Question: We only reveal the Creator, the force of bestowal, when we become similar to Him in our qualities. Then what is the meaning of the principle, “don’t lose hope in His mercy?”

Answer: It means that one has appealed a thousand times, like King David who symbolizes the collective Malchut, the collective vessel, one that is deeper than the Psalms reveal. Read them. They are all his appeals and requests, praises and lamentations. This is the meaning of “do not lose hope in His mercy.” Try to express and realize your lamentation the same way, and then you will come to a final blessing.

Question: So it turns out that the Creator is waiting for us to scream at the top of our lungs?

Answer: It is written that the Creator is waiting for prayers and a broken heart, that He likes people whose hearts are broken, and that He receives a lot of pleasure from your tears. This is because your tears are a sign of egoism’s weakness and your disