Question: Why do we devote all of our attention to the dissemination factory? When will we devote our attention to the most important part, the spiritual work?

Answer: We have to be concerned with the factory because we must study the consumer: what is best for him; what’s the best way to disseminate the material to him, to serve him, and so on. You become involved with the outside world and therefore have to sort out a thousand different questions regarding communications and dissemination. However, what questions can there be in a group if we have love? If there is love, then there are no questions. Then the problem is that there’s no love. Attain love and there won’t be any questions.

After all, the questions arise from egoism. “How should we organize everything? Maybe we should separate or maybe join together? Is there a place here for women or not?” When there’s an understanding of the goal and that it is reached together, then there are no more questions. That is why we should elevate above our egoism, and all questions will naturally disappear.

Are you following the lead of the Creator or egoism? What is driving you? You must be aware of this and then everything will be easy. I have a lot of problems with our world Kabbalah factory, from morning to evening there are meetings, deliberations, and so on. In my opinion, when it comes to the group, there shouldn’t be any questions.

The relationship between friends should be aimed only toward love. I don’t want to talk to my friend about anything other than the love between us and the exaltation of the Creator, because precisely in this regard, he is my friend. And if not, then there’s nothing to talk about. Try to be specific. That way your time and energy won’t be wasted on irrelevant things, everything will move forward, and you will see yourself advance.
[94196]
From the Virtual Lesson 11/11/12

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Question: If I am totally dependent on the environment, how can I influence it?

Answer: If you look closely, you will see that indeed everything you will be in the future is totally determined by the environment. This means that you are like clay in the hands of a craftsman, which is the environment, since the upper Light comes in an abstract form. The environment stabilizes you and then the upper Light goes through it and influences you, and then you can somehow imagine what the environment is like, what is should look like. Since it is your future, you want to look for this future form on the environment and thus relate to it. Then suddenly you begin to discover that your future attributes and the attributes of the whole world are in it, since the individual and the general are equal, and even if you delve into an individual person, you will see the whole world in him, all the way to the end of correction.

So when you look at the environment this way, you want to become dependent on it, and then you begin to discover that in all the friends there are the correct future states, although they don’t identify them yet. Thus the great Kabbalist, Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma learned from his new students, as it written, “I have learned from all my students.”

This is the way you should relate to the environment, since it is the same wrapping that affects you. The more corrected you imagine it to be, the more it impresses you. It has no form of its own; everything depends on how you see it.

You may ask, so why does it say: “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.” (Psalms 1) It is good for the person who does not sit among the wicked and certainly good for a person who sits among the righteous.

Of course we refer to wicked and righteous in the right and good environment that advances to spirituality. But the point is that a person himself shapes his environment. By the way he treats it today, he determines if it is an “environment of wicked” or an “environment of righteous.” And accordingly he determines how this environment will affect him.

It is because we don’t know who is wicked and who is righteous. At first people yearn for spirituality—this is what I reveal by my corporeal senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch). I see in my mind and heart that everyone yearns for spirituality more or less. The way I perceive them from now on depends on me. The different qualities I attribute to them and the more sublime and respectable they are, is how they will impress me.

I build my environment, the envelope that affects me. Then it determines not only this affect but also the form of the Creator. It is because the Creator has no form. The relationship between me and the environment stabilize the Creator’s image for me, and since He has no image, I simply imagine Him that way.

Later this environment becomes an external vessel for me in which there is the Surrounding Light, and this process continues until the end of correction, until this vessel unites with me and becomes my vessel, for my whole “self” that is filled with the Inner Light.
[94293]
From the 2^nd part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/12, The Zohar

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Question: Why is the spiritual path based on troubles? Why does the Creator advance those who yearn for the goal by suffering?

Answer: The Creator doesn’t advance us. There is the law of the Lights and the vessels, and the Creator doesn’t participate in this mechanism, “He has given a law and it shall not be broken.” He is not the one who fixes all the troubles and the problems—we summon them upon us by ourselves by not using this law correctly.

