Question: What is spiritual despair?

Answer: Spirituality is bestowal. There is no such attribute in our world. My job is to locate it from the opposite state. This means, to understand how far I am from that attribute and at the same time to feel how much I need it. If I attain such an understanding, then a strong desire to penetrate this attribute will be stabilized in me, and this desire will turn into my prayer, my request, my demand.

If I really want to attain spirituality, a force comes from Above and reveals this attribute inside me. Then I begin to feel the other part of reality that was concealed from me until now and is now being revealed. Now we are living in only one attribute, receiving, and because of this our lives are so miserable and short, made only of losses that don’t lead to anything good. But when I enter the attribute of bestowal, by annulling myself and overcoming the psychological barrier, ready to give up everything, I move to the other side of this inner psychological barrier (Machsom), and enter the spiritual space that is total bestowal.

It is like a person who stops breathing, and after actually having done that, he feels that he can live without air. Then a new space is revealed to him, a new world. It is just an example, since it cannot be conveyed more accurately, as there is no similar attribute in our world.

We feel despair since there is no way I can attain this attribute by myself. Through the group and the study, I finally come to the decision that I cannot do that, but I have no choice, I must have it. Then I receive this opportunity.
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From the Arava Convention 1/18/13, Lesson 5

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Question: If I am on a lower level, where will I find the deficiency to rise to the upper level?

Answer: True, for the time being you are on a lower level and cannot desire the upper level, but you play as if you want to rise, and by that you summon the Reforming Light.

There is a connection between the levels: If you want to be on a higher level than you are now, the Light comes to you from that upper level and it isn’t imaginary anymore but real, and it influences you from a distance by bringing you closer to it. Thus you advance. This is called your prayer, MAN.

There is an upper Partzuf and a lower Partzuf. The lower cannot rise to the level of the upper, but it performs different actions as if showing that it wants to become like the upper. This desire is feigned, but it is called a prayer. It’s a lie and hypocrisy, but I want to rise!

The upper Light, MAD, comes in response to my prayer. Although I am below, I am answered according to the gap between my hypocritical lie and some real desire for the upper; this is the gap between the desired and the actual. In fact, it isn’t real, but I still want some change.

The actual comes from the heart and what we desire comes from the point in the heart. If the point in the heart has awoken in a person, then there is a dichotomy. The greater the gap (Delta – ∆) between the heart and the point in the heart, the stronger the MAN, and thus it summons a greater effect from Above, MAD.

The lower has to attain such a false feeling, as if the connection with the upper is more important for him than the filling. In order to do that there is the environment around me that influences me from all sides. The more correctly I place myself in the environment, this Delta (∆), I basically define the Delta in my prayer between the heart and the point in the heart.

The first impression is made by my action in the group (1) and this brings me to the second Delta (∆) between the desire of the heart and the point in the heart (2). This is what determines the intensity of my prayer, MAN (3), upon which comes a stronger Light from Above (4).
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: In the past humanity somehow regulated the evil it encountered, but today it seems that the evil has been set loose.

Answer: We have advanced and developed in a constant ascent; our ego grew over the years until it has become “round.” We have always known what to do with it, and how to balance it. Time after time it pushed us forward to new achievements. We have always managed with it: We built, invented, and added something. The deficiency pushed us forward and we reached a filling. If we couldn’t attain it directly we had revolutions.

The generations have changed; there was a time of slavery, and feudalism, the Middle Ages passed, and capitalism came along, and eventually we have reached the last phase, communism. In a “round” state” there can be nothing but mutual connections based on mutual guarantee.

We have to say here that it’s the Creator who evokes the deficiency each time, and by that, the created being receives the power and the mind to fulfill the deficiency. The changing of eras and special moments are typified by revolutions, since such transitions are only possible by troubles, by dramatic changes.

So today, in our current state, we have to act according to the new leadership. All the old approaches and methods will not work today since they were all good up to the moment that we began to become “round.” Now we will receive blows since we aren’t adjusting ourselves to what is happening around us.

