Question: By studying Kabbalah, we turn from the “nations of the world” to the “people of Israel.” If I understand correctly, in reaching spiritual attainment do we obtain greater suffering than the “nations of the world?” Or do we understand the cause and effect relationship?

Answer: I have many friends from school, university, with whom I sometimes keep in touch. They are developed, normal people, but they don’t understand me. In any case, I don’t neglect anyone of them; I appreciate and love them, but we are just different people.

So, we can’t evaluate ourselves relative to others. It’s easier for someone and more difficult for someone else; everyone has his own destiny. The only thing that a person should do is to realize himself as he is.

You shouldn’t envy anyone, saying, he is lucky, look how rich he is, and this one is a slacker, but everything is easier for him; the third one was born “with a silver spoon in his mouth.” It will not help. This suggests that you just don’t know how to realize yourself. One has to learn!

Take your truest, deepest desire, longing, and start being yourself. You will see that this is the best that can be. It’s unlikely that you will be happy if you change places with someone. Only by realizing yourself, by becoming similar to the Creator, will you be completely fulfilled.

As to moving forward, the more a person advances, the greater emptiness emerges in him. But these voids become filled with insight, a sense of eternity, perfection, eternal life, a sense of Infinity. A person sees the universe from end to end.

An average person in this world, for example, a shepherd walks with cows in the meadow, whistling, feeling good, alive and well, with no worries in his head. Can we envy him? Yes, of course. But envy what and up to what point? After all, there comes a state when he will have carried out his program.

So, don’t think about suffering. Realize yourself! Otherwise, it turns out that you curse the Creator for having created you. What could be worse than that? So, let’s be grateful!
[95654]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

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Question: Let’s say the Creator draws a picture for us of someone incapable of coping with a disease or getting out of some bad state. Is it a manifestation of the group’s weakness? How do we react to these situations?

Answer: We cannot say that it is a consequence of a group’s work. We are tied to the whole world.

The group we are currently in is not a small number of people who used to study a thousand years ago when the world was “sealed” and developed egoistically. For example, the groups of ARI, Ramchal, Rabbi Shimon, or Rabbi Akiva were detached from the rest of the world.

The world, its so-called Babylonian part, has been developing egoistically, whereas Kabbalistic groups advanced independently. They used to discuss within the group only what really pertained to their group.

Today, the world advances in general; it has become global. Now, we move forward not because we deserve it or don’t deserve it, but rather, because we have to move ahead for the sake of correcting the entire world. So, we cannot say that somebody fell or was elevated as a result of the internal group work within one particular group or any other groups; we all are closely interconnected. Today, these problems cannot be resolved this way.
[95513]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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Question: How can I correct my perception if I only see evil in the world around me?

Answer: Only the Light that Reforms corrects everything. We, on the other hand, are required to continue persistently, since despite all the explanations and the efforts that we make in our heart and mind, we will not understand anything until we reach the first revelation. Then a new mind and feelings open up for us.

Today, no matter how much we want to perceive the explanations, we are wasting great efforts by trying to perceive new spiritual discernments in our current vessels. We constantly yearn for that, but in fact, our work should be totally different.

It is as if we are stuck in one place just burning our fuel, our attention and time. It is because such efforts don’t help us attain the spiritual world. It is as if we are trying to push a ball through a square opening, but it doesn’t work; it’s a completely different system of measurement. The more efforts we make in bestowal and connection, and the less we try to get spiritual information in our current corporeal perception, the more we will succeed.

No matter what, by using our current mind and feelings, we will never understand what the books say or the states that we are going through now. We are like a child who is trying at the age of three to understand his own psychology. Of course he cannot even understand himself, and certainly not the mature and more advanced thinking. It is simply impossible.

So we must simply do what Kabbalists say; this doesn’t mean that we have to act with our eyes closed and without feeling and clarifications, but we shouldn’t stall trying to understand these experiences, except for what is needed for our practical advancement towards unity, connection, and love. It is only towards this goal that we should focus our study and all the events and actions. Otherwise it is called that “his wisdom is greater than his actions.”

