Question: What should we think about while reading The Book of Zohar? Should we focus on some specific, simple thought?

Answer: During the whole day you must discern what you want to ask for. Suppose you have 20 requests. Choose one of them, the most important one, and check whether all the others are included in it. Don’t just choose one of the 20, leaving all the other ones behind. After all, that’s not how one comes to the King, who is able to carry out all of our requests.

There has to be one request, but it has to include all of your wishes. You have to be confident that if you address Him with this request and receive what you wish for, then you won’t need anything ever again. You come to the King once with one request, and if you receive an answer, then you are completely satisfied. Otherwise you would be belittling the King’s dignity and perfection.

But if you come with many requests, it means they don’t include a single real one and you are like a little child who came into a toy store and lost his head, not knowing what to grab because he wants everything. If you are in this state for now, then you won’t receive permission to come to the King as you don’t have a serious request. You are allowed to enter only with one request.

However, it shouldn’t be one request that temporarily emerged in you right now, but it has to be such that you probably won’t ever ask for anything else ever again. You discerned the most important thing that you need and this won’t change anymore.

This is the request you should write down and check – you have 24 hours to do so, until the next reading of The Book of Zohar tomorrow! And then check it for several days – whether it’s the correct request or not.

It’s desirable to check yourself and change this way your entire life, if necessary… Then you will see how your desires change and will learn who you are. All of the science of Kabbalah is a study of ourselves, the attainment of reality, the Creator through self-attainment.
[67474]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/12, The Zohar

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Question: Why do we view our spiritual path to be “masochistic”? Why can’t we avoid the emptiness and suffering?

Answer: On this path, we suffer from love. We regret that we are deprived of similarity with the Creator.

Do you really think that the Creator deprives you of food, water, shelter, and health? No, we are talking about the suffering of those who want to be like Him.

Suddenly, our egoistic desires and pleasure get bigger; the desires and pleasures are in fact the same and we cannot cope with them any longer. In this case, we suffer, and the Creator disappears from our sight. Previously, He exposed Himself to us. But later on, predicaments show up and we cannot handle His revelation any more. So, He conceals Himself from us.

There is no comparison with the suffering of a regular person who instead of earning ten thousand yesterday, earns only a hundred today. We have to understand the language of Kabbalists who talk about spiritual things rather than on the material plane. On the spiritual path, “punishment” means the Creator’s concealment and our inability to bestow.
[66942]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: A week ago I was driving on a foggy, rainy night. Visibility was only about 2 meters, ahead. I held on the yellow line and could only notice the oncoming trucks at the last second. I thought to myself that along our path there must also be a line you should stay on. But I couldn’t decide what that line is: Is it the group or the teacher?

Answer: The group, of course. The teacher only guides you, teaches you, and you should carry out his instructions exactly as he tells you.

Question: But the group seems to me like many lines, while the teacher is one.

Answer: We are connected like cogwheels: Everyone is connected to me and I am connected to everyone. I give the friends something from me and receive bestowal from them. Thus we form a collective “sphere.”

Question: But the cogwheels have an engine that turns them.

Answer: No, they turn by themselves. Eventually the upper Light turns them when it is revealed in the good mutual relations among them. This energy is hidden among them, in their mutual bestowal. So it turns out that they are like an eternal engine that operates on love.

It says that it is impossible to destroy “a city of outcasts.” Even if its inhabitants are criminals, if there is love among them, it is impossible to beat them.

Question: So what is the work of a cogwheel?

Answer: To adhere to others, to receive deficiencies from them and to fill them. This is what everyone should do. Eventually, you see before you the greatest of the generation who are completely corrected, except for the part that you have to fill in them. One doesn’t contradict the other: You can treat the group as Malchut of Ein Sof.

Question: So, I have to receive the power from the friends in order to give them powers? So are they strong or weak?

Answer: It works both ways. There is no other way: They are the greatest and they are the smallest. On one hand, I receive my strength from them and in them I reveal the Creator, and on the other hand, they lack what I have to give them, and without me they won’t feel it.

Question: And the Creator is revealed above that?

Answer: No, He is revealed inside, in the mutual connection between us. If it is a connection of bestowal, then in this aspiration we discover the upper Light. It isn’t above us; we are the ones who create and ignite it.
[67372]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: The upper Partzufim dress one on top of the other like the rungs of a ladder where there is always an upper and a lower. Does the same structure exist in the group, or is everyone equal there?

Answer: In the group we dress one on top of the other in a certain order, and eventually we all form a circle. We don’t need to think about it. It’s a predetermined structure that cannot change. Only the connections between us change: in what intensity does each one connect with the others. But we can’t change the order of who connects to whom or the whole network that is formed with the fall of the souls after the shattering. Its structure is determined from Malchut of Ein Sof.

We don’t change anything in reality! We only open or close the flow of the abundance of the Light, because after the first restriction, it depends on our intentions. But the structure of the system never changes. Even when we say that that certain spiritual Partzufim rise or descend, connect to one another and then separate, we are only referring to the passing of the abundance of the Light and not to the way that they are arranged in relation to one another in the general structure.

It’s like an iron structure in which certain connections can be broken, but it’s impossible to change the structure itself because it’s all built according to the ladder of the spiritual levels that spread from the top down. Even during the shattering the accurate order, which determines how the sparks (the Lights and the vessels) were divided, was kept. Just as before the shattering, the height was determined by the intention of bestowal, so after the shattering it’s determined by the intention for my self, according to an accurate egoistic order. This means that not only is everyone important, but he is absolutely essential!

In the group there are “upper” and “lower”: each one is both upper and lower compared to others, and together they all form a circle. Everyone is connected to one bundle by the intention of bestowal, although no one is equal to another. Perhaps by this you will be able to understand how different each one is from the others, and if there is something inside him that doesn’t exist in anyone else, and in this he is the head for everyone, it’s impossible to replace or to destroy a single attribute, because then there would be no wholeness.
[67365]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: If a person goes down the wrong path, say, plunges into alcoholism, then as a rule he either hits rock bottom, or destroys himself, or some inner transformation takes place. Essentially, the entire humanity is going down this path right now. Our task in the integral education courses is to provide a person with a tool that would keep him from destroying himself, from breaking his life into pieces. Can a turning point occur in the middle of the process and not in its end?

Answer: One of man’s qualities is empathy. If we show someone who is setting out on a vicious path (say, of drug abuse) another individual whose life hangs by a thread due to these very drugs, I think it will have a strong impact on him, regardless of whether or not he wants to quit.

If we take people through a hospital’s cancer ward, they will see what smoking does. Personally, I smoke, quite moderately, in my opinion, but nevertheless I do. So I know for myself that had I walked through such places in my time, it would have affected me strongly. And if I found myself in an environment that disdains smoking and expresses its contempt towards smokers, I would naturally have a sensation that would force me to realize the vice of this action.

That is why everything depends on the extent to which I can absorb from my environment the missing quantity of the realization of evil that I’m lacking in order to break from the transitional state, where I am still receiving pleasure and still haven’t fully destroyed myself.

For that I need a serious environment, community, group, or a class in which I study. We know that if the public opinion of a group of people follows a certain trend or adheres to some special principles, everyone is involuntarily obliged to follow that. The herd instinct is inherent in people because a person evaluates himself or herself only relative to others. One cannot allow oneself to be better or worse than the rest. What matters to people is their importance in the eyes of society, but whether this importance is positive or negative makes no difference to them. Therefore, if we create a certain social standard, all people will be obliged to obey it—this is how we are created.
[66418]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #5, 12/13/11

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Question: How is it possible to use that same point of unity that we obtained at the convention in December during The Zohar lessons in ?

Answer: That point of unity that we obtained has already disappeared, hidden itself, and was erased from our feeling. And we shouldn’t be sorry about that. We shouldn’t try to hold on to it by force. We only need to bring the warmth and enthusiasm of that spiritual uplifting since after all, we need to feel a secure basis. We can’t hang in the air.

The time has come to worry about a new point of unity. To connect does not mean hugging and holding hands. Unity is determined by the measure that I am able to detach from myself. In the connection with others, there is no need for anything from me; otherwise, there won’t be even a trace of real connection in it. I can’t connect with others. In the connection only the ” anti-me” needs to participate, when I convert myself as opposed to getting rid of everything I have in mind and feeling, from everything that I know.

Thus, first and foremost, I need to annul my “I,” and then the Light that reforms works on me, and with what is left, I attach to the states formed by my friends. Hence, together we discover the unity between us if we find our points within the hearts, within the ego, with the help of the Light that reforms that inverts them from the posterior of sanctity to the face of sanctity; if we connect with each other, then this connection is already worthy of adherence with the righteous, with the high souls.

We discover our connection with them and are ready to entrust ourselves to them so that they will take care of us. Since now we come in contact with them. Before that there was no contact. They simply spoke to us from afar. And then we will see how the writers of The Zohar, Rabash, and Baal HaSulam care for us and raise us.
[66795]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/12, The Zohar

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Question: Can one remain in the sensation of the material world and attain spirituality at the same time?

Answer: A person who attains spirituality does not lose anything in his sensations. On the contrary, he feels this world much more as a source and motive to enjoy.

The spiritual world means that you attain the reason why you are alive. Then this entire life in the reality that you feel in your body, called “this world” is also worth it.

The spiritual world is the Creator. By collecting your previously dispersed and broken attitude to others into one, relating to them as to one whole which is yours and dear to you, you begin to reveal the Creator within that attitude.

Through this entire world, like through a focusing lens, I focus all of my attitude to it – in love, unity, and connection, and in this point of focus I find the Creator.

It’s as if many rays (forms of my attitude) enter this lens (the group, humanity), come out of it, and focus on one point (the Creator).

Therefore, nothing disappears, but on the contrary – I use this entire world. Without it there is nothing for me to do. Until the full correction (Gmar Tikkun) I have to be in this world, and if I didn’t finish the correction, I have to return to the same reality, to its observation.

What does “this reality” mean? I return to the same qualities of perception, to the same desires that I did not finish correcting. And then I once again see a certain reality, feeling this world the same as now or maybe somewhat different. But I have to see reality in the intention to enjoy, in my flawed receiving desires, which I still retain, until I correct all of them. Then this reality disappears because it becomes unified.

Look from aside at this entire reality, which appears before us, and at the spiritual reality. We have to see the will to enjoy and how much we feel in it – for the sake of reception or for the sake of bestowal. According to this, we are in one reality or another. And our life cycles are like a change of Partzuf, one after another.
[67327]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, The Zohar

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Question: Sometimes we go through very unusual, powerful states. It’s good if you’re in the group, next to the teacher and friends, but what should a person do in this case if he studies alone at home, virtually?

Answer: It is written that “The Creator heals all broken hearts.” I am not the master of your states. Rather, the Light that comes to a person precisely considers his level, state, personality, the root of his soul, and all parameters. We are unable to calculate all of this and to say how this should all be in every case.

But if we do everything that is necessary, then our progress will always be optimal. A person is influenced from above in a way that was precisely calculated according to millions of parameters in order to elevate him from the current state to the next one.

It is not your concern to assess and check all of this. You cannot understand it – all of this is seen only from attaining the general system from above downwards. When you rise to the World of Atzilut, to its uppermost part (GAR) and connect with Partzufim Aba ve Ima (the upper Father and Mother), which are very high levels, then you begin to see how the plan of creation works. This is the greatest pleasure of all possible ones.

This is called the illumination of the Shechina – the sensation of how the goal of creation, the upper mind, the upper force, the plan of creation, which is all Love, fills all of Malchut of the world of Infinity and brings it to correction in all of its details. This is a person’s absolutely perfect state.