These are not anyone’s insinuations, but the natural process of events: If you don’t adjust to the external conditions, you cannot blame anyone for the outcome. For example, what’s the point in blaming others if you went out on a cold winter day without warm clothes? In the same way, we are entering a new world now without having adjusted ourselves to it.

It has been scientifically proven that in the new era we need a greater degree of unity, connection, and cooperation. But we remain the way we were and so we are not adapted to the new reality, to the force of the leadership that has closed us in a “round” system. For over a hundred years scientists and experts have been writing about that, so who is to blame if we don’t listen?

The cost of our not adapting to the changed conditions will be global bankruptcy, systematic collapse, and perhaps even world war. How can it be otherwise if we stubbornly refuse to adjust ourselves to the unity and the connection that the new state requires? We are like the person who has killed his parents and is asking the court for mercy because he is an orphan.

So the time has come to adapt ourselves to the global world, which will continue to “round up” even more. It’s impossible to go on living as in the past, the only way today is unity and connection, according to the world that is becoming one before our eyes.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/12, “The Peace”

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Question: How can I find out what I should focus on and what exactly my self-realization is?

Answer: You will never be able to discern this by yourself. A person cannot find his place and self-realization unless he realizes himself within the group.

Some time ago I had a bad car accident and my liver was injured. A part of my liver had to be removed. Can we say that this removed part of the liver has any realization now? When it was inside the body and was connected with all its organs, this part was providing the body what it needed and in turn it was receiving from the body all the necessary things. This is called realization.

However, when this part is cut off from the body it doesn’t even know that it’s liver. Only if you decide to get connected to the body will you learn who you are. But for now you are simply a “stem cell” from which any organ can be formed and you don’t understand your function.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/12, “Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot

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Question: Most of humanity relates to Kabbalah with prejudice. How is it possible to correctly build Internet dissemination if a person who enters our site immediately realizes that he is dealing with Kabbalah? It is impossible to hide this from him.

Answer: This is a very sensitive matter. This problem exists with us in the entire world. We are notable for Kabbalah study, and nowhere in the world is that embraced. I don’t know how it’s possible to break the resistance of human thinking.

Even with us in Israel there is great rejection, no acceptance of the wisdom of Kabbalah. If we go forward with integral education, they accept us openly, but the moment that they discover that we are connected to the wisdom of Kabbalah, they immediately refuse and reject us. Serious and educated people suddenly turn completely primitive in that they are certain it is some kind of witchcraft or impure forces. And nothing really helps. They are not able to overcome their fear.

Only time, a demand to the Creator, and our constant efforts will finally give a push forward with this issue. I think that we are lacking the overall effort, continuously and mutually trying to request help to change us from Above, and then the inner force of the Light will create new conditions. When our external efforts and our inner request for help from the Light will break through the ego and will invite in it at least some sparks of targeted longing, then people will no longer have prejudices.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 7

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Question: Not everything that I do in life requires me to solicit help from my friends or from the Creator. However, these actions still lead me to the goal; for example, I get up in the morning and head to the congress all by myself. But there are actions I have been unsuccessfully trying to implement for 20 years now. Does it mean that these actions require applying the efforts that we talk about in the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: No. If you can’t do something at all, then it’s not about your effort. Exertion is about asking to be given strength to do something. Our appeal for forces is the exertion. We apply lots of efforts, but all of them are directed towards ourselves. Efforts start when we see that we are powerless to do anything at all. Real exertions are above human powers. Only when we run out of energy, a place for exertion appears.

How can it be? Let’s say, I can lift a maximum of 100 pounds. Where is my effort here? I won’t lift more than this anyway. So, my effort is about asking for additional strength to increase the load. I did everything that was in my power: I got ready for the congress, registered, arrived, but in fact I am not there yet. We talk with friends, have joint meals, go for a walk, the weather is great, the air is clean…Are any of these actions considered to be my efforts? No! But it is only due to our efforts that we have gathered together.