I am telling you about this since I also used to make the same mistake in the past. For a long time I couldn’t be convinced that the spiritual world is attained only by self-annulment, by self-submission, by devotion, and not by the rational mind, sensible understanding and feelings.

It is important to remember that “it isn’t the wise who learns” and to keep the right attitude towards the study, the right attitude between what is essential for our advancement and what can interfere with it.
[95668]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: Could you please explain to us why you, as a Kabbalist, leading the whole world to unity, pay special attention to the Jews and Israel? Doesn’t Kabbalah, as the method of general correction, pertain to all nations?

Answer: I can assure you that I come only from the need for universal integral correction of the world; I see the goal to unite everyone in one desire to reveal the Creator in us. Moreover, in this revelation the Creator is manifested precisely in the desires of the nations of the world. But the revelation itself occurs through those who were in it in their previous reincarnations, and these are today’s Jews, although they do not suspect this.

To correct the world, they need to be brought, to the extent possible, to study Kabbalah. Who leads them to it is everyone in whom the point in the heart is awakened, both Jews and non-Jews, all the members of the world Bnei Baruch Kabbalah group. Their studies attract Ohr Makif, the Light that corrects egoism, to them and through them as Jews to the entirety of humanity through the internal network of connection of all created beings in a unified integral system.

That is why the nations of the world subconsciously feel that the Jews have a secret (conspiracy), and that they are the cause of suffering in the world. Thus, it’s necessary to call the Jews, carrying the genes of the spiritual world (Reshimot) from the time when they were in its revelation to the fall from that level 2000 years ago, to fulfill their duty to the Creator and humanity.

See the explanation of Baal HaSulam in “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” p.60.
[95695]

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Question: What are the differences and similarities between the concepts of “faith above reason” and “humbleness”?

Answer: Faith above reason is bestowal, which “hangs” above egoism in spite of it. Humbleness is an agreement with the direction from above and the passage to faith above reason. It precedes faith above reason.

Faith is called a property of bestowal.
[95651]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/9/12, Lesson 5

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If we embark on the spiritual path, we must exert effort in order to make each next step. On the other hand, the greater part of mankind will obtain the spiritual world “in a single step” so to speak, and we are the ones who will provide this step: by our sweat and hard work.

What do we get out of this? At best, satisfaction with the work done, or simply nothing. This is what it means to be a “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation”: This is exactly what the Torah calls the ones who carry out this mission.

In other words, everything we do, we do in bestowal, which is “holiness.” We work hard seven days a week; we face ungratefulness and resistance, and in the end, everyone, all at one time, will receive that which cost us so much, and it’s in them where the greatest Light will unfold.

Question: But how? One percent gives all their soul to it, crosses the Machsom, reforms itself to bestow, and, all of a sudden, the rest of the 99 percent, in one easy move, collects the entire revenue?

Answer: Our pleasure, above all, is to delight the Creator so that He won’t know about us. That’s what it means to really bestow without wanting a reward: I bring Him pleasure and He doesn’t know who His secret admirer is. He thinks it came from somebody else. Otherwise, if both of us, the Creator and I, know that the delight is coming from me, it’s a payment, and there is no greater payment than that.

Question: Why did the Creator handpick us to bestow from the whole of mankind?

Answer: There are souls who feel that they are supposed to become realized in the most advanced form as compared to the rest of mankind. Their progress is tied to the vital need to find the Creator, the mystery of life, the general system of all creation, the grid that links all in one. This idea, this desire, takes a hold of them and doesn’t let them go.

Question: Why, then, do we receive troubles and problems on the spiritual path?

Answer: You seek justice? There is such, but it is not what you think it is. Justice lies in my gratitude to the Creator for this hard work, for the chance to bring Him delight that I won’t even know about and that He won’t know comes from me. This is the true, pure bestowal.