But don’t be afraid that the states a person goes through in the meantime can bring him any harm. They are, in fact, phases of the soul’s healing. It’s like a person who was sick for a long time and suddenly feels a sudden improvement and becomes healthier. Suddenly his sensations sharpen, his eyes open, and he gains forces inside, and thus the illness gradually passes. That is how we gradually get better…
[67340]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, Shamati

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Question: Modern economy is based on the waste of resources. If we begin to save, many people will be unemployed. Will this be a right step towards the goal?

Answer: First, I don’t think we should call these people “unemployed.” We are in a new era now in which we are experiencing a change in the evolutionary paradigm. Today we have to see what is happening as a return or an ascent to the world that should exist in this way according to nature.

In this world we only live in bodies and everything besides the body’s basic necessities should be aimed at the correction of the soul. Accordingly, the concern for corporeal needs should amount to living a normal, comfortable life and not more than that. Of course, there is no need to return to the caves. A person needs a place to live, heating, food, a health system, security and everything that is related to desires like: food, sex, and family. Yet we should understand that all this is only the essential corporeal basis for the primary mission. The body exists so that we can develop the soul.

We turn to the whole world: The poverty line should become the baseline above which we should raise everyone. What for? So a person will be freed from worrying about their daily bread and will start dealing with the development of the soul. Anything beyond the necessities no longer applies to our world anymore, only the correction of the soul.

This should be our approach, although it’s still impossible to explain it in these words. If we approach things this way, we won’t produce surpluses, but will focus all the forces and the extra resources above necessity at integral education, meaning the system of correction. Accordingly, we place culture, education and science at the service of the development of the soul. After all, there is nothing else to live for in this world. We will finish with the soul and this world will disappear.

We should understand that the technology we develop should also provide us with free time for the main goal and not for entertainment and pampering. Ages ago, prehistoric man used to hunt for two or three hours a day. Only later, the growing ego brought certain people to control others and force them to work all day.

So we have to return to our natural state. Therefore, we mustn’t call people who don’t work in the traditional sense “unemployed.” They are not slackers, they were simply freed to deal with the main thing, they are returning to normal life. They can be employed for a few hours a day, and all the rest of the time they need to be working in the human field, above the beastly level, in a place that a person learns to be human.

We need the integral study in order to understand how to connect to one another. Thus we’ll reach a state of balance with nature and be rid of all troubles no matter what they are, whether in ecology or finances. Everything will calm down thanks to the balance.
[65844]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/12, “The Freedom”

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We can see the Creator as good and benevolent only through the environment. Without a group you simply make yourself some kind of doll or idol that has nothing to do with reality. Actually the “good and benevolent” is the force that fills the network of mutual connections among us. It doesn’t exist anywhere else.

“Creator” (Boreh) means “come and see” (“Bo – Reh”). Where should I come to the corrected network among us? There we discover the Lights of NRNHY and their generalization called the Creator.

Thus, the force that fills our corrected mutual relationships is revealed as good and benevolent.

Question: In our conventions, under the strong influence of the environment, we seem to feel the good and the benevolent, but we don’t reach revelation?

Answer: In order to reach revelation we need a whole vessel. We try to discover the attribute of bestowal, so that it will be above us to some extent. This state doesn’t have to be perfect, but it must be stabilized. We really need to want this to happen. In the meantime we lack the pressure, the feeling of necessity.

It could also be that when we gather and connect, we enjoy it and that takes the flavor out of the quality. You eat, dance and hug the friends and you feel good and it could be that it doesn’t leave any room for a question, for a demand. But the joy and the demand must go hand in hand. It all depends on the preparation.

Question: So what actually is the “good and benevolent?”

Answer: It is when I discover in the vessels of receiving and in the vessels of bestowal that the Creator has created everything in His honor. Then I can receive all the goodness and enjoy it, and we aim everything at bestowing pleasure onto Him.
[67221]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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