Suppose I take a jar with a sticker on it that says “poisonous acid” and drink from it. Who fixed that? The Creator or me? In fact it is I who caused myself harm, and although the Creator made the acid harmful to the human body, I am to blame: I counted on something exceptional, on a miracle, and there are no miracles.

Even the exodus from the exile in Egypt is called “a miracle” but only with regard to those who are in the 49 gates of impurity, in the last phase of the exile. They really don’t understand how it is possible to move from this state immediately to the revelation of the Creator. When a person discovers that he is evil in every way, redemption seems like a miracle to him.

But in fact, it is only the law that always operates everywhere. We only have to learn the laws of reality, the laws of nature, and to use them correctly. Both our corrections and the whole world are subordinate to these laws. The system of laws surrounds us unexceptionally.

Question: So how do we solve the problems and the suffering that are revealed?

Answer: First we are grateful for them: “Thank you for reminding us what is important, we need to hold on to the right direction and think about something totally different.” When my parents punish me, I shouldn’t think about the punishment or about my parents, but about one thing: What did they mean, what do I have to attain by the punishment? If I don’t think about it, the blows won’t help, and I won’t be able to soften them either.

In the meantime, we are trying to soften the blows in Israel today by building different systems against missiles. This, of course, is also necessary, but in fact, the state, like a small child, wraps itself in something soft just so not to feel the parents’ blows. Taking such measures will only provide us with a temporary solution that will help the people choose the right way and to follow it. But it is the correction and nothing but that, which will eventually remove all of the threats. When we receive blows, we have to think about what caused them.
[94303]
From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/12, “Exile and Redemption”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: Indeed, if you take the body of a small animal, whose only task is to nourish itself so it may exist in this world for enough time to father and carry on its species, you will find in it a complex structure of millions of fibers and tendons, as physiologists and anatomists have discovered. And there is much there that humans have yet to find. From the above, you can conclude the vast variety of issues and channels that need to connect in order to achieve and to reveal that sublime goal.

We have to include ourselves into the entire external reality. For that, we have to rise above ourselves. We ascend the ladder of the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and AK (Adam Kadmon) until we embrace all external desires and acquire the whole reality: the worlds, Partzufim, Sefirot, etc.

We transform our intention to bestowing, and fill the space of the desires with a giving attitude (yellow), and to the degree of our intention to act so, we reveal the upper force in our intention (red). It’s as if we develop a photograph with the help of intention and take it out of concealment.

Answer: The property of bestowal and absolute love that governs everything. We divulge it to the extent of our similarity with this quality, that is, proportionally to the degree of our bestowal, we disclose the same quality in the upper force which is hidden from us as of yet; thus, we unite and merge with It.

We disclose bestowal to the extent of our ability to bestow. Conversely, if we are totally unable to give, we leave the upper force and become opposite and hostile to It. Everything is subject to the law of similarity of properties.

Question: Let’s say, I become similar to the upper force in my qualities and disclose bestowal. What’s next?

Answer: Nothing. You discover the cause that was hidden from you and influenced you “behind the scenes.” This “cause” is the upper force. Your goal is to discover It, and by doing so you please It. Then, you will become similar to It. In its turn, similarity with It will allow you to merge with It.

What for? In adhesion, we will get the answer. We stay together with the Creator, we are similar to Him; our similarity with Him pleases Him and thus we boundlessly fulfill our vessels, and so on. In adhesion, words disappear; adhesion cannot be explained. Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Giving of the Torah”: But if you linger on that word for even an instant, you will be overwhelmed by its wondrous stature. This is the goal that brings and focuses everything together.
[93004]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: What is the difference between exile and the state of Lo Lishma?

Answer: A person feels that he is in exile after having been on a high level, and so he can understand that now he has descended into exile. Exile is a descent, after a person has understood something, felt something, has been in contact with the Creator, now he feels that he is detached from all this at least to some extent.

The levels of the forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, about whom the Torah tells us, are the levels of understanding, attainment, the feeling of bestowal, the attributes of the Creator, His revelation. While the descent into the exile in Egypt is already the hardening of the heart, which is felt after a person has attained a state called the “forefathers” (the most initial state).