Our effort is that we want to come to unity, and for that, we perform various actions. If as a result of these actions, each discovers that he did not achieve anything, if he did not rejoice, and groans and cries for salvation, it is called “We shall do and we shall hear.”

“We are ready! So give us strength!” This is what we scream about. In Kabbalah, this demand is called an effort. The Creator performs the action, not us. Our contribution is only the demand.

Question: But this is contrary to my masculinity. I literally humble myself before the Creator…

Answer: So, lower yourself a little. No big deal! Do you always have to be macho? Where you will humble yourself you will see greatness. Modesty is a great thing. Our efforts are all about our demand to be humbled. You have to “pay” your friends to have them help you achieve this.

Question: Are there any examples of this in nature? Do I humiliate a child to raise him?

Answer: No, all you do is repetitively add complications to a child’s life and set up tasks of increasing difficulty for him. As to becoming more humble, it doesn’t originate from Above. You are the one who has to come to this point. This condition emerges when you are helpless, powerless to act and unable to reach the goal. Imagine that you want to lift 400 pounds even though your limit is 350. So, you ask the Creator to help you. Does He humiliate you in this case?

Of course you did everything that was in your power: exercised a lot in order to lift 400 pounds so that you do it yourself rather than be indebted to anybody else. Yet, a spiritual path is different; here, you have to get the power of bestowal, the force of the Light, that you are still lacking. You cannot receive it if you don’t ask for it.

You have to bow your head since otherwise you won’t be able to use this force. Similarly, a young child given adult things would get hurt. The child should move ahead step by step and understand causes and possible consequences so that his knowledge and powers will be a result of his own personal experience. Otherwise, he will turn into a terrible and destructive monster with a little intellect.

Question: Why are our efforts to unite not enough for the Creator? Why does He want us to appeal to Him?

Answer: Your demand signifies that you can use the powers that He gives you correctly. If you open your bestowing vessel properly, it means that you know how to handle the force He gives you, and vice versa, the absence of the correct demand shows that you are not ready to use the Creator’s gift correctly and that it would only hurt you and others if He grants it to you.

This is the reason Plato and Aristotle were against exposing the sciences to the masses. People would acquire powers without any idea of the relationships that exist in nature, without any understanding of cause and effect, and this would lead to complete destruction

Question: So it makes no sense to carry out the actions I can do myself?

Answer: That is true. Accordingly, it is said, “Better sit and do nothing.” If humanity could only be satisfied with basic needs in food, having a family and children, then its path would be much more successful since, in this case, all their other forces would be devoted to the internal advancement and the rest would be left up to the Creator.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/13, The Zohar

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Question: When we study nature and ourselves, we discover that we all totally depend on our genes and surroundings. Compelling evidence suggests that there is no freedom of will whatsoever and that we all are mortal. However, we are not ready to conform to these facts; we ignore the results of our own research and prefer to stay in the illusions that appeal to us. How can this conflict be resolved?

Answer: We study many phenomena, but are not necessarily guided by the results. There are such things as doubts, beliefs, faiths, and egoism after all. Even if we know we’re wrong, we still stick to our “opinion” since this is what we really want. We know this about children, but adults often do the same.

In short, our life is difficult. But in any case, the impartial, reasonable data proven by scientific research should be accepted as facts. Otherwise, in the end, we’ll hurt others and ourselves.

On the other hand, concepts that have not been validated or proven by science cannot be accepted anymore.

Question: So, a human being is an egoistic irrational creature that believes in fairytales if they suit him?

Answer: Really! How can that be? Are we actually triggered by pleasant sensations even if they are wrong? Let’s say, I like to smoke, overeat, and do many other unhealthy things. I don’t care that it harms me as long as I enjoy them. I want to do what pleases me and if I have to pay for it later, who cares.

Such an attitude is irrational. Logically, I have to accept the laws of nature and comply with them, following them as precisely as a machine. However, my desire “spoils” everything and instead, I do what pleases me. This is the way a human being is created. In contrast to inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, humans are spoiled.

