Question: Our state is like that of a birth. A birth is a concrete action that either happened or not. However, if I ask this question now of my friends I’ll get all kinds of answers in the full spectrum, as if there are numerous tints of the grey color here. Is this the way it is supposed to be, or is it only one of the two, either black or white?

Answer: There is a very good example for this, the exodus from Egypt. It can be related to a single person who includes all of these qualities within him, since the whole world is inside of him. However it can also be seen as the exodus of many people of all types, amongst which there are men and women, the elderly and the children, infants, people related to the nation of Israel, and the Egyptians, the so-called “mixed multitude.” Everyone is coming out; everyone is running.

In this crowd, there are those who dreamed of this flight for many years and some who are following along with their relatives. There are children and infants who are led out by their parents. There are the elderly who would have no one to take care of them if they stayed. There are those who saw the crowd fleeing and just then decided to join.

But there are those who are going at the head of the throng who are determined to escape, and in front of them all, Moses is leading the way. Meaning that we see that among those who arrive at Mount Sinai are all types of people. And inside of a single person, reaching this state of the first unity above the mountain of hatred between him and his friends, there are also a multitude of desires and thoughts, from the high point in the heart which leads him like the forefather, Moses, and up to the most rough, vain desires.

In the end it’s required of them all, all so different and each one with everything confined inside of his spectrum of desires, thoughts and intentions, it’s necessary for all of them to be ready for the mutual connection as much as we, being below the Machsom, are capable of it. Of course, all of this is happening in a world of deception for the sake of egoism, Lo Lishma, but no more is required of us yet.

It needs to be understood that the spiritual approach is not difficult at all, but very simple. The problem is that we are not directed at the spiritual! I am not directed at unity! If I were able to remain in the aspiration towards unity for a few hours, I would have reached it. However, I don’t want it, and I am spending hours on all other possible things except spirituality, so in the end, life alone is not enough to reach it.

The problem is that we keep forgetting where we need to apply efforts. If you apply effort in the correct place, then it doesn’t matter if you have very little water, but you are using it to water a seed planted into the earth, this seed will shoot sprouts. While if you have a lot of water, but you are pouring all of it out into the desert sand, then nothing comes of it.

That is why the whole problem lies in the quality of intention. While in quantity, we are over-fulfilling it, skirting around, doing something, and we remain satisfied because we have used all of our strength. However, if you were to see how it really is, you would understand that you have not done anything in the right place at all. This is the whole issue. This is what we are working on and everything depends upon this.

Each one is already overfilled with theoretical knowledge, the science, and the articles. What remains is to apply the effort in the right place, only between the hearts, and then we’ll succeed. In our state today we can reach this within a few hours in order to at least touch the spiritual vessel, and then everything will be much easier.
[71836]
From the Arava Convention 2/24/12, Lesson 4

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A person also needs help from Above to reach absolute despair. On our own we are incapable of it. It is a great thing to feel your limit: This is—I, and this is no longer—I. Only the Creator can give this sign, this limit, the boundary between Him and me.

We do different actions with different gimmicks until we suddenly reach despair, seeing the so-called “decree of Heaven” in it, which stands for a sign from Above. Baal HaSulam writes, There is no happier state in a man’s world than when he finds himself despaired with his own powers…. After all, this state comes to him from the Creator, and there is nothing else that can be done.

We were collecting our little efforts, one at a time, and then we receive them simultaneously, already accumulated into a single whole. We do not put our efforts into some little box, they collect in a common vessel, and their result comes from the Creator. No one knows when it will happen. And this is why the exit out of Egypt is done in a rush and in darkness.

As we try to attain unity, we begin to work on it all together, and then we suddenly discover the power of despair, rejection, and powerlessness. This despair leads us to a demand:  We need help to unite. And we scream. And this scream is followed by help from Above.

Thus, it is impossible to reach the Creator without first becoming despaired inside and making a concerted effort together. After all, the Creator is a force, which is specifically revealed through mutual effort, mutual work. In the individual there is no Creator. The upper Light can only exist in a vessel, corrected to a certain degree, and an individual is a “piece, broken” from the whole.
[71964]
From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson #6

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Today we are writing history with our unity. Everything is happening for the first time. Because until now, generations were spiritually descending: from the revelation of the Creator to Adam through Abraham, Moses, etc, until Rabash. This overall process is called the “descent of the generations.” So for the first time in history, we find ourselves completely separated without any preparation. We begin the ascent from point zero.