While Lo Lishma is the initial level of a person who studies and tries to rise above all the states he feels, he is still in his egoistic intentions. He dreams about attaining bestowal and feels the value of this attribute and wants to detach from himself. But he wants this detachment for himself too, feeling how good it will be. This feeling of yearning for bestowal but still acting for his own good is called Lo Lishma.

But it is on condition that he values bestowal not because it helps him detach from the corporeal troubles or in the hope of receiving some spiritual reward or achievement. He wants to be in bestowal because this is how the Light operates on him. A person doesn’t even know what it means to be in bestowal. But new attributes are born in him and such vessels and inclinations are stabilized, which force him to value bestowal. He doesn’t even know where it comes from, but it is the result of the influence of the Light that Reforms.

Then this inclination becomes more and more conscious and a person begins to hold on to it by himself. Eventually he reaches a state in which he only wants bestowal, by cutting himself off from all personal interests.

In order to do that, a person must go through the hardening of the heart many times and encounter many obstacles. He is shown that there are things in life that are dear to him and from which he cannot detach himself, to what extent he still worries about them and cannot ascend above his egoistic love for some people or passions for different phenomena. At the same time, he sees to what extent he cannot ascend above his hatred towards someone or something.

The Light helps him clarify this, and eventually by much work and praying, a person tries to ascend above all that and nearly reaches bestowal. Then the upper Light completes this level for him, as it says: “I have labored and I found.”

The main thing is to hasten his advancement by intensively working in the group. Everything depends on the environment.
[94142]
From the 1^st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/27/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: When does a person begin to see the upper “roots” of the “branches” that are in this world?

Answer: First we have to say that by attaining the “roots,” a person doesn’t detach from the “branches.” His view simply begins to expand in waves, from the point of this world in increasingly growing circles. To the extent of the expansion, a person connects more strongly to what is happening in the roots, and understands the phenomena of this world better. In his ascent from the bottom up, he first understands what is happening to him here, and then in a more abstract way he understands the upper.

On the other hand, the attainment is different from the understanding: first a person attains the upper phenomenon, and then in it he understands its parallel in this world.

Baal HaSulam speaks about it in “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah“: The lower is studied from the Higher. Thus, one must first attain the Upper Roots, the way they are in spirituality, above any imagination, but with pure attainment. And once he has thoroughly attained the Upper Roots with his own mind, he may examine the tangible branches in this world and know how each branch relates to its root in the Upper World, in all its orders, in quantity and quality. And a person also sees how all the branches are connected.

On the whole, the attainment and the understanding influence one another. At the same time, the connection between the “branches” and the “roots” are very important, and it isn’t by chance that great Kabbalists devoted their time to study this world. It helped them in studying the upper world. They were scholars, “encyclopedists.” Rav Kook read books in the library thoroughly and Baal HaSulam learned wave theory, etc.

It isn’t by chance that we are in a material, corporeal world and it is from here that we ascend the spiritual levels. Although the information about this world, which scientists found and expressed, didn’t serve in attaining spirituality, they still helped a person connect all the parts of the general picture into one.

But today we are “standing firmly on the ground,” and we, on the contrary, only have to “push our head above the clouds”…
[94131]
From the 1^st part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/27/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: What does it mean to be your disciple?

Answer: The issue here is not with me. We’re talking about a law that acts in the system of connections between the souls. We need to connect these souls in the correct system with the correct connection. The connection itself already exists; we only need to identify with it, to connect to it, to clean it from all our litter, to infuse into it the force of love from our desires.

And therefore, a “disciple” is called one that participates in this, one who performs this work. He works on the connection with me according to the principle of “Make yourself a Rav,” and with the friends according to the principle of “Buy yourself a friend.” And towards all the rest, he works according to “Judge each person to the scale of merit.” And all this is in order to attain the connection with the upper force.

Question: How can the advancement on this path be examined?

Answer: Only according to the degree of annulment. Otherwise, your examination will be egoistic. A person needs to nullify, remove his internal “partition” that interferes with connection, not to engage in anything “behind the back,” secretly, but to frankly look for the point of adhesion through which he will be able to receive the supreme wisdom.

