Because we don’t feel any connection to the upper force yet, its control over us and governance, we don’t feel any need or yearning to turn to it with a request and all the more so with thankfulness. Our desire to receive may allow us to ask but to be thankful is something that we certainly forget.

We can be thankful when the gratitude promises us some reward for our ego and it reminds us about it. Many in the world do so. But in order to be grateful, we have to advance to conditions that are not beneficial for our ego but to our spiritual advancement, and there is a need for a lot of preparation in order to do so. This is why it doesn’t really work.

We should not think that the feeling of gratitude stems from a good feeling. Gratitude is a result of the recognition that the Creator leads me through the dark and helps me struggle and win, finding all my impure desires (Klipot) and rising above them.

A prayer of gratitude is born in this state, above the darkness, the evil, and the great unpleasant corrections of my ego. To the extent that I can ascend above my desire to receive and attribute myself to bestowal, to the soul instead of the body, to the force of bestowal instead of the force of receiving, to raise myself above the earth, I can be grateful.

All this happens simultaneously: I feel the darkness in the desire to receive and above the darkness I feel the Light in my desire to bestow. One cannot exist without the other.

Therefore, we have to gradually reach this combination internally, when you have a desire to bestow, an unpleasant feeling in it, darkness, and above it restriction, a Masach (screen), and the Returning Light above the Masach. This is how we establish the attitude towards the Creator called faith above reason.

Reason is what we feel inside the desire to receive. There is nothing in it but disappointments and thoughts against the spiritual path, but we ascend above them and despite all the evil according to our corporeal mind and feelings we establish our attitude above the darkness.

Thus we arrive at the right form and establish the middle line between the two lines that negate one another. They try to erase each other until the third partner arrives and makes peace between them.

We have to try to agree to this kind of work more and to stick to it. It is very important. Then we arrive at a solution, which is the right structure when the desire to receive below is felt as darkness. After all, Egypt, Pharaoh, and Haman are all inside me. The shell stands against holiness and the soul is between them.

When I see my state this way I begin to work on the structure of my soul and to put it together and shape its form.

We have to clarify all the stages, to be more sensitive to what happens inside us, to keep the darkness, the Light that is above it, and the relationship between them. We have to live in this conflict and not simply fall because I feel bad and don’t see anything, or start floating in the clouds like a hot air balloon the moment I feel good.

I have to keep these two states and to understand that this is how I feel my desire to receive, the shattering, above which I have to gradually establish my love and concern for others by adding a new attitude each time that is correct and continuous and aimed at bestowal. It is through these states that I establish my attitude towards the general force of bestowal called the Creator and reach the feeling of gratitude to the extent that I can keep myself above the darkness thanks to it.
[135671]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/14

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Psalms 61:1- 61:7: For the Leader; with string-music. [A Psalm] of David. Hearken, O God, to my request, listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call out to You when my heart becomes faint; on the rock that is higher than I, You lead me. For You were a shelter for me, a tower of strength in the face of the enemy. I will dwell in Your Tent to eternity; I will take shelter in the in the covert of Your wings forever. For You, God, have hearkened to my vows; You have given the heritage of those who fear Your name. Add days to the days of the king, his years as every generation.

The struggle is for unity of man so that a person will understand that all of his feelings come directly from the Creator, and this is even though everything that is happening is in concealment and the opposite of what would be expected from the good that does good. However, it seems to be the opposite because it is perceived through the opposite desires of a person who has not yet undergone correction.

This shows a person where he needs to correct himself to feel that the Creator is good and benevolent, even to the wicked, until, for him, everything is integrated into a single source. All expressions and manifestations of evil—encountering enemies, the wicked, all of these things—happen at the “end of the earth (Haaretz),” in other words, at the extremities of desires that are still uncorrected.

He must try to turn from there to the Creator, in other words, specifically to connect with the Creator from those desires at the ends of the earth, for, as it is written, “There is none else besides Him.” He does this until he attains full adhesion in the given situation and prepares himself for the next state, and that is what happens until the completion of correction.

If a person thinks about the present and prepares himself for the future, he is in a prayer, a request, thanking the Creator, which is to say that he always expresses his desire to connect with Him, to be in adhesion, and that is how he succeeds. The Creator lengthens his days and years from generation to generation.

In the beginning, it seems to a person that he has haters, enemies. He must struggle and defend himself against them, and indeed there are circumstances where we need to go to war.

However, after the person attributes everything to the Creator, no enemies and haters remain for him, in other words, that there is no other control than that of the Creator. Everything comes only from the Creator, either from His front or His backside, which shows a person that he must build two types of relationships and differentiate between the power of bestowal that comes from above and the power of reception that comes from below, from the person. That is how he can see that his true enemy is found inside of him.

When this enemy is awakened and rises up against him, it seems to a person that the Creator has gone away from him and disappeared. However, when the person attributes all of this to the Creator, then for him there is no difference between darkness and Light. He no longer depends on his mood and doesn’t attribute what is happening to all kinds of other forces or to himself. He understands that he has no control either. Rather, everything comes from the Creator.

The moment that a person directs himself in this way, he sees that even before then he was in a revised, balanced and correct state, and never left the sacred. However, he attained this only now, and the entire difference is in that.
[135347]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/14

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Question: How can a person stop himself from condemning the Creator?

Answer: A person cannot stop himself from doing so. We are not in control, at best we can request. By requesting, we operate the Light that Reforms, but we don’t perform the actual action. Only the Light can perform the correction.

The Light of the “world of Infinity” that appears at my request by fulfilling my desire to improve—to get closer, to adapt myself to the Creator—performs the necessary actions. Only the request is mine, and it must be only in order to bestow so that I will be attracted only to bestowal and that my accounts are only according to that.

I don’t take my feelings into account. It makes no difference if it feels good or bad, and I only see to what extent I can justify the Creator. This is the only thing that hurts me. My pain is not related to my corporeal body but to my attitude toward it. Will I be able to justify the Creator on top of my feelings in my corporeal body and to be adhered to Him until I love Him, or not?

In the meantime, my living flesh is cut seven times a day, but I prefer the point of adhesion in its posterior. Then, its face is revealed, which is indeed a great pleasure, but absolutely not in my old, egoistic vessels and not in the same Light of pleasure that I thought about and expected.
[135401]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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In spiritual work we proceed in the right line, which is towards bestowal, approach, and unification. And everything against this that is awakened in us is what we need to correct. Only this! All the rest is done intentionally and isn’t subject to any correction. We get all kinds of disturbances so that we will choose what we need more clearly. This is so that we will begin to choose from the general providence, which isn’t subject to any correction or individual, personal attainment of the Creator. This is specifically where following our efforts, we are shown how much we are not ready to do this.

Why? So that we will require help from above.

The forces that are awakened specifically in this place of unity and push us away from each other are an expression of the shattered Kli.

Specifically, we must not miss these desires and characteristics. The moment that this snake reveals himself inside, you should immediately grab him, constantly choke him and not let go. It seems to you that you have strangled him, you breathe easily and can then embrace him. But after a moment, he wakes up again. This happens even within a second, and there is no interruption! And this is good. We must constantly make starting and stopping movements like these.

The recognition of evil is the first stage and is very difficult. On every level it will be more and more acute and will require a more precise, conscious, emotional, and analytical intention. “Why is this feeling awakened, for what purpose, or is this just rejection? Why this? What for? What does the Creator want to tell me?”

I begin to associate the recognition of evil with the Creator, “He deliberately tripped me up.”

When we give a child something to do, understandably he tries to do it because instinct is pushing him towards this. And we are led forward, not by instinct, but by feeling the environment. The group holds me, obligates and directs me. There is tension in the air all the time and a need for constant methodical work until the completion of correction.

The group must constantly push me, and we all do this for one another. After all, the group is not a team of external employees. The group is what we organize and hold and the reason why we obligate ourselves. And each one of us, when he feels pressure and resistance from within, must feel that the group is holding him and won’t let him relax or go beyond its limits. This situation must be constant.

Clearly, new outbreaks of ego, anger, rejection, and trouble will be awakened. And the group must awaken in us an increasingly sophisticated sense of responsibility and the need to work specifically on the new sensations that are awakened in us. This is so that nobody will flee or try to justify himself and say “All of this is nonsense. I don’t want it and it doesn’t interest me anymore.”