The previous stage of development is completed. The descent from above downward, the descent of the worlds, Partzufim, and Sefirot, the breaking of the soul of Adam HaRishon—everything has been completed. Baal HaSulam said that we would begin the reverse journey starting in 1995.

Our state does not have examples from the past. There are no analogies to show us the way to act today. In all the past generations, there was a certain degree of illumination; there was perception and a connection with spirituality. But we are completely separated.

But on the other hand, we have a huge support from Above to begin our ascent. The entire system is helping us and relying on us. This is why parts of broken souls, which did not have any connection with the spiritual, started coming closer to this idea over the past several years and started understanding some things. This is because we make our actions correspond to spiritual actions, and thus awaken the Light.

Question: What does our generation need to do?

Answer: Understand the crisis. We are becoming acquainted with it in a spiritual way, asking the question about the meaning of life. But the entire world is experiencing it in a material way: A person is not happy with his life, and this also is a kind of a question about its meaning, but on a different level.

We all begin with this as we see that there is no answer to the crisis neither in the corporeal nor the spiritual plane. In this way, the entire humanity, divided into those directed straight to the Creator (Israel – Yashar Kel), and the nations of the world, must realize itself.

We live in a very special time, and do not understand that the Creator is literally “spoon-feeding” us. He cannot reveal Himself right away because this would destroy the entire work, this would be against Nature, and would disturb the law of balance and similarity of qualities. He will reveal Himself when we raise MAN, an appeal for correction.
[71934]
From the Arava Convention 2/25/12, Lesson #6

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Question: We are forming a collective desire before going to the Arava. How can we reduce the path of such a desire so that it transitions from material exertion into spiritual attainment?

Answer: In fact, there is no such thing as two worlds, material and spiritual. When our actions lack intention, it seems to us that we act within matter. The world around us is “visible” because of the deficiency of intention; that’s why we are bound to work with “reinforced concrete” by going through trouble and putting forth demands. They are nothing but the materialization of the defects of our intention. That’s what our material world is about. So far, there is no way out except working with “clay and bricks” as the sons of Israel did while they were in Egyptian exile.

Kabbalists gave several recommendations which allow us to draw the upper force upon us in order to get altered. I don’t know who I am at this time since I consist of a thousand parameters and have no idea how to change them. Besides, I don’t possess any ability for self-regulation. Real transformations are of a qualitative nature; I am not qualified at this time to envision the next step or shape.

This is the reason why we have this world and the group, toys which we “play” with. It’s okay that I act materialistically and egoistically, by doing so I trigger the influence of the upper Light upon me. It’s a very unusual remedy: I can connect to a notion called “we” and together we activate the mechanism of the group with the help of intention, studies, dissemination, and so on. Thus, we engage an even more superior mechanism, GAR of the world of Atzilut, from which we receive the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that changes us. We try to connect with each other, participate in various events, join common meals, study and disseminate. The major thing in these activities is our unity.

We take part in all sorts of activities with egoistic intention (Lo Lishma) to the best of our ability as small children who don’t know accurate answers to their questions. By acting so, we initiate a system that comprehends our actions like a mother who senses her child even though he is not yet able to express his desires. She knows what he wants before he cries out.

The motherly system is ready to decipher our appeal. It’s Bina who gave birth to us and to whom our appeals return through a closed circle. It doesn’t matter whether our efforts are of a material nature; they will result in spiritual “discovery.”

Kabbalists accurately defined the place and specifics of human efforts: The group work should be as unified as possible. At the same time, we should address the world with the message that the Creator wishes us to convey to others; if we cope, the “discovery” will come to us by all means.
[70744]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/12, “The Peace” 

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Question: During one of the lessons you said that the intention for bestowal cannot be personal and individual. Isn’t it my personal relationship towards the society, to my neighbor?

Answer: We are in a system of mutual interconnection. It is also called the system of the worlds (Olamot), meaning concealments (Alamot). The upper force and the structure of the system itself are concealed from us. We don’t see that we are tightly connected to each other.

We are familiar with the “animate” relations: here are my parents, here are my relatives, these are the ones I love, these are the ones I hate, these love me, and those hate me. However, the finer, higher levels of the system are concealed from me. This is what my world is, my concealment.

By revealing the highest, the altruistic, system, of our interconnection, we will understand that whether we want it or not, we are tightly fused to each other. Now we are not active participants of this system; however, it already needs our active participation. The time has come to assimilate ourselves within it, to consciously join its flow, in order for each one to fulfill their function in it.

