escape my egoistic desires. If suffering vanishes, I will return to the Pharaoh; however, if affliction persists, I will do anything in my power to try to avoid pain.

So, suffering is a necessary prerequisite to make me run away from the Pharaoh, from my egoism. But where do I run? I beg the Creator for deliverance: “Give me a chance to escape and rise above the Pharaoh.” Even though I deal with a tiny part of the common evil, this is the kind of work that I have to do consciously. My job is not to stay a miserable animal, but rather to rise to the level of a human being. I have to realize that the human is higher than the animate level. We should draw a rigid and obvious line of separation between these two states.

• The animal in me suffers. Let it suffer! It’s just my egoism, it’s Pharaoh, with all its pain and darkness that thickens to the degree of the “Egyptian darkness.”
• I am above suffering striving for bestowal.

But where do I get energy to accomplish this? I am so weak that I run away from the slightest pain. The more I advance spiritually, the more sensitive I become, and things that were quite easy for me previously turn out to be unbearable. I cannot tolerate anything at all, even physical trouble.

This is what we work diligently with: We strive to rise above our desires through which we tend to suffer more and more. We find Egyptian darkness in the place where there previously was the Light, but in fact nothing changes except our assessment of events.

This is how “good” Pharaoh becomes “bad”; a bright sunny day turns into unbearable darkness.

Such a state seems exceedingly dreary and gloomy to us; we have to rise above the growing pain and regard suffering as help.

It is said that “Pharaoh brings the sons of Israel to deliverance,” but only on the condition that they really strive to get elevated above their egoism.

They understand that affliction helps them rise above their troubles and separate themselves from egoism since nobody is able to voluntarily approach suffering; instinctively, people retreat from trouble as far away as possible.

So, the Pharaoh helps me by pushing me away, whereas the Creator helps me by hardening the heart of the Pharaoh. My task is to ask the Creator to grant me power to stay above and to regard bestowal more important than receiving.

Otherwise, I will simply be crying out in pain like a person who is not focused on growing and instead sobs about the multiple problems in his life. This is what we see today while the humanity is going through a crisis. People have nowhere to go; they are helpless, and therefore, they don’t want to know anything, “Give us an anti-depressant, alcohol, painkillers, sedatives, drugs” – whatever helps them disconnect from their pain.

We ask the Creator to keep us above our pain so it doesn’t deafen us, but rather, gives us another shape. Our work is to plead: “Give me a chance to bestow and enjoy it.” We shouldn’t bestow for the sake of receiving; we have to learn how to enjoy bestowal. If we do, we’ll go beyond knowledge, and attain bestowal for the sake of bestowal, thus acquiring contentment through a great sense of belonging rather than through fulfilling our egoism. It doesn’t matter if we suffer within our egoistic desires; we enjoy in our sense of belonging to Him. Those are two different kinds of vessels. Similarly, people in this world are proud and enjoy serving those who they consider worthy and great.

This is how we prepare ourselves; others will follow. In fact, an enormous desire to be pleased hides behind the “façade” of our civilization. Our goal is to correct this desire; otherwise, people will continue to suffer uselessly.
[74888]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/12, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Brazil Congress”

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No matter what obstacles we encounter along the way, despair, helplessness, different opinions, thoughts and bad egoistic feelings, hate, unpleasantness, indifference, all this gradually accumulates and creates one huge desire that is called the feeling of the “exile in Egypt.” Only by discovering its full size, will we be able to imagine the redemption from its dark depths.

Thus the thought about redemption is added to the feeling of exile and leads us to freedom. The darkness that we feel standing in front of Pharaoh and the escape from this darkness, are all important clarifications within the Light that is revealed to a person who works in order to come out of exile.

The Light makes him feel an increasingly greater darkness and fear of the place he is in, of his own attributes. The main thing here is not to torture ourselves and not to let go, but to understand that we have to go through the full detailed feeling of exile. After all, this is the revelation of the nature of creation, about which it is written: “I have created the evil inclination.” Now our job is only to ask for the Reforming Light.

When this whole situation is clearly clarified in a person’s perception, he understands that the changes do not occur on the physical level, but on the level of the attributes that reveal the relationship between them. There is a general system and all its parts are interconnected in total interdependence. This is how all of creation was created.

But since this connection comes from Above, only the faintest Light is revealed in it, the Light of Nefesh, and then the power of repulsion and hate, the ego, is revealed among all the separated parts and gradually grows. This is already the real creation that was created outside the perfect previous state. The created being was shattered and now we have to work in order to connect him.

Nothing changes in the corporeal world. We have to imagine a picture in which the internal attributes of things change, the relationships, which are totally detached from the corporeal forms of time, motion, and space. This is very helpful.