If not for our egoism, we would simply be animals that have a rigid program inserted in them; if it were so, it wouldn’t leave us any choice. Animals don’t face dilemmas like: “To do or not to do something? Should I do it this way or that way? Will it be pleasant or not?” They are governed by rigid commands; that’s it.

And here we are worse than them; we are the worst of all! After all, our egoism stands in our way and prevents us from observing the laws of nature; it doesn’t let us act as we are supposed to, without deviating an inch to the right or to the left, to only walk on the fine line of the route. The laws of nature are immutable, invariable, and infinitely precise; however, the surplus egoism destroys and overwhelms all of us. We do what is good for our ego and it is always is against reason.

This is the way a man turns into a “spoiled animal.” All of our additions to the animate level look extremely good: culture, education, etc. These things are particularly based on our corruption. Literature, music, and other “spiritual heights” result from man’s deficiency after he stopped being an animal. Birds are singing not because they are aspiring to beauty, but do so. Yet, we are different…

In the end, any embellishments to common sense and to science in its pure form are harmful. In fact, all we should promote is science. However, we are making use of everything we can. What can we do about it? In fact, even education, upbringing, and culture, all that is not derived from animal instincts, is flawed and are attempts to compensate them. We don’t realize how strongly we deviate from the way that is given to us by Nature, nor do we understand that we have become an alien element, a “cancerous tumor,” that developed in our collective body. Eventually, the tumor destroys itself and the environment it lives in. Ecology is the best example. Cancerous cells devour the body and die together with it. They cannot stop. This is their form of existence. Egoism acts the same way in us.

So we have to clearly understand where the thin line is, the edge, the partition between science and “science fiction,” that is, religions, beliefs, philosophical concepts, psychological constructs etc. We can use things within the scientific sphere if we do it accurately, like animals following instincts, and don’t make mistakes. Even though we have discovered all sorts of phenomena and developed various methods that are based on our findings, these things still originally exist in nature. Therefore, if we follow the laws of nature, everything goes well. It’s fine if the laws of nature are revealed in science.

However, if we refer to the speculative sphere, to artificial theories and practices, we should keep in mind that all of them are imaginary and false. You cannot apply them in life. In that case, how do we relate to the soul? We did not find its scientific methods and we don’t feel it with our sensors. So does it really exist?

It’s quite possible that science will soon be able to answer this question. Science constantly brings something new out of hiding, corrects current deficiencies, modernizes and improves things that had already been discovered previously. However, we cannot base things on guesswork.

On the other hand, how should we refer to books by Kabbalists who tell us about the soul? Can we rely on them? After all, faith doesn’t work since it is not scientific.

So, until we attain these things ourselves, no evidence proving its existence, we will have doubts.

What can we do?

We should reconcile our natural progression as an “electrochemical driven bio-machine” and clearly realize that we don’t have any freedom of choice except in selecting our surroundings and placing ourselves into the correct environment. It has to be done strictly scientifically; we should see everything around us only through the laws of nature that can be reduced into two parts, which we call “the path of Torah” and the “path of suffering.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/12, “Body and Soul”

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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah

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Question: Is an intention an independent element?

Answer: An intention is what you want of the desire to receive. Today we don’t have a real intention; today we can only judge where it is better to “steal” something, where it is possible to enjoy more: from what, from whom, by what, etc. It is imprinted in our desire to receive as a result of the shattering. But we cannot consider the two options, the two intentions: in order to receive and in order to bestow. We can only calculate the greatest personal benefit we could get from the options we have. I check my desires and choose the most promising option. As far as I am concerned the question is what I can use for my own benefit and where I make a greater profit.

An intention of in order to bestow is above that. By it, I check myself with regard to others. Then my question is different: How can I serve others in order to bestow upon them as much as I can? This is a totally different calculation. How can I do that? In order to do that I have to feel the other and not myself: What is good for him? What does he want? What does he need? I have to be mutually incorporated in him since how else would it be possible to weigh all the options?