However, from our side, we don’t want it or understand it, and that’s why we feel ourselves to be in a bad condition. Of course, the general system continues to function, but due to our inactivity, we feel the defects of its work and we are puzzled. “What’s going on? What’s missing there?” This is reality and we call it the “crisis.”

Furthermore, the difference between what is desired and what is actual, between our initial state in the world of Infinity and the return back to Infinity from this world, is only in the intention. We change neither the system, nor the basis of our nature. Each one retains their characteristic traits, their connection to the reality, each one remains at their place.

The structure of our interconnection does not change as well. To someone you are a student, to someone you are a friend, and to someone you are close…Friends connect with the teacher, with each other and with the world. All of this doesn’t change, but is merely revealed to us. That’s why some extrasensory people know what’s going to happen in the future.

Freedom of will and all of our work is accompanied only by the conscious, sensible participation in the life of the system in order to become an active part in it by our own will, to “flow” with it as the Force (meaning the Creator), which controls it, wants it to flow. In essence, this is what our task consists of, to reveal the general flow and to merge into it. Let the rider and the horse move in sync. This is how we will move forward.

This way, our work is always done in intention: To what extent do I pull the system towards the Force, how much more do I understand it, how much more am I participating in its activity, how much more with its help do I reveal the Force instilled in it in order to flow together with it, and thus give pleasure to the Creator.

This is my task. This is what I participate in the life of the group for, among the partners, the friends, which I am given. Besides, I am carrying out the task for the world, I am awakening all of the parts of the system, building and activating it until it all completely assimilates to the inner force, until we flow together with it.

At the same time, of course, I have my own intention. However, it cannot be realized only inside of me. I will not make it come alive if I am not connected to others, if I am not working with them in harmony, if we are not cooperating in action, in understanding, in realization, in the maintenance and servicing of the system. Someone among us is a valve, someone is a piston, someone is a wheel, and so on. Everyone works in their own way; however, we are all aspiring towards the same goal.

It is said: “Israel, The Torah, and the Creator are One.” The Creator is the general program, which we aspire to implement. We are not simply uniting into a system, but we are keeping the course towards Him. We cannot find the connection without it, since it must lie on a certain formula, the goal of the program. It needs to be clear for us, for the sake of what and how we should be uniting. We discover the system in the aspiration towards the force acting within in, towards the general program. Without this, we cannot even make a step, including in the interrelationships between us.

So it turns out that my intention is related to the collective work with friends, the goal of which is to reveal the Creator.

In the end, I only add this intention, and not the action. In the same way, a government control system can be activated by the “stick” of a tyrant squeezing the last juices out of the population, or by the wisdom of a kind ruler pursuing happiness for the citizens. The structure is the same, the connection remains the same, nothing needs to be changed except the internal program installed into the system. Education, taxation, banks, hospitals and so on, all of these remain in their places. Only the intention completely re-builds the order of “energy flows,” changing their destination. In the end, intention changes everything.

This is what we are discovering today. “The world lives as stipulated,” “I have not changed Myself,” the system does not change, we only add our intention to it, the screen and the reflected Light. And then, everything flows in a new way according to our approach. Earlier, we pulled everything towards ourselves because of the tyrant who ruled within us, but now we are pursuing the wellbeing of a close one, and this already a different ruler.
[71190]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/12, “Questions and Answers”

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We must not be ashamed of weakness, thinking that weakness can cool our desire for advancement. There is a “gate of tears” on every step, which only opens after the realization of one’s own helplessness. And how could we even have the ability? After all, advancement happens through additional power of bestowal. We do not have it; we must acquire it.

This is why I am right to discover that I have no ability to advance. And I am also right to discover that I have no desire to advance. What happens next? Just one thing: the right appeal to the Creator through the group for Him to correct the connection between us is made. And then, each time this is done, a new stage of our unity becomes revealed.

A person is unable to do anything on his own. No matter how strong he sometimes thinks he is, no matter how certain he is that he will attain everything; he will fail at everything. It is written: “Do not believe in yourself until the day you die.”

This is why having a group, which constantly awakens the person, is a necessary condition. And for this reason, when a person does not know how to advance and becomes desperate the person’s pride is usually to blame, thus he is unable to receive support from the group.

There is nothing to be ashamed of here; the person just needs to work with it. But essentially, this is the only disturbance. There is an enormous strength in the group. Like in the tale about Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma. He was a great Kabbalist in his generation, and his students were very simple people. But he received a lot of strength from them since he knew how to work with them. And he was a great person! And this tale speaks of small people.