These disturbances are very sophisticated, but it is precisely through this sophistication that we begin to be aware of the Creator. It is specifically in this way that I learn about Him. Just as in life when we live with someone, we begin to understand him through all kinds of good and bad relationships in our mutual dance. It is the same thing here. We have no other way of becoming aware of the Creator.

In these states, we have to go through a particular amount of necessary mutual movements. The Creator shows me negative characteristics, I try to overcome them, He shows more, and again I overcome.

Like a gilded statue made from plaster covered with gold, so have to cover our desire for pleasure with a desire to give pleasure, meaning to use it in order to bestow. And so all kinds of egoistic, negative desires constantly come to me that are awakened regarding others, and I must cover them and transform them into characteristics of bestowal and love instead of hatred. We advance according to this principle.

After I have learned a bit and have understood how the Creator plays with me, I am ready to be closer to Him. I have passed through the first stage. I am now aware of Him, understand Him, and can somehow resist Him. I have accumulated data and experience and am no longer found on such a level where it was possible to get rid of me, to confuse me with one small blow. I already understand more, I am more self-controlled, I have gathered a group that is appropriate for me, and have surrounded myself with friends, and so forth.

Ultimately, after I have learned some of the characteristics of the Creator, I can be in a more complex interaction with Him, and He then begins to be more revealed before me.

He is revealed to me: “Here I am”, and who are you?” I am negatively and egoistically worse. But I begin to understand that all of these are expressions within me, and from this I begin to understand the opposite positive image by correcting my characteristics, which have already become shared characteristics.
[112518]
From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day One” 7/12/13, Lesson #2

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Baal HaSulam, Letter #16: “…prior to making a Mitzva [commandment], one must not consider private Providence at all. On the contrary, one should say, ‘If I am not for me, who is for me?’”
A Mitzva is the correction of a person’s desire since in the state he is in, he is detached from the Creator.

He wants to connect this state to the Creator as the one upper force, “There is none else besides Him,” “the good and the benevolent.” Thus, he restores this state to the state he was in before the shattering.

This is how he collects these states time after time, as it is written, “until many pennies accumulate into a great sum,” and he completes the correction of his soul.

We were given 613 corrupt desires to begin with, which we try to restore to adhesion. Before we perform a Mitzva—when I understand that I am in a corrupt state because I am not in adhesion, in unity, with the upper force—I mustn’t think about private providence, but, instead, we should say, “If I am not for me, who is for me?”

…But after the fact, a person must reconsider and believe that it was not by “My power and the might of my hand” that I made the Mitzva, …

This means that I perform a Mitzva, that I exert myself as much as I can and use all the means—the Rav, the group, the study, dissemination, everything—in order to please the Creator and to tie myself to “There is none else besides Him.” At the same time, I take into account only “If I am not for me, who is for me,” and that I must take all these actions by myself.
However, having succeeded in something, I must say that this success was predetermined and ready, and that the Creator has prepared this for me in advance. If I am adhered to “If I am not for me, who is for me,” and eventually to, “There is none else besides Him,” it is the complete means to reach adhesion.
[135117]
From the 1^st> part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Psalms 86:1 – 86:2: A prayer of David. O Lord, incline Your ear; answer me for I am poor and needy.

Watch my soul for I am a pious man; save Your servant-You, my God – who trusts in You.

A pious (Hassid) is one  who asks for one thing: not to be separated from the Creator. So all the songs of Psalms, all the requests and prayers speak only about this—not losing confidence that the Creator is the only power that manages and sustains a person and everything that is found within him, but which is portrayed for him as an external world and changing reality that passes through incarnations in front of him and within him.

All of this comes from the one higher power, and the person wants to permanently adhere to this fact until he discovers this with all of his strength, thus attaining constant adhesion with the Creator in all desires and thoughts, in heart and mind. He becomes a Hassid who wants only to adhere to the higher guidance above all disturbances and problems. So he awakens the disturbances in himself to bring to light all of his abilities and be in adhesion with the Creator.

