Question: Is a Kabbalist the happiest person of all?

Comment: Undoubtedly, because he feels that the Creator needs him!

Question: How exactly is re-posting this opinion, this outburst of hatred, helpful?

Answer: If you refer to my opinion about the incitement to sedition in the Middle East countries and Israel in particular and how it comes back like a boomerang to those who initiate it, by this I merely explain the connectedness of the world and reveal the negative consequences of the myopic acts of overseas ringleaders on themselves.
[61035]

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Take, for example, a stalk of wheat that has rotted in the ground and arrived at a state of sowing many stalks of wheat. Thus, that rotten state is deemed the “source,” meaning that the essence of the wheat has stripped off its former shape, the shape of wheat, and has taken on a new discernment, that of rotten wheat, which is the seed called “the source,” which has no shape at all.

Why is the stalk of wheat of the previous degree not deemed to be the “source?” It is because it still possesses a form of its own and is not the root of the next state. The seed of wheat must disintegrate, turn into “power,” the potential of the future state, and then it will be able to germinate as a new sprout. Thus, the state of disintegration is necessary in the middle.

Answer: To lose the previous form in order to take on the next form. It cannot happen in another way. This way Keter turns into Malchut, which springs into a new Keter, over and over again.

Question: What should a person aspire to in his work: to lose the current form or to acquire a new one?

Answer: To accelerate advancement, that is, to increase the frequency of change of states. And every time I should strive for a new form. Let the stage of disintegration be on the way to it, I do not care. I understand that it is necessary.

It’s the same way that we need to sleep, as if disappearing into nonexistence. Is it not a pity to lose these hours of life? However, we know that without sleep the mess of the past day will not get organized into shelves and drawers inside our head. All my experiences need to go through processing, indexing, and storage. Only then will I be ready for new work and new perception.

Question: So how do you accelerate the speed?

Answer: Through the help of the environment that forms the right desire in me.

Question: And one always needs to strive towards the next state?

Answer: One always needs to strive towards unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator. This is the next state. The same unity every time, only on a higher degree, more powerful, more “juicy,” of better quality: I, the group, and the common force of bestowal, the Creator, in us.
[63230]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: It is written that Israel hastens time. How do we do this in the most effective and productive manner? With the help of dissemination? Intention? Inner analysis?

Answer: By working on yourself and outer dissemination. Inner work is unity between us. And in dissemination we need to make our message more and more comprehensive—for ourselves and for others.

If a person doesn’t know what he is talking about himself, it is better if he keeps quiet. He certainly will not benefit others. In that case, it’s true that our words will go in one ear and out the other. The fact is that they are not connected to the heart. We are still “yackety-yacking”—we haven’t immersed ourselves in them with our desires and feelings. We simply say what we’ve heard or read.

If you place yourself, your sacred desire, into your words…if they flow out of your desire in order to then clothe into formulations and reach the ears of another being, then this chain stretches out from your desire to another. After all, the desire is the foundation of the creature. However, if your words are initiated higher and if their roots do not reach the most important thing, then on the other side they also will not reach the goal and will vanish without leaving a trace in the person. This is why our dissemination is so weak.

Question: So what can we do for our words to flow directly from the desire, from the heart?

Answer: You just answered yourself: They need to come from the heart, from heart to heart.

If you don’t feel what you are about to say, don’t say anything. And if you feel, even gibberish will work. This is because there is feeling and inspiration in this gibberish and your companion will feel this warmth. “This person doesn’t know how to express himself,” he’ll think, “but I can tell that his whole life is in this.” Real feelings are valued and empty words leave people indifferent regardless of the strain in the voice.
[63604]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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Question: How can we link what happens in the classroom and what is happening with the world? How can we reach out to the world?

Answer: We must make efforts and take care of it as a mother does her child. Is there any other solution? You hope that some additional means will be discovered, but there are none. The equation with two desires encompasses all the laws of Nature. The communication channel between two objects, two vessels, equalizes them with each other, and in the same way they both enjoy.