This is why when a person says that the Creator is not helping him, it is his pride speaking. How does it manifest? It is in his inability to cancel himself before the environment to receive the value and greatness of spirituality from it, and to then perceive the power of the Creator who helps him and the realization of the greatness of spirituality.

This is why there is no reason to cry over disturbances. It is written: “My soul shall weep in secret” in concealment, in darkness. Crying is good, but everything depends on what you are crying about: Do not cry over not having help; there is help. You need to cry over the fact that your pride is not letting you lower yourself a little before your friends, the Creator, and receive help from them.
[71614]
From the Arava  Convention 2/24/12, Lesson #4

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Question: What is the right way to turn to the friends for help so they would ask the Creator to open my heart, and how should I carry out this request when a friend asks this of me?

Answer: All religions have a custom where a small person addresses a great rabbi or priest, asking him to pray in his stead and paying him money for it. And the latter then turns to the Creator with his request.

But just think: How is it possible to obtain a vessel, a place for revealing the Creator, if you have not built, felt, and realized it yourself yet? How can someone else create this instead of you, having a different root of the soul? How can they make the request and work for you? This is simply impossible. One person cannot do this for another.

Every person has his own root of the soul, so how can someone else, having a different root of the soul than me, carry out my work? He does not have the basis that I have, and neither does anyone else. We can only strengthen and complement one another, but no one can do the work for you.

But in that case, what does it mean to pray for the friends? When we pray for a friend, we ask all together for help to come to him. But after that he has to figure everything out on his own. It’s as if we are bringing him the medicine, our help. And after taking that medicine he can join us with greater force and become our partner. But no one can direct a request upward for someone else.

We can only unite all together and help one another. Therefore, a friend does not turn to the Creator instead of you asking for your correction. He can ask for help for your sake so you would receive the force and begin realizing it yourself.

That is exactly how we act in relation to the whole world, and this is how Kabbalists acted when writing their books for us, through which they conduct the Light to us. This is how every one of us acts in relation to another person. We depend on one another, bringing the Light of correction and fulfillment to one another. But we do not do the work for one another.

Everything happens only between you and the Creator, but with the help of the group. Through the group you come to the Creator. You attain the Creator personally, individually, but through the group.

If a friend turns to you for help, you connect with his desire and your desire becomes twice as big. And then you connect the desires of other friends to it, more and more. It’s preferable to have at least ten people, according to the ten Sefirot in the vessel, and then we make a request all together.

That is why there is a custom to gather at least ten people to pray around a sick or deceased person.
[71635]
From the Arava Arvut Convention Lesson #4, 2/24/12

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We don’t go through the level of the “forefathers,” and all that happened at the beginning: “First Man,” Babel, the Land of Canaan, Jacob and his twelve sons, the descent to Egypt. We begin to discover ourselves as already in Egypt. The time before that belongs to the “forefathers” and is incorporated in us in the form of Reshimot (reminiscences, informational genes), our internal attributes.

We begin to work in Egypt until we discover that we are in an egoistic desire and that we have to escape it because we receive less and less vitality from it. Years go by until we discover this in order to escape.

If at the same time we are in a group and we help one another, it says “and the Children of Israel sighed from the work,” which means everyone together. The exodus from Egypt takes place together.

The exodus from Egypt is called the exodus from detachment and separation to connection and unity. It isn’t a physical exodus from a geographic location. In Egypt we discover that we are separated by our ego. All the work in the exile of Egypt is in trying to connect with each other and our not being able to do so. We discover that it is Pharaoh who disturbs us because he stands in our way and separates us.

And then we keep working on the connection, each time discovering that it is impossible. Then Moses appears, kills the Egyptian, and escapes to the desert for 40 years. We work on the connection all the time, until Moses returns, goes to Pharaoh and demands “Let my people go,” which means, let us connect.

I want to connect with those who seem to be strangers now. It is Pharaoh who shows them to me as strangers by depicting them as being outside myself, while I am asking for a chance to connect with them. Let Pharaoh stay. I want to connect above him. In order to do that I need an even greater force, above all his great desire and ego that spins me around as he wishes.

So I have to ask my ego to restrict itself and to stop controlling me. With this demand I come to Pharaoh. Pharaoh answers: “Do you want me to come down from my height, from my throne?” He only hardens his heart, and so I need the Creator to be even stronger than Pharaoh.

This is Pharaoh’s mission, to raise the Creator in my eyes so that I am forced to increasingly appreciate the general power of bestowal prevailing in nature. Only this will give us the opportunity to connect with each other.

We have to imagine what Egypt is correctly. The Creator should constantly become more important for me; otherwise, I will never be able to connect with the friends, and that is the “exodus from Egypt,” and I will stay in exile forever.