So in order to fulfill the desire to bestow, we have to constantly advance towards incorporation with others until we reach actual love. We always face a dilemma on the spiritual levels as to the two ways of clarification—we fall into the shell and we rise again to Holiness.

Today, during the time of preparation, being below the Machsom (barrier), we have not entered this level yet. We study and we play in a group, but later it will actually become a holy society for us. This is where we advance to, by advancing towards the “Exodus from Egypt“,in order to rise from an egoistic clarification to an altruistic one.

This will be our spiritual birth. It is the same with a baby who is born and begins to breathe, to eat, and to feel his body. After the birth, the body begins to operate according to a new clarification that did not exist before—a more conscious one. We too want to move into a new clarification in our body, in our desire.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/13, “600,000 Souls”

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Question: Is the point in the heart connected to our corporeal body?

Answer: The body is controlled by desire. Sometimes I lie powerless, asleep, unable to force myself to move. At the same time, I am physically healthy, my blood pressure, my blood sugar level, my heart, lungs, everything is just fine, so why can’t I move? Because I have no desire. I don’t want anything, and it is a kind of melancholy feeling. Sometimes, even if I have a high temperature and I feel dizzy, I run around madly all day in order to solve a certain problem.

The desire leads the flesh into action. This means that we turn to the wisdom of Kabbalah and come to the lesson not with our body but with our desire.

The body is just an “animal” that we bring with us. The dog lies on the carpet near the chair of his owner, and so I settle my body on a chair. I, however, am the desire. The way I work with myself, the way I “format” myself” is how I operate my body. It is merely a “biological machine,” and if it is given enough motivation, then even with a high temperature it will advance towards the goal together with me.

In any case, the desire decides and determines what to do, while the body carries out the order. So first and foremost worry about the desire and not the body.

Besides, you can penetrate more deeply and work with the point in the heart above the desire and above the body. By that you work “against” them and the point determines all your actions by choosing what is most important.

Thus the desire and the point in the heart constantly argue inside you. The argument stems from the fact that the point is another desire, the yearning for the Creator. Eventually, there is a constant struggle between them, but the body does not “intervene.” It acts according to the desire of the winning side, either the desire of the heart or of the point in the heart…

This point has already awoken in some people, and in others it is still asleep in the depths of the corporeal ego. Being in the center of the heart (•), it has to “emerge” and rise above the heart. Just like the worm, in the example Baal HaSulam gives, has to come out of the radish. The time of preparation lasts for thousands of years on the levels of the “nations of the world,” until the point rises by the sufferings. At the end of the ascent the real work with it begins, and at this point people come to us, to Bnei Baruch (BB).

As for the “nations of the world,” these are simply stages along the way. Everyone belongs to the general system, but today we are given the chance to advance consciously. This is what the Light that Reforms has done (the Surrounding Light). Why? We don’t know, but in general, the process takes place according to the order to the emergence of the Reshimot (spiritual genes).

During the shattering, the high Reshimot fell to the lowest place. Now the awakening is starting and here everything depends on which Reshimo a person belongs to, on the root of his soul. Then he will discover this root and will know all the details of his path. In any case, it does not depend on anyone personally. Everyone is operated and has to perform his role.

Question: Sometimes I perceive myself as superior to those who have not been “awakened” yet…

Answer: This is because the Light has not operated on you sufficiently. You are still judging by your ego. In fact, you will not be able to feel superior to any one else, not even an ant. On the contrary, you will feel the Creator in everything. He is behind a certain person or another, He is before you and you cannot have any complaints or disrespect regarding anyone. Even in the greatest enemies who cause the greatest troubles and threaten the nation and the state, you will only see the Creator; they force you to wake up and to correct the connection with Him above the current obstacle. It is He who has placed the obstacle before you, and the intensity of the interruption indicates how strongly you can be connected to Him.

Therefore it says: “Even if a sharp sword is placed on one’s neck, he shouldn’t despair of mercy.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/13, “600,000 Souls”

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