The mother is a huge vessel and the baby is a tiny vessel, but the mother creates a connecting channel with the required parameters. We must act in the same manner. However, we cannot do so. An enormous inner wisdom is required to descend from one’s degree down. This is the most difficult.

I can put this or that topic in a nutshell to a person who has been studying here for five to ten years. It is another thing to “go out” and start getting closer to people. It is not easy. And that is what we should do today.

The year of mass dissemination is ahead of us, and that is why we need to pave the way, to develop a course of integral education. That does not mean just to release a few more books. We need to create an “outlet,” from which everyone can get our message, fulfill, change, and enjoy life.

We should not be limited to a formal approach: “We have done our job, the material is ready, let them take it, learn, and change.” No, we are obliged to care about humanity and provide it with all that is necessary, as baby food for the infant, as correct intravenous fluid for the patient.  It is entrusted to us.
[63598]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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Question: According to the Kabbalists’ prophecies, when will the majority of the nation of Israel start studying the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: This will happen when the whole world demands it. Israel cannot awaken if the world doesn’t demand it because Israel doesn’t have any need to awaken unless it is working for the whole world.

That is why we, the keepers of the method and those aware of what is happening, must disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah as quickly as possible in the whole world in all forms, whether we’re mentioning the word “Kabbalah” or not.

We must explain our states, the correction, and what we can achieve through the corrections. This will awaken people and will give them the understanding of how to correct the crisis, and as a result of this, as it is said in the Prophets, “The Nations will come and carry Israel on their hands to build the Temple.”

Without such pressure there won’t be an advancement—the nation of Israel will not feel a need in this. Before the ten plagues of Egypt, one doesn’t flee from Egypt. But we’ve got an opportunity to convert this pressure from ordinary suffering into the suffering of Love, when you yourself long for something you don’t have.

But in any case, the pressure has to be there. The Gog and Magog war has to take place in order for us to be born on the next degree. But we can cause the birth pains and the birth due to our desire to exit this world instead of being due to real birth pains—wars and suffering for the whole world.

The Prophets tell us about blows that are in store for us on nature’s part. But at the same time, we have the wisdom of Kabbalah in order for us to accept these blows as purposeful and helping the birth.

The minute I connect myself to the goal, the blows become a remedy. I don’t feel them as blows anymore. But I have to go through all the forces and all the states. However, if I change my realization and attitude towards them, I go through them with joy.

I go through it all consciously, I see the goal and I desire these blows; it’s as if I’m giving birth to myself.
[63575]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/11, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: What do you recommend to the English listeners during the reading of The Zohar: to follow the printed text or to just listen? Should we do it in Hebrew or English?

Answer: When a person simply listens to the sound of the text we are reading and constantly makes an inner effort to reveal the text inside the quality of bestowal, wishing for this quality to become revealed in him, this is best.

Let us say that I simply listen to the sound of words, but I do not know what they mean. In order to understand them, I need a certain inner translator, which will translate them for me. The translator, which will be able to translate the words of The Zohar for me, is only the quality of bestowal. If it becomes revealed in me, I will immediately understand what The Zohar speaks of. I will see this picture through my senses, I will enter it, and it will come alive within me.

I do not need anything but the quality of bestowal. Then I will immediately reveal everything Kabbalah speaks of inside this quality. It is as if there is a broadcast on television, but you are unable to turn the screen on. You can see it as soon as you turn the screen on. And meanwhile? And meanwhile something is being concealed behind the screen, something is being transmitted through the cables, but you are unable to turn it on.

We only lack the screen….
[63211]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/2011, The Zohar

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Question: This year I didn’t feel a descent after the convention. Is there something wrong with me?

Answer: The ups and downs aren’t measured in of itself, but by feelings. Baal HaSulam says that a coarse person can steal openly before everyone, believing it is acceptable since “everyone steals.” A more refined person will stealthily take something he’s not entitled to and feel “it’s no big deal.” An even more sensitive individual is unable to possess something undeserved.

So, you check and determine the magnitude of the descent yourself. It doesn’t have to be a blow, after which you can barely recover. It is enough to simply feel somewhat detached from the excitement we felt at the convention, and with this decrease in enthusiasm you already see it as a descent.

It is the same on spiritual levels: You receive a slight blow, but it is felt as real pain. “Who gave me this blow? Why and what for?” The quantity turns into quality; otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to withstand it. We always advance with the help of qualitative additions.

So try to raise your sensitivity of the current state in order experience it as the worst. Then you will begin to ascend: “Why do I feel good? Everything is fine and nothing hurts. Okay, so am I checking myself according to beastly feelings? Am I connected to the friends just as I was during the convention? But I don’t care. So does it mean that I’ve become indifferent and have waved the convention goodbye?”

Start checking yourself and you’ll see that you are in a state far worse than previous descents: “Last time I felt awful and was ready to explode. And now I’m in a descent and feel fine. Then I was sick and wanted to get well, to get up. Even if I cursed everyone, I still wanted something. Today I am satisfied, as if retired and free of all obligations. I am a living corpse.”

This is the deepest descent. Awakening such forces will cause pain no less than the pain felt previously. It is very difficult, and you’ll feel that you cannot raise yourself by your own powers. This means that you have to turn to the group so that the friends will start working on you and inspire you toward the importance of the goal. When you touch their unity and love, you feel your lowness.

In general, our state following the convention is indeed different from what we are accustomed to. It isn’t the same bad feeling that many felt in the past. Today a qualitative examination is required. A person can feel good, and he sees no reason for advancement. But don’t be fooled—work.
[63330]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/2011, “The Peace”

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Question: What can you say about our state now that nearly two weeks have gone by after the end of the convention where we revealed true life?

Answer: Our entire group, the “world Kli,” has to awaken and understand that this entire fog in which we have found ourselves after the convention is given to us on purpose and we could do nothing to resist it. Every person felt it in his own form and at different times.

Some people are still in an elevated state, even though it might not be precisely connected to the goal, in unity with others. But the sensation itself has remained. After all, there was a reason that caused the sensation, and there is the actual feeling that I feel good. And I already forgot why I feel good, but the pleasant sensation still remains.

It gradually cools down more and more, like along 4 levels, returning back to the previous state. First I was very inspired by the goal, then simply from being connected to the group, then from attaining some kind of success at the convention, and at the end I am simply left with the sensation that I still feel good, until this feeling disappears as well.

First of all, we have to value all of these phases, which are necessary for building a new desire. And the new desire has to be such that we will begin to live in the same intention, in the same sensation all the time, and this will become our constant state!

If at the convention we achieved this through an attack, a break-through: dancing, different events, and never-ending songs, then now we have to reach the same state internally, quietly. I have to feel this state introvertedly, inside of me, and that will be my convention.

Maybe we will soon get there and will hold conventions precisely in this way: without saying anything for three days, without doing anything besides inner intentions, and by getting impressed and inspired just by seeing one another. And afterwards, we won’t even have to see each other, and thus will gradually reach the true realization where we won’t need words, vision, hearing, or jumping and embraces. Let’s advance towards that.

But now we have to hold a convention inside of us, so this will become our permanent state—calmly, quietly, with a more serious, more internal attitude.
[63579]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: Once you said that it is forbidden to recall the previous states, whatever they were, and look back….

Answer: And we do not look back. We want to return to the point of unity in our new egoistic state. This is no longer the return to the past. We do not want to be in the past!

Today we wish to return to that state, which we left, in our grown egoism. And when we return to it with our real egoism, it is a new, stronger, clearer state.

Otherwise, there is nothing. The whole difference between spiritual steps is only in the added egoism.
[63443]
From the Fundamentals of Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/11

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Question: Where can I take the force to cancel myself before the group so that everyone feels himself smaller than the others?

Answer: If the group develops correctly and passes from state to state, then everyone in the group is in his state, completing the others. As a result, the whole group advances.

Although some of the friends can feel in descent and some in ascent, and a part perceives with the mind and a part feels, but altogether they are moving forward. It requires patience. Spiritual awe involves the willingness to endure and persevere. We need to understand that I do not perform the actions myself, but I call them.
[63463]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/11, Writings of Rabash

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