Egypt is called separation. And where am I running to? I want to connect above this separation, above the hatred that is revealed to me, above Mount Sinai (a mountain of hatred), and so I leave Egypt. Such an act is called “exodus.”
[68253]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/5/12. Shamati #159

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Question: Today an expert has to study his whole life in order to “catch up” with the changes in his field. One way or another, science discovers accurate absolute laws. Do such laws exist for those who yearn for spirituality? For example, are there clear, unchanging formulas without which we will not attain our goal?

Answer: What are you actually studying in the lessons? We can describe our egoistic desire as a “box.” This is the material. Above it there is the intention of in order to receive, and that is the problem. The material of the desire is stable, unchanging. It is only the intention that changes by changing all of our reality.

So ignore the material, it is unchangeable. But if you change the intention, then the feeling within the material will change drastically. You will be able to do that only by evoking it to change.

Today we fill ourselves by the egoistic intention. It is among us in our mutual relations. The desire to receive is aimed at itself; it wants to receive in order to receive. As a result, we all feel reality in the form of “this world.”

There are five phases between the intention of in order to receive and the intention of in order to bestow, or 125 steps. It is only about the intention! If I learn to use it correctly, a greater desire is revealed time after time. This is how I transcend the “Machsom” (barrier), I restrict myself by keeping myself from treating others badly, then I build a good attitude towards others, and then I bestow upon them. Then it turns out that others, and in fact the whole “field of work,” is actually myself that is gradually revealed to me.

All this is according to the stabilization of the intention. There is nothing we should worry about except the intention. The only remedy is to evoke among us a concealed internal power that will change our intention. Then, gradually, in our environment, we will discover the worlds of Assyia, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the world of Ein Sof. We will discover them here, among us, and not somewhere in unknown distances.

I should only discover an attraction, a vector inside my desire that is aimed at changing the attitude to others, which is the intention. Let’s hope we succeed in preparing and doing that in the Arava convention in the desert.
[68250]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/3/12, The Zohar

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Question: Since I came to the convention I am talking with the “Pharaoh” in me; I ask him questions and he answers me. He says: “whatever you do, you are enjoying it.” I go to work in the kitchen, Pharaoh says: “it doesn’t matter, you are still enjoying it.” If I clean the toilets, I enjoy that too. Finally I say to Pharaoh that I have one goal for which I came to the convention, another goal to reach the state in which everyone is connected. Pharaoh in me says that even this connection I am waiting for, is eventually for me. If so, what should I do?

Answer: Enjoy! I say this seriously. If I can do different things for the society, both physical and mental, to think about them all the time and to enjoy it, that’s wonderful. Who says that we have to suffer?

But after several such actions, you will suddenly see that you don’t enjoy it anymore. Suddenly you will ask: “What do I need all this for, why?” and so on. Then “Pharaoh” is revealed.

At first there are the “seven years of satiation,” everything is nice in an egoistic manner. Indeed, your Pharaoh is right, he says that whatever you do, you do it for him. So do it for him, like in Egypt in the first seven years of satiation where everyone works doing everything for Pharaoh and then eventually discover that it is the force of evil.

Why does the evil Pharaoh suddenly appear instead of the good Pharaoh? It is because we advance toward the Creator. As we advance, the desire that previously looked good begins to seem evil. The group is good, the study is good, the friends are good, I want to be with them and to be on duty, to clean the toilets, to work in the kitchen, everything is nice and I enjoy every minute that I am in this society—this is how every beginner who comes to the group feels. Then suddenly he begins to feel disrespect, to explode, not to care about anything, he doesn’t feel like doing things and doesn’t want anything: “What duties? What for?”

Why? This is because the “seven years of hunger” begin. What is hunger? A person doesn’t feel pleasure in being in the group, in being with the friends—and this is advancement.

Everything is revealed according to the order of the degrees. We should be happy and serious and follow that line carefully, and accept whatever is revealed along the way. The Torah tells us about it; after all, the Torah is an instruction (they have the same root in Hebrew); it tells us where you will get stuck and what you should do on the way to the revelation of Godliness.

So you have no choice, you have to enter Egypt, you have to do this kind of work, and you have to come out. Only then do you receive the Torah, the instruction of how to advance more clearly.

This is because the Torah is only about the correction of the desires. You correct your 613 desires from the intention of “in order to receive” to the intention of “in order to bestow,” and then you discover the Creator.
[71268]
From the Arava Arvut Convention Lesson #2, 2/23/12

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