You should understand that a person has no connection to the Light he is in if he doesn’t yearn to connect with others. Only if he makes an effort to connect with others above the natural feeling of repulsion, does he evoke and draw upon himself the Light that surrounds him.

On the other hand, we may say that a person connects with the Creator only through the general system. To the extent that a person can connect with it, he has contact with the upper Light.

There is no other means to come close to the Creator, to the Light, but through the general system. If a person is partially connected to the system of the souls, then his connection with the Light will not be whole either. The order of the spiritual levels is determined by that. If I connect to others by 20%, then I connect to the Creator by 20% and rise to the height of 20% on the spiritual levels. Everything is measured in relation to the desires. So our work is to intensify the connections among all of humanity, in all of reality, and then we will be able to contact the Creator.
[76824]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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When I’m dealing with a friend like a worker when we are involved together in dissemination, when we are working on translations or with equipment, or in any kind of work, I supervise him and he is under me. These are our corporeal situations. We understand that we must manage business in this manner.

But the moment we enter the group, there are no differences between us. We only look at our “points in the heart,” only at the yearning of each one for the Creator. And then the revelation of hatred is beneficial, since then I have with what to turn to the Creator for help, since by myself I cannot do this.

On the level of our world, we find ways to get along: We go to a bar together, sit together, clarify the relationship between us. In spirituality, this doesn’t help. We must have the Upper Light.

Thus, as much as the hatred and evil is revealed between us grows, the request for the Upper Light will grow as well. We raise our MAN (prayer, Mayin Nukvin– female waters) to it; we ask for help and yell until it arrives.

It can be that help doesn’t come, since we still don’t have enough recognition of evil. After all it is said, “The world was created either for the complete evil or complete righteous.” First you need to attain the level of “complete evil.” This level is obtained when you long for the goal and see how far away you still are from it. And according to the measure of your longing, you determine the measure of the distance.

There are those who passively belong to the group and don’t participate in the shared connection. They don’t even imagine how powerful this work is, that it’s an ocean of all kinds of attributes and feelings, great pressures, that are impossible to even get close to it, this work repulses people ad nauseam, to the state of being completely powerless.

All of these states bring us gradually to the recognition of evil through the general support that is so important here, through mutual Arvut, when you feel the urgency of the friends, and it obliges you. Then you are able to attain the level of “complete evil” and discover your ego among the others. And this ego won’t be beastly, since the connection needs to be directed to the attainment of the supreme goal and only on it.

We aren’t a corporeal group that wants to assemble together in order to pass time, to play football, or build a mutual business. Our goal is different, to attain the attribute of bestowal and mutual love.

And immediately it is discovered how opposite we are to this. We must feel that this oppositeness draws our full attention. Thus, people who long for the Creator understand the condition that everything that happens to us happens only to discover these states.

And the Light helps us. It is thus structured and descends together with the desires (they are found one against the other), as it bestows on the desires only to the measure that they are able to cope with it, able to bear these feelings of oppositeness. And in spite of all these unpleasant feelings and the great disappointments, are able to yearn for connection and the goal.

There is no other system. It is built on the oppositeness of the two forces of nature: reception and bestowal, the Light and the desire. There is nothing else. It is a practical and scientific system. The only thing that should be taken into account is that we need to be more serious in its realization.
[76207]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/12, Lesson 5

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As a result of the process of correct interaction in the group, a person feels more that he is a great sinner and egoist, that he hates others, and he has all kinds of negative desires and thoughts, intrigues, etc.

He reveals this in himself to such an extent that he begins to cry to the Creator to correct him. He starts realizing that only the Creator can correct him because he feels that everything comes from the Creator, and there can be no other source from which this would have resulted, even from its very nature.

He reveals the Creator in the opposite form, as the creator of something bad. But at the same time he reveals that the Creator has created evil in him on purpose in order to force him to turn to Him, and then the Creator corrects him.

Why was it necessary to go this way—to create evil so a person gradually reveals it in himself and turns to the Creator with a plea for correction?
[76699]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/24/2012, Lesson 4

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Question: You mentioned that the convention lessons lack pressure. In what way is the demand during the morning lesson different from the demand during the lessons at the convention?

Answer: We don’t come to the convention in order to learn, but in order to connect. Of course there will be the element of study, all kinds of drawings, explanations of the “worlds,” “Sefirot,” “Partzufim,” etc., but this is not the main thing.

The main thing is to attain the next level of connection between us. It disconnects and renews, disconnects and renews, so that this reconnection will already be on the next level and stronger.