Question: However, the other 99% eventually will overtake us on this path!

Answer: That’s true; and I thank the Creator for this special role He assigned to me. I have accomplished selflessly, and this is my reward. I reached a state where lack of payment is my pay, and this is what fulfills me, and it is called the Light of mercy, the Light of Hassadim.
[95585]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/12, “The Peace”

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Question: What do we need to keep in mind so that the group doesn’t turn into a bunch of mockers?

Answer: Each time, we deliberately fall under the influence of the Creator who taunts us and shakes us like babies so much He as if simply “shakes it all out” of us. Today we are so nice and “cute,” ready to love everyone and everything. But tomorrow we will once again be completely opposite. How can we forget that our path is made of ascents and descents? We can’t remember it if we forget about the Creator.

Why is it said: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one”? Israel means “yearning for the Creator.” Hence the remedy for correction: our studies, the group, where all of this gets realized, and the Creator Himself have to be as one, in one place. There are the Creator, the group, and me.

We have to constantly link it all together into one unified whole; there can’t be any other view of the world! In order to focus and properly look at what is happening, I need these three points: the eye, the sight, and the target. Otherwise, I won’t be able to do anything.

Therefore, if we wish to keep the group in the right intention, it is our responsibility to keep in mind that our goal is adhesion with the Creator. Otherwise, what is going to motivate us, our egoism? Today I am willing; tomorrow I am not.

Here the Creator appears as the definer, the first to act, or the one who initiates our actions, who forms the group and everything that is happening to us, who gives us everything. All that we have in our hearts and mind right now, all that we hear and feel, all of it is His doing.

How should we, together, respond to it, based on the fact that we felt something coming from Him? From this moment on, our work begins. This is exactly the moment when all of us clearly felt that it was He who brought us together right now; He connects us all in one desire, one intention, and the same thought. It is He who arranged everything for us, so that we all together started to ascend to and strive for Him.

So how can we rise to Him so that we could consciously fortify among ourselves what He has created? What does it mean: “I now link myself with the group?” I link myself along with the others and the Creator into the common desire, one common goal, and common aspiration. If the effort that each of us exerts links all the others and the Creator together, this is precisely our active response. This is how we must act. If we envision that everything derives from the Creator and know how we should respond to it, then it will be very effective work, a very effective move.
[95564]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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Question: How is it possible to love a friend like your own son?

Answer: In our world, we were given this example of a natural, human love for one’s child. And according to this, we need to measure what spiritual love means. It’s love at a level “+1.”

Question: But it’s quite obvious that this is impossible?

Answer: Nothing is impossible! Because everything is impossible without the help of the Creator, only the Light makes everything possible. And if something seems impossible to us, this means that we need to ask first, and only then it will become possible, the Creator will do it.

The world is divided into two parts. One part is the action that the Light performs automatically, without our request, and this is what we refer to as “possible,” and we think that we’re doing them ourselves with our own will. But we don’t do anything ourselves; we’re not capable of doing anything. However, we don’t need to ask in advance for the Creator to do those things.

But there are also actions that we must request first, because through asking, we show that we desire this action, that we desire correction. This correction should happen in me, it should bring things inside me into order and reformat me, and thus it must be preceded by my request.

This request means that I cleave to the Creator, I reveal him through His actions. But this entire correction is done by the Creator. So all actions are divided into “possible” and “impossible.” Impossible ones are those that won’t happen on their own but only after my request.

You love your son with a natural, animal love. But love for a friend is an ascent to the next degree of love, love that is perfect and eternal, which is much greater than the love for one’s own child.

The very first spiritual love towards others, which appears in the very first degree, is already an order of magnitude greater than all your love for your family. Just ask the Creator for it, and He will do… The entire world was only created as an example so that you would have something from which to begin loving, something relative to which you can measure yourself.
[95462]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: What does it mean that the nation of Israel needs to give the world the method of the middle line?