Each one should manage this list by oneself. Ideally, you have to know what I want, even without asking many questions. By means of this clarification, you have to nullify your ego in order not to deal with your corporeal desires and indulge in them. And then, when you feel what my desire is, you execute it.

And it’s not important whether I know about it or not, or if others know it or not. You simply do it and by this acquire connection, through me, with a system that is more superior, with the Creator.

Question: In general, we disdain you, even without understanding it…

Answer: It’s natural, whether you want to or not. A moral should be learned from this: Understand your relationship to the Creator. Maybe for you it’s not obvious, but it can’t be that you will treat Him better than me.

For this the teacher and the group are in front of you; the Creator is hidden, and you can “practice” on them in self-analysis: “Who is smarter in my eyes: me or them? Who is greater: me or them? Do I want to bend them down according to my plans, so that I behave in a way that’s convenient for me? Or nonetheless, I bend my head down and do whatever is good for them? How much do I nullify my opinion in front of them?”

All the work is in this. You were given a “practice facility,” where you can do all the preparation. If you don’t want to do these preparatory exercises, then it’s a pity for you to waste your time, better go and enjoy life…
[94049]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: How is it possible to determine that the Creator is the one who arranges the problems between the friends if He is concealed and we don’t see Him?

Answer: There is none else besides Him. We simply need to believe that and act accordingly until He is revealed. Then we will see that it is so.

How do I act in a spiritual manner? When I work on closeness, I need to act that way, as if I am in front of the Creator. Do I believe that? No. I don’t believe it.

Religious people believe that they pray to the Creator. We don’t behave like that. We try to perform acts of bestowal as if the Creator is within us. The Creator is the attribute of bestowal, and we imagine that He, as it were, is in us, and in this way we act.

In this way we invite upon ourselves His acts of the Surrounding Light, until He really is revealed, is clothed, and acts on us.

Thus our acts are called a game since we play at it as if we were already in the upper world, like small children who play at being grownup, and in this way we attain all of His attributes. But if a child doesn’t play at this, he becomes an adult, and will be older, but still a child.

Thus, in comparison to various other methods, we don’t just see ourselves in our future state, but want to realize it now. Thus there can’t be such a situation that next to me there exists another group, and I wouldn’t want to come in contact with it. How could I imagine a future world, my next level, if at the same time, I wouldn’t want to be connected with another group? Is that the future?
[94031]
From a Virtual Lesson 11/11/12

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Question: The ascent that is felt during a convention is cultivated on purpose: during meals, lessons, and breaks. Do we need to organize unification after the convention in our daily life?

Answer: Of course! A convention is needed so that it does not pass in vain, so that after it we begin serious work on unity in this region, create a serious Siberian group, consisting of serious guys who will really unite in the Trans-Ural region, so that they truly feel themselves masters and begin good work among themselves.

They can make an effort; they have a good environment there—an environmentally clean spiritual space. So, I think that they will be able to accomplish a lot. That is a very good place for spiritual work. I hope that I will feel this; we will connect with them, and then we will move forward together.

I wish you all the best! And once again I am asking: everyone who can, come; I want to see all of you. You cannot lose! You can only win! Come, so not to regret later.

I am waiting for you in Novosibirsk!
[94113]
From a Virtual Lesson 11/25/12

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Question: What actions are most effective for drawing the upper Light at the convention in Novosibirsk?

Answer: The most effective activities at the convention are workshops. There will be a lecture or talk before every workshop. We study a certain topic there, and afterward conduct a workshop based on this topic, and then questions and answers. This is the main “package,” which will be held twice a day. Thus, we will have six lessons in three full days.

In addition, there will be other very effective events. The most important of them are gathering of friends, necessary for “warming up” 15-30 minutes before the morning lesson. Then, there will be meals, held in the form of gatherings with speeches, group presentations and so on. In general, the convention will include plenty of activities. But gathering of friends and workshops are the key things.

The most important thing is your connection and I am within it. Together, we will draw the upper Light. So, get ready!
[94105]
From a Virtual Lesson 11/25/12

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