Question: What can we understand from the books of Kabbalists when they tell us about the spiritual levels?

Answer: It is said, “It isn’t the wise who learns.” Your understanding or your lack of understanding have nothing to do with your advancement.

Suppose there is a wise man who has read many books sitting next to you. On the other side, there is a person who isn’t very clever but who has a big heart. There are people who excel neither in their feelings, nor in their mind, and there are others who have plenty of both, but all this has nothing to do with our advancement. It doesn’t matter whether you understand the material or not. We should understand one thing only: the principles. Can you hear them? Can you evoke yourself to that?

Sometimes you may want to hear them, but you don’t. Then patience and persistence are helpful. Even if everyone has already entered spirituality and a person may be ten years behind, he actually “gains” more by acquiring the depth of the clarification, the ability to see the global picture. In short, we should be patient and persistent. The main thing is not to leave the path, to subdue yourself no matter what comes from Above. It’s because eventually the Creator determines everything and although it may not be very simple, a person gains a lot by that.

Baal HaSulam writes about that in his article “The Attribute of the General Hidden Wisdom”: The undeveloped person cannot wait for the payment for a long time. He has no patience, like a child, who wants to receive the payment now, and cannot wait for even one moment. And he chooses jobs for which he is paid immediately, even if the wages are lower. One can learn how to be a taxi driver and receive an immediate payment from the passengers without any delay. On the other hand, he can spend years studying to become a musician, for example. And a more developed person can restrain himself and choose jobs for which one is paid more, even if the payment may be much later. And we should know that this is the scale to measure the wise, since it depends on the corporeal development of every individual, and whoever can prolong the payment can get much higher wages.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: I feel that during the lesson I lack the recognition of the greatness of the goal, what should I do?

Answer: On the whole, a person lacks only one thing: the right awakening that can only come from the group. What have you done about that? Have you sent letters demanding that the friends help you? Did you give them presents according to what each of them likes? You have to evoke the friends’ attention so that they will think about you, so that they will worry about whether you understand the greatness of the goal, so that that they will not forget you in their prayer…bribe them with something!

During the lesson it’s already too late to correct the corruptions. You use what you have prepared. The whole preparation is done before the lesson. The day turns to evening and the evening turns to night and a person finds himself in the dark, confused and lacking understanding. Then he prepares himself for the meeting with the Light. From midnight he rushes toward the Light by arranging his vessels, his desires. He comes to the lesson with a ready load, after having raised his requests to the Creator. He connects everything that he has to the study.

Thus, the time of the study is already the result of the events that happened during the day. Get ready, think about what seems important with regard to this, but don’t forget: Everything that you do during the lesson is a result of your activities before the lesson. Check it and you will see that it’s really so. During the moments of awakening in the morning before the lesson and during the lesson itself, you will deal with what you filled yourself the day before; everything depends on yesterdays’ preparation.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: Some of the virtual groups in the US need your guidance. We, both men and women, gather in the platform TeamTalk 4, in the same folder for lessons, workshops, and other group activities. Only the names of women, not their faces, are viewed. Should it be up to the men in our groups to decide, based on their perception, whether this practice should continue? Some of them feel having the women there increases unity in our virtual group. Please provide your guidance.

Answer: There are different kinds of working together. There are those in which men, for greater efficiency, should stay separate, for example, the lessons and our workshops, which are broadcast from BB Israel. And there are those that require the collaboration of men and women: dissemination projects, discussions about life in the group, and others, which include men and women.

In the lessons and workshops, we know that even in the physical groups where men and women are present, they do not sit together, but separately. In any case, a woman’s name on the page can carry a man’s fantasy far from the topic of the lesson, not less than her photo.

That is why it is worthwhile to understand together, without hypocrisy and feigned “liberalism,” in what exactly and in what cases women’s presence can damage men’s spiritual work. I have repeatedly explained this issue. Having done this clarification, it will be easier for you to make decisions.

So, for example, then it would not be difficult to create separate “women’s” and “men’s” folders for the lessons and other occasions when it is necessary to separate the groups, but in the folders where general questions are discussed, and in general in any other case, you will not need to hide the women’s names and faces.
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Question: How can we stay in the feeling of the group while being involved in integral education? After all, there are different principles of self-annulment.

Answer: If I come to self-annulment as a necessary state for the first contact with the spiritual world, then there is no difference concerning to what I cancel myself. I will still be given such pictures, put before such facts, when I have to annul myself, literally “cutting my flesh.” Then, the people I hate the most will be shown to me in an uglier light and I will have to accept them as loved friends, closer than my own children.
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From the Virtual Lesson 2/3/13

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Question: Millions of people in the world are waiting for the Messiah. Why didn’t the Kabbalists explain from the start the meaning of the concept of “Messiah”?