Answer: There are two lines in nature; one force is our ego that constantly grows. In general, it is called “Pharaoh.” And on the other side, there is the positive force through which we need to correct this ego.

Thus, there are two forces facing each other, and a person needs to bring them into balance so that the evil force will transform into a good force, “The angel of death transforms into the holy angel.” And a person does this by pulling this force towards him on his own. This means that “he learns the Torah,” the wisdom of Kabbalah, in the correct way, which is called the “Torah of Light,” since in it is found the Light that Reforms.

But the Light affects us only if we long to connect. After all, the whole of the Torah is discovered in the connection between people when they desire and long to rise above the ego that separates them. It is just as it happened in front of Mount Sinai when they were asked, “Are you ready to connect as one man in one heart?” If yes, then the Light that is called the “Torah” appears and connects us. And then the Creator is revealed, the upper force. If “no,” then here is the place of your burial.

It is specifically in this state that we actually are in now and we need to choose where we want to go, with which force?

For this, everyone is not required to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, but everyone will attain the wisdom of connection that is called integral education, through television or the Internet. It teaches us how we need to connect, meaning, through which kinds of actions. If a person would only want to imitate the example that integral education gives him and to participate in it according to his ability, passively: listening to lessons, to discussions, then in that, he is added to everyone. And in the end, everyone together strengthens the positive, internal force within the nation, and in whose surroundings it will consolidate more and more.

And from us, this force will begin to spread all over the world, to all of humanity. And then we will begin to feel how the whole world calms down, leaving its complaints about the nation of Israel. And afterward, it begins to approach us positively by asking how to help us, just to receive the Light through us.
[95072]
From the Weekly Torah Portion 12/4/12

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Question: What does it mean to delight the Creator?

Answer: To delight, to bring pleasure to, the Creator, to love the Creator—these are all very beautiful words. But how can we love a force, even if it is eternal and governs everything there is? All these words are told to a person so that he can adjust himself in some way.

We come to love for the Creator only through love for others. In the article, “One Commandment,” there is an instruction: to come to love for the Creator. But how can we be ordered, obliged to love? It is possible when we work on love of another, make a common mass of our yearnings toward each other, build a common connection above our egoism, and cover it with mutual love. It is written: “Love will cover all transgressions.” When we build a collective property of common mutual connection and yearn toward everyone while cultivating love within, then in our internal egoism there arises a completely new structure: mutual adhesion, mutual inclusion.

Love means that I assume all your desires and care for them, thinking solely of how to fulfill them, while you think about mine, and so on. Love means to fulfill desires of another instead of my own, using them for this purpose. If I arrange such conditions within myself, then by doing so I grow a vessel there that works for the sake of bestowal. And this common vessel that all of us are creating together contains our collective component called “love for the Creator.”

We begin to experience not only the common vessel, our attitude towards the others, love for them, bestowing to them, but also we begin sensing what fills me along the way. This sensation is called the Creator, Boreh in Hebrew (“Bo” – come, “Reh” – see). When we create one collective spiritual vessel, the Creator is revealed there as a result.

Hence, the main Mitzva is very simple: “Love your neighbor.” Through love for another, in the vessel that you created, you will feel love for the Creator and, respectively, His love for you.

Question: What is the final goal of this work?

Answer: It is in the fact that you come to a complete likeness and adhesion with Him in our own reformed egoism. This is how you rise to the level of the Creator. This is the final goal of creation. You begin to experience a sensation that you are in total adhesion with Him, but you don’t dissolve in it, because your entire vessel stays with you.

In other words, the sensation of being opposite doesn’t get annihilated since adhesion with the Creator occurs above it; otherwise, mutual annihilation would occur. Hence, we must view our egoism as the matter with the help of which we move forth. We should treat it with respect since it is the reverse image of the Creator. Conversely, our whole world is His reverse image at our level.
[95561]
From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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