The person asks for only one thing: help for him not to be separated from the thought that “There is none else beside Him” and the recognition he must be involved only with the one Higher Power. And this is not because he is concerned about himself and wants to feel better but because through this he wants to give contentment to the Creator.
[135104]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/14

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Question: What is “the nation of Cohens (priests)?”

Answer: Imagine those who went through spiritual ascents starting with Abraham, Aaron, and Moses, and then broke and fell into this world. Now, they should become the nation of priests, that is, intersperse among all the nations of the world.

In fact, we don’t know where part of our ten tribes are since they disappeared among the other nations. Now, they are subconsciously ready to resume spiritual work.

As soon as we start our work of establishing correct interaction, balance, similarity, and integration of the will to receive with the desire to bestow, including opposite properties that obviously exist in the people of Israel, we will immediately see an upsurge of the Cohens in the world (our ten tribes) and the start of their spiritual mission. It’s as if a huge magnet will agitate the periphery. It will pull and elevate other nations.

Question: How can one determine that one comes from the nation of Cohens?

Answer: One can do so in accordance with one’s internal aspirations. Someone’s nationality doesn’t matter, nor does one’s origin or parameters. Suddenly, it will become apparent that one comes from the lost tribe. It is an aftermath of the shattering of the spiritual structure.

There are certain parts of the general soul who know exactly where they come from. Those are the Jews. However, there are parts that are unaware of why they are dominated by an inner rejection of  Jews. And yet, they are connected with the Jews very tightly and this explains their negativity. In any anti-Semitism there is always a bit of a Jew.

Question: It is said that Aaron constantly exerted to strengthen peace in the world and that’s why the Creator ordained him to be the high priest, so that he would bring peace to the upper congregation. What does the upper congregation mean?

Answer: The upper congregation are those souls that have already attained the state of merging with the Creator and serve as conduits between Him and those whom they are supposed to teach, unite, stimulate, and assist. They are great spiritual teachers who represent an interaction unit between us and the upper force of universe.
[153292]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/14/14

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Our future form of development is how to connect the whole of nature in the integral form. Inanimate objects, plants, and animals are in deep natural connection between them. And humans, because of their selfishness, have risen above the animal level.

It is the ego, the desire to enjoy, that gives us a sense of the passing of all kinds and sorts of creatures that have appeared before us here to the edge of the universe, and all the details of reality on our planet.

We need to use this sense of others in order to come to correct relationships and to return to the system of one, where we all are connected to each other in mutual dependence. Our generation is developing towards this goal, in that one finds himself locked within a closed system and is completely and mutually dependent.

Life and natural development demand from us to complete these connections between us. The inanimate, vegetative, and animate natures are closed naturally within one network, all of ecology, all of nature. And it is as if man is the exception, the irregularity, in that he tries to act in such a way that there are no limits for him and he doesn’t need to be included in that general integral system where everything is connected.

Man needs to see the globalization of nature and examine his desire to receive that rejects all these laws.

Today it turns out that I am dependent on the whole world from the viewpoint of technology, industry, supply, oil, gas, air, and just about anything that you can point to. Consequently, if I want to attain a life that is peaceful and good and to enjoy each moment, then I need make good connections with all the surroundings.

Question: Isn’t that bad if you want to find pleasure in each moment?

Answer: It is not the pleasure itself that is bad but how I use it for that one short moment. Now it is possible to grasp it, so I grab it. It’s possible to steal, I steal, to cheat, I cheat. It’s possible not to think of anyone else, besides myself. So that’s how I think. I take advantage of my ego in a very limited way in my relations to others, which eventually comes back to me since the world is round.

We are not able to do good for ourselves if we don’t do good for others, because we are within an integral system, analog, where everyone is dependent on everyone. You need to understand that in the meantime, in a simple egoistic way, when we do good to others, we do good for ourselves.

When I sign an agreement with everyone regarding mutual friendship and even love, by that I promise myself pleasure from that moment until the end of life. If I am included in others and they are included in me and we become one desire, one thought, in one mutual act, in which everyone is dependent on everyone, then the concept of time disappears.
[137085]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/17/14

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Question: With whom can our movement work in partnership and under what conditions?