We are anticipating a series of meetings in Colombia, Chile, Brazil, and New York, and we need to go through these stages in such a way that they really become a steady ascent, one after the other.
[76454]
From the Virtual Lesson 4/22/12, Preparation to the Congress

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Question: In your opinion, was it important to have voiced our common demand during the workshop? I had a feeling that at some point you were nudging the focus group towards expressing “Creator, fill us! We are ready. Change us.” Should these words be said out loud? Or perhaps only “I sensed. I felt…?”

Answer: No. We have to move forward through Kabbalistic sources. We need to read articles, analyze them, and precisely through these articles to penetrate the world of the Creator more greatly and deeply.

We can reveal Him only if there is a primary Kabbalistic source in front of you. Under no circumstances should you trust your thoughts and desires! It’s necessary to follow the text. If you don’t like one text, take another; you can change them.

I open a book, say, Shamati, on any page and I begin to do spiritual work from it. If I see that the page I opened isn’t right and doesn’t quite correspond to my state, then I can turn another 15-20 pages—that’s not important. Then I start reading and working here. But nevertheless, I work from whatever is written in the book.

After all, a Kabbalist describes sequential actions of cause and effect that incrementally lead you forward.

And if you’re going to make things up yourself based on that mass of thoughts and feelings that rise up inside you, then who knows where it will lead you. Being small, we learn like this from older kids, and they tell us what to do, how, and why. And so we must keep on studying like this, progressively.
[76505]
From the Vilnius Convention 3/25/12, Workshop 2

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Question: What exactly is our work in unity?

Answer: I have to yearn for a connection with the text that we study, to want that everything it says to be fulfilled in my connection with the general vessel, with the whole desire. I want to discover all the phenomena The Zohar talks about in my connection with the group.

The Zohar talks about the still, vegetative, and animate levels of the desire, nothing more. So there, it speaks about the sages, land, trees, animals, and donkeys—everything applies to the four phases of desire. We shouldn’t be distracted from this internal meaning and imagine an external picture.

Even if it “diverts” us, we have to hold on to the internality as hard as we can, and we always keep this struggle inside us with mixed success. The main thing is to try, which means that you are performing corrections and raising the internality over the externality, raising it higher and higher.

These are the greatest corrections, which only we can perform as the lowest level of the system. Until now no one could do that, not even the great Kabbalists of the past. We, in our generation, perform this most important work by raising the internality over the externality at the base of the system.
[76319]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/12, The Zohar

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Question: Can we reach a true prayer artificially, through games?

Answer: Advancement is only possible through prayer, by the revelation of the deficiency. If you wish to count how many times and in what way you advanced, then you have to take into account the moments in which you discovered a deficiency for the Creator from the bottom of your heart.

This deficiency activates the Reforming Light. What depends on you is only the prayer, (the raising of MAN), then accordingly you can calculate things. How many times do you recall that you raised MAN yesterday by discovering a need for the Creator inside you and the desire to advance towards bestowal upon others, the group, and the connection with the friends and the rest of humanity?

Did you yearn for that yesterday, at least to some extent? If you didn’t, then there was no yesterday; you have erased that day from your history!
[76161]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/12, Writings of Rabash

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The four hundred years of exile were given to us so that we would cry out and reach a true prayer. When you finally cry out “Help!”,  you come out of exile.

So, the conflict between the “shell” and “holiness” is about one question: Who will rule? Is it the human part in a person or the Creator that is in a person?

This is the middle neutral point called the middle third of Tifferet, the shell of Noga. The Creator rules the upper part, as it is written, “There is none else besides Him,” and below, Pharaoh, or myself.

Here in the free neutral point we have to clarify many things, because each time, Pharaoh grows stronger and denies the Creator’s control. This is after you have decided that the Creator should rule and you are totally under the domination of the Upper that does everything. For a moment I imagined this whole picture in my mind.

This isn’t easy since I am constantly confused about who the Creator is, who rules, and where my place and the place of others is. It is very difficult, here, to keep things balanced, as if standing on one leg on a high pole in a circus constantly trying to maintain balance, trying not to fall.

I need the Creator’s help here that He will give me the force of bestowal, which will make me independent of my desire to receive. Otherwise I will constantly need to stabilize the picture of reality in me that is absolutely impossible, and will have to balance on one leg on a pole like a circus performer. Only the power of bestowal can provide me with such a safety net and balance.

Thus, our point of freedom, “the shell of Noga” is revealed on the lowest level, “the middle third of Tifferet,” that obliges us to answer the question as to who will rule and “Who is the Lord that I should listen to His voice?”
[76221]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/12, Writings of Rabash 

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