Answer: It is impossible to explain that to people. I will try to explain it to you and you will try to pass it on to others.

We are in a big world, a huge reality, but we only grasp a small part of it that is called “this world.” Life and death, everything happens in this little area called “the universe.”

Everything depends on awareness. All in all, our bodies belong to the animate level, but as of today, we identify with it: feed it, wash it, and put it to bed; in short, we constantly are concerned about it.

That is the way I am built, as long as my body lives and is healthy. And if I am sick, then I feel bad, and if it dies, then I also die along with it. Since it seems to me that besides it, nothing exists.

But the time has come when we can develop our awareness and rise above the body so as not to feel life in it and see the world through it. This new, broader, higher perception is not limited by the framework of the body and is called “integral awareness.” With the help of the connection with others, I rise above my physical body, and through the connection between us I begin to feel reality in a much broader sense. It is perceived not only within my body, but also within several bodies together, in the connection between us. I feel us all as one new body.

It used to be only me, but now we are building different kinds of connection between us to the point that we begin to live a new mutual life in one system, all of us together. Instead of isolated and limited self-existence, each one feels the life of our general, spiritual body, or soul.

And the way to feel this is only now opening before us. If I feel more of what is within the soul than what exists in my physical body, then I feel myself within this new spiritual body. Actually, in both cases we are speaking about desires; even though these desires are mutual and are found “above reason,” they are already desires of bestowal. This is because I am like everyone who is found above my body that is covered by the Masach (screen).

In this way, we enter a new reality, a new world, acquire new values, and measure life and death differently, as well as health, illness, etc.

This transition, from the sensation of inside myself to the sensation of myself from the outside is far from simple and is executed with the help of a special force. It pulls (from the Hebrew word “Moshech” – to be drawn) me from the inner awareness to the outer awareness; thus it is called the Messiah. And in order to attain it, one really needs to exert.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: Why are the instructions given to us by Kabbalists so vague? Why can’t we understand by now what we are supposed to do? What are the ways to connect with the group and bow our heads in front of our friends? All is unclear. Probably, it’s supposed to be like that, but what does this mist hide?

Answer: First of all, there is no intention to make your life miserable whatsoever. You should remember that the creation has no other way to become similar to the Creator. Not at all!

Imagine that you are an expert chef with steaks and you have received an order for a special steak. For that, you need beef from a special breed of cattle raised to a certain age that grazed in a pasture at a specific altitude, as well as spices that are made of particular plants grown in a specific area, etc. You bring forward a list of requirements because you know that otherwise you can’t make the dish.

It is similar here: The creature cannot attain similarity with the Creator on any other terms. I would say that it’s not even up to Him. Once He decided that creation had to become similar to Him, these two conditions (creation and its similarity with the Creator) automatically dictate all the rest.

First, the Creator connected creation with Himself; this is described as “the creation of the world” in which the creation disappeared. Then, He added a single point to the creation, “something out of nothing.” Then, the creature started to grow inside the Light, and from this point on everything unfolded without the Creator’s interference or participation.

Here, as a binary system, there are two positions: zero and more than a zero. In other words, the Creator and of something that sticks out of the Creator. The creature that is different, external, and opposite to Him is called “creation”; it was made as “something out of nothing.”

Everything else is developing by itself. That’s why it is said: “The end of action is incorporated in the original thought.” Besides these original conditions, the Creator doesn’t need anything at all. He made the desire to receive; the rest stems from the opposition between the Light and the vessel, the giving force and the receiving desire, the Creator and the creation, meaning a point that in essence is a little bit different than the Light. These conditions are quite sufficient.

You ask: “Why did the Creator make our life so miserable? Can’t He change anything?” The very question is incorrect, since we are not yet at the level that allows us to see the whole picture and thus justify the Creator. However, even our tiny knowledge demonstrates that an alternative path is impossible. There is love and bestowal; anything that is opposite to these notions can reach similarity with Him only in one way. This applies to all times and circumstances from the beginning of creation until the end of correction. At that point, you’ll see that everything is perfect and nothing happens “accidentally.” So far, we are still very small and immature; we are squeezed in our niche and haven’t even started to follow the path that will eventually allow us to sense these things.

It seems to us that the world is huge and it’s a little scary to us. The entire universe, all our properties and troubles, everything that fills you now is only a small particle of the real world. Even though we measure this realm in kilometers and kilograms, from the point of view of the authentic reality, it simply doesn’t exist. And yet, even from this world, which is a divergent part of “something out of nothing” we can start our journey. It’s very desirable to accelerate our speed in order to cover this path on our own.

So, there are two forces, two details of perception: the Creator and the creation that is a little different from Him. These two details determine everything there is. That’s why today you cannot receive anything else but what you are already getting. Wishful thinking doesn’t work here.

The moment creation was made, as soon as “something out of something” gave birth to “something out of nothing,” everything became subordinate to the rigid law including all “cases” of our freedom of choice. Everything is included in the law, although curtains of concealment hide this law from us. In fact, the mist is illusionary. There is no mystery here. The fog that embraces our consciousness is purely of a psychological nature and is meant to “calibrate” us correctly.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Question: What is considered bestowal upon another and why is there no direct and immediate punishment for not fulfilling this Mitzva of bestowal upon the society?

Answer: Bestowal upon another means that I help the other advance towards the goal. It isn’t bestowal unless it is about necessity. Everyone needs the basic necessities to exist, since the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature have to exist on something, but in every other sense, we only have to help the other go through the phase of development of the “speaking” level.

As for the immediate punishment for not keeping the law of bestowal, this cannot be. It is because the immediate punishment would activate you like the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature—when you do something wrong, and you are immediately punished; you do something right and you immediately get a reward. Then you are simply “programmed” just like an animal.

What’s the use of that if there is not the “human being” growing in you? He can only grow from the recognition and understanding, by developing and acquiring new attributes, and most importantly by acquiring new values, by raising himself upward, above the current level, and above unnecessary decisions.

A person grows something that resembles the Creator in himself. My body, my whole world, belongs to the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. Now, however, I rise higher and build the “speaking” part in me that resembles the Creator (∾).

There is no such thing in our world, but this is actually what becomes my “self.” I sustain everything else only on the level of the necessary corporeal existence.

So it doesn’t work according to the principle of “give and take,” and the system of allowed and forbidden doesn’t fit here. It is because I have to build something above me.

Question: So who actually breaks the laws of nature: the created being or the Creator who allows us to do so?

Answer: Of course it is the Creator. He does that so that we can learn as “the advantage of the Light out of the darkness“.

The question here is as to my inclination and my tendency. It is a fact that I will fall and rise over and over again, as it says: “A righteous shall fall and rise a thousand times,” but do I want that? Am I attracted to that? Do I value this path and this direction? I am required to have an urge for that: “Do you want this to happen?” Do I cherish and develop the inclination and the desire for it”—”But how can I? I am but a “piece” of egoistic desire? “You have an environment, a group, a teacher, books, the Light that Reforms, everything that you need. It is up to you.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/13, “The Peace”

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Question: What is the best way to present the material on integral education: connecting it with Kabbalah or not?

Answer: It is better to disseminate integral education and upbringing without Kabbalah.

To date, we have enough material on Kabbalah in the general global virtual network in all languages. And if a person develops a point in the heart, he will always find this place. An external field will bring him, and he will “bite” this hook.

If a person does not have a point in the heart, then we literally need to “feed him with a spoon” to convey what integral education is and what it gives to humanity. Here, we give him what interests him, not about the soul, but because he feels bad in life: failures, crises. It is another treatment, another message.

Thus, we should be more concerned about those people who are in crisis, not those who are looking for Kabbalah. They will find it themselves.
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From the Virtual Lesson 2/3/13

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Question: How do you help a friend for whom dissemination has become more important than work in the group and this state has a negative impact on the group?

Answer: First of all he needs to understand that his connection with his friends is what leads him into the upper world. If he cannot be tied to them, then he is simply avoiding the spiritual work of spiritual connection.

I understand that you always want to get away from it and just disseminate because there you feel like you are big and great, etc. But you cannot escape the connection in the group and you need to try with all your might to be with your friends, even if they really seem to be the wrong kind of friends!

The thing is that you see them to the degree of your uncorrected state, so quit justifying both yourself and them, and don’t do anything; just work for the connection. Don’t pay attention to their faults, as if this were one sided, as if you don’t see them; you need to work for the connection!
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From the Virtual Lesson 2/3/13

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Question: What can be done when a person is disseminating without the right intention?

Answer: It does not matter! Intention will happen the next time. But now just do the action, intention and action will coincide.

Sometimes a person disseminates, but at the same time his mind is blank; he is only occupied with what he is doing and is incapable of anything more than that. He is not able to think about his connection with the Creator and the group when talking with other people and explaining things to them. Another example is when a person works with books and can only think about the text; he is proofreading, and it is hard for him to also think about the intention at the same time.

If a person is not yet able to combine spiritual aspiration with work, then he can’t do it. He will get to this point later. Eventually, no matter what he does, he will automatically direct everything towards his spiritual advancement.

Question: What is more important when it comes to dissemination: the process or the outcome?

Answer: It is hard to say what is more important. For us the process is more important. Of course the outcome is also important, but the thing is that it can become apparent only in a number of months or even a couple of years. So we need to keep working.
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From the Virtual Lesson 2/3/13

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