Question: What kind of work should we do with regard to analysis and acceleration of time?

Answer: To become like the Light means to reach the degree of bestowal. At first it’s necessary to separate yourself from the still, vegetative, and animate levels, and to understand the human degree, the degree of Adam, the one “similar” (Domeh) to the Light, bestowal. It’s necessary to figure out how I gather pieces of bestowal or grow them within through the correction of my relationship with my environment and the Creator.

This work is done every time above my desire, which naturally is inside me on the animate level. And I build the human degree, the form of bestowal, above it. The better the person begins to distinguish between these two notions, the greater the difference he begins to feel between the animal form within him and the human form, which is above this animal. All our work takes place on the borderline between the first and the second form, with the purpose of increasing the human form within us.

It’s not easy to separate these two forms within us in such a way that we perceive them in a completely equal way, as an inseparable pair: a rider, riding on horseback. Only then will we attain the understanding of what an animal and a human are. This is the main work of a beginner who needs to figure out how much attention he can dedicate to his animal and how much he must dedicate to his human in order to separate them and put each one in its place, so the one would control the other.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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Question: Is the plant for the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah a good environment for a person’s spiritual development?

Answer: We are working with the whole world and must bring it to correction. Our plant is a spiritual system, which we build among us, between us and the world, between us and the Creator. So there can be some fundamental differences.

Even if I work in a factory that produces cars, for example, I can still attribute it to my spiritual development according to how I relate to people, to the work, to the owner, to everything. But if we, together, develop a factory for the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah, for the dissemination of the method of correction, then how can we not take our group into account? The only thing the factory needs is for each member to carefully account for his actions, since first of all, we work using the Maaser (tithe) that is collected all over the world.

Secondly, here we encounter the connection between the friends and the connection between experts and one mustn’t be more important than the other. This means “you are my friend but the truth is more important.” So, although you are my friend, I can totally object to what you say when it comes to some serious professional decision. This, however, doesn’t mean that we are not friends any more. The decisions have to be professional and accurately based on our commitment to work in the most fruitful way for the correction of the world.

Personally, I have no questions about this. I can yell at the workers, reprimand them for not working as they should, but I love them no matter what; they are my dear students, my children. One thing has nothing to do with the other. It’s just like you treat your son: On the one hand, you can sometimes spank him, but on the other hand, you love him, and because he is your son, you care about him. One thing doesn’t negate the other.

It’s the same among friends: We do things together, study, become closer, and together we are one whole, but in this you are wrong. “You are wrong,” “No, you are wrong.” Practically we can fight as we try to find out who is right, but at the same time you can still love one another. We have to get used to the fact that there will always be two levels: Below there can be disputes, but above this, “Love covers all the sins.”
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From the Virtual Lesson 1/27/13

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Question: Sometimes when we start new projects we are unable to come to an agreement. In such cases we organize a roundtable in order to solve the problem together. Is it worth setting up such general meetings from time to time?

Answer: We should organize discussions on any occasion. All issues should be resolved precisely this way, but we need to stick to our principles at the same time. This means that we should not act like “angels” who make all decisions only from love and do not accept anything else. If everyone annuls themselves before all, then you will not solve anything. Therefore Kabbalah teaches us to follow the middle line. A clear and rigid decision for the problem means the left line. The absolutely opposite way, in love, means the right line. As a result the middle line appears.

You have to make a real decision by doing it all together.
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From the Virtual Lesson 1/27/13

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Question: It is very difficult for creative people to realize themselves when working at an enterprise because its structure requires certain boundaries, and creative people need freedom.

Answer: What freedom does a creative person have? Is he not limited by his creativity? He must understand what he is doing, after all.

This is not just a free artist with wealthy relatives who does whatever he wants. And even in this state, he will not be able to create anything. Or he must be completely poor, like Modigliani who barely made ends meet, or something anyway needs to be pressuring him, otherwise he will not produce. But being “suspended in midair” is not creativity. All the great people have worked in difficult circumstances.

For example, Slava Zaitsev, a famous designer, suffered for many years because he was not being recognized or accepted, and he was badly treated in Russian, until he became known abroad.

Thus, freedom without boundaries is not a creative approach. I do not believe in things like: “Right now we’ll take our time, and we might show you the results in six month or a year from now.” One should not do business with people like this!
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From the Virtual Lesson 1/27/13

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Question: What can we do if the load of working in the group and the load of working in the general Bnei Baruch factory don’t allow a person to deal with both? What should be given preference? Is it the obligations in the group or the responsibilities in the organization?

Answer: It is a problem I hear about everywhere, both in the groups in Israel and abroad. You have to decide what the priority is.

If we don’t deal with dissemination, then we will not be given anything from Above either, since we exist in GE like vessels that should conduct the Light from Above downwards to the nations of the world, and this is why we were given a spiritual awakening.

We must understand that we have to give below as much as we want to receive from Above in order to be the conductor of the Light and not the resistor. So you have to decide to what extent you can do that.

There are people who work in the group for the friends in the maintenance of the building, etc. There are people who deal more in publication, in production, in working in the society or in the global group, but on the whole the ratio should be that a person should aspire to give as much as he receives.
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From the Virtual Lesson 1/27/13

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Question: How can I understand which corrections I go through from day to day? I don’t understand at all what is happening with me.

Answer: The understanding arrives as a result of clarifying my Kelim (vessels, desires). And the Light is what purifies, corrects, and fills my Kli, not you yourself. Our work is to be inspired to pull this Light upon us. Except for that there is nothing else, and this is the entire Torah, “The Reforming Light.”

You don’t know, don’t understand, and don’t feel the spiritual world. Simply some kind of unknown longing leads you, but you really don’t know exactly what it leads to. This is the correct and good state that even exists on higher spiritual levels.

We only need to imagine the optimal conditions: In what state, what situation, in what way will I enter into the maximum influence of the Light? It is as if I go on the roof in order to sunbathe a little. After all I wouldn’t sit in the shade, but I would put the chair directly in the sun and turn towards it, in order to place myself constantly under its rays. I constantly adjust myself to catch the maximum rays of the sun.

Similarly, we need to clarify the conditions under which we will be able to pull the maximum Light that Reforms. And we need not just to place ourselves under its influence, but to pull it to ourselves. After all, here everything depends on how strongly I want the Light to come and affect me.

And one needs to think about this all day: How can I hold myself in the correct thought and desire; what needs to control my heart and mind in order to invite the influence of the Light? Under what conditions does the Light influence me in the greatest way? How should I turn my heart and mind in order to position myself under the influence of the Light?

As a result of that, all the rest will come. Even without reading the letters of Baal HaSulam, you discover what is written there. The matter is not in learning a few pages of text and acquiring knowledge. But we need to read these texts because during the time of studies we direct ourselves to greater influence of the Light. For example, the reading of Kabbalistic texts is one of the conditions of the correct intention towards the Light. But we don’t read them just for understanding, but with the thought to pull towards us the influence of the Light. This is the whole issue. Thus, it is said, “Not the wise one learns.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What does “adhesion to the Creator” mean?

Answer: Adhesion is according to the equivalence of form. The Creator is the level of Bina. This is how Keter presents itself to us through Bina that is totally in bestowal. This means that in order to reach the Creator I also have to be one who bestows.

How do I perform this bestowal? I hand my vessels, my desires, to Him so that He will bestow in them. I must have the right intention here, “Please bestow upon me since by that I want to bring You pleasure, to bring You joy, and to make You feel good.” Thus I place myself at His service.

Before I wanted to receive the goodness for myself, but now I restrict myself instead (Tzimzum Aleph – ZA), place a Masach (screen) over it to create the Returning Light, and all that in order to care for and think about Him, about the one who bestows. Afterward I already have the right intention, and to that extent I am ready to receive everything from the Creator.

It is because His desire is that I receive that I want to receive everything so that He enjoys. I will know this if I discover joy in Him. This is my goal—to bring the Creator joy just as He wants to be the good and benevolent for me.

This means that only one thing is required of us—to hand Him the vessel for the induction and the revelation of the Creator. This is why we yearn for His revelation.

So ask yourself: Why does everyone yearn for the revelation of the Creator? Is it in order to bring Him joy or to bring you joy? This is the whole idea.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/13, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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We are used to traditional literature. Books can be entertaining about adventure, science fiction, etc. In general, when opening a book, I want to draw some information or impressions from it.

However, Kabbalistic books act very differently. In Kabbalah a book is a means, the connecting element, the adapter, with which I can connect to the author. That is how I should see the works of Kabbalists: They help me connect to an immense spiritual system flooded with the Light of Infinity, filled with the Creator.