Answer: We are ready to connect with everyone who wants connection for the sake of correction of the world. Suppose that tomorrow Abu Mazen were to come and offer to work in partnership for the correction of the world. We would shake hands and begin to work together. The moment that some egoistic calculations are inserted into this covenant, we would immediately stop this shared activity.

The absence of egoistic considerations and a yearning to correct the world is the necessary condition. For correction it is necessary to attract the Light that reforms, because only this can help. If he is ready for this, then I am ready to unite with him. This is even though, in the meantime, it seems he is not ready.

We must take into account that it is possible to take a bit of the whole wide spectrum of different factions, political forces, nations, and governments for a short time with the goal of moving forward. This is because each one has some unique problem, and so they can unite with us and support us.

Last year we found ourselves in a dramatic situation regarding the kidnapping of three youths. The people felt terrible pressure and tension because we wanted to find and return the boys. So, with this event, we had the possibility of working with many organizations in Israel to connect the people.

In any case, it is clear to everyone that connection makes us stronger. We get more if we connect through prayer, a shared desire and action. So people went out to marches and gatherings.Thousands of people went out to the streets with placards demanding the release of the hostages. That is how it was all over the world.

Why did the desire to gather appear within them all of a sudden? Subconsciously, they felt that there was some kind of corrective force in this, some kind of new spirit that would appear in the people, along with the concept of a new state.

Even animals instinctively converge during a moment of danger. Sheep gather together into one flock and huddle together when they are concerned about an attack by wolves. If a forest fire breaks out, all of the animals flee from it together without fear of each other. This is because the general crisis connects them, and not one looks at the other in order to devour him. They all flee, meaning that they gather together in one common movement.

This inclination to connect at a time of trouble also exists instinctively among people. We need this spirit of connection, even if it is not an army marching and playing songs that is about to attack as one person. Even though we are not going out to attack, in spite of it, we feel that in this manner we are stabilizing a force through which we can correct ta situation.

So I think that we need to share this inclination that is felt among the people and unite together with them in actions such as these. In addition to this, we must organize discussion circles in parks, courtyards, and in homes.

The people who are now found in such a unique situation are ready to participate in discussions like these. It is necessary to discuss why this happened to us and how we can guarantee that this will never happen again, but only for the purpose of advancing towards the betterment of a situation and good relationships with others.
[137768]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How do we direct ourselves correctly at the time of reading The Book of Zohar to heal all the problems of every individual person, the people of Israel, and the whole world?

Answer: It is necessary to pray, to ask, to be integrated into the pain of the people closest to us and also those who are far away. But we don’t pray for a particular person who is sick, but for correction of the general illness that is revealed before us now through the problem of a particular person.

One should pray for general correction, because what we see is only a particular expression of the general problem. This is how the prayer must be organized.

Question: Why is a prayer for everyone more practical than a request for a particular person who is closer to my heart?

Answer: A request for a particular person is closer to your ego. On the one hand, you are stimulated more by what is closer to you. But on the other hand, what is the difference if the desire to bestow is bestowing to someone close or someone far away?

There are no limits to the Ohr Hassadim (Light of Mercy); it extends to all places with the same intensity. So why do you want to pray for someone in particular?

We know that everyone is connected with everyone and there is only one soul. So every defect that is revealed in someone is the result of the general illness. So how is it possible to heal a particular person without healing the general illness? It is necessary to pray for everyone.

If you are ready to correct everyone through your prayer, then the person in whom you saw some kind of illness will also be healed. Otherwise this doesn’t work. After all, we are in a global system, a single system. Suppose that someone is sick with the flu, you cannot heal just him; rather, you must heal the epidemic throughout the world because it is a general system.

It cannot be that there is a defect in one place, even if it seems to us that we see only one damaged component. The damage is not only in him, but also in the whole system. And only in regard to you is this presented as a defect in a friend. You must take care of society in general, and the particular problems that you see are only a response to the common problem. An isolated component doesn’t exist in any form, not in me or anyone else. If I see it, it is an indication that the system is sick.

We see this in the world. If we want to correct some part of the government or the society, then nothing will help because we don’t approach this correctly.
[138436]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/14, The Zohar

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