This system consists of souls, that is, from the corrected desires of the greatest spirits that by great efforts achieved similarity with the Creator, and they hold His revelation in their vessels, in their desires. Moreover, some of them formed a thin “pipe” to me, a channel through which I can connect with them and receive inspiration, news, correction, everything that makes me belong to this system.

Thus, reading a Kabbalistic books is quite different from reading all other literature. That is why these books in general are called “studying” (the Torah) because they contain the Light (Ohr) that Reforms. They contain a special power, and I can get it if I wait for change, if I want to become like the authors.

If I look just for knowledge in these books and treat them like any other books, then I disdain the efforts of Kabbalists and thus lose a lot. Of course, in general this approach brings no good to either me or anyone else.

Thus, it is very important to connect to the heritage of Kabbalists, to use the opportunity to unite that they gave me. Here, the intention decides everything. If my “animal” mind sees various kinds of wisdom in their books to improve something in our world, then it is a completely worthless approach called “the potion of death.” Nothing is worse than this attitude.

And if we connect, if we read these books only in order to see the “elixir of life” inside, we open ourselves so we are ready to receive what they intended to give us. There are no tricks and excuses: all that the upper gives us for the better. Thus I advance, as they say, “believing the wise.”

It is not simple, but it imperative. My intention determines the difference between the “elixir of life” and the “potion of death,” between the “bat” living in the dark, and the “rooster” praising the dawn. If I do not keep the correct approach, I can stay in the same place, or even worse, fall backward. Even if I have dedicated a whole life to this, if there were an error in the main thing, then life will pass in vain, and even worse, it can throw me into the forces of impurity (Klipot), cleansing from which can take a few more cycles.

That is why people must constantly check themselves on the spiritual path.

Question: What can I do with my “material” mind and my feeling to connect to this “adapter,” a Kabbalistic book?

Answer: It is necessary to cancel yourself before the group and the teacher; this is the tool that lets you connect to the author. By annulling oneself before the group and the teacher who oversees it, a person seemingly connects to the “jack” and establishes connection with the Kabbalist who wrote the book. The group plays the role of the “adapter” between them.

In general, the concept of “group” represents a link between the Creator and humanity.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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Question: Suppose that during the integral studies in the group there is also a thief or a snitch among us. According to the system we have to rise above ourselves and to value the other, just as we value ourselves. But a person always justifies himself, so if we try to justify the other’s behavior, we will lose all our moral values, and we can’t destroy them without creating new ones.

Answer: I don’t destroy any moral values, but rather learn how to rise to my next level when “we” becomes more important for me than “I.”

How can I cooperate with all of humanity if it is always depicted to me as worse than myself: This one is stupid and the other is smarter than me, but that one is so good in something else, etc. So how can I relate to everyone integrally if I don’t learn how to justify them now? I have to learn! I am not saying the fact that we make excuses for them.

The purpose of our workshops is to create a global organ for the perception of the world. Then I will see that the world is different; I will see the mutual connections in it, the network. All this will be in me, and so suddenly when I look at the world, I will be able to say: “Oh, that’s the way it should be done!” Within myself it will not be so difficult.

Try to prepare a program to distribute all the food in the world now. Suppose all the cards were placed in your hands: There is a certain amount of food in the world that is found in certain places, now distribute it so that everyone will feel good. You will be torn to pieces; you won’t have enough human resources and not enough computer resources in order to carry this out.

However, if you have an integral perspective of life it will be natural for you, just like a mother who knows this is what I have to prepare for my baby and this is what I have to prepare for my husband, etc. And everything is ready! Why? Because she feels them. It is part of her; it is inside her. But if we have to do something for other people, we encounter a huge problem, and if it is for the whole world then all the more so.

So it is important to exit myself. I “train” myself with others. The more stupid they seem to me, the more their perspective is opposite from mine, the more I can exit myself and rise above myself to temporary agreement with them.

Question: What ends this temporary agreement?

Answer: The fact that I am creating a new integral organ of perception. I begin to understand all the other people and by the whole system that is created and born in me, I begin to see how I can cooperate with the whole world. I’m not going to correct anyone; it is impossible to correct the ego.

All the others participating with me go through the same stage. But we don’t correct one another! We rise to the next level.
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From KabTV’s “Integral World” 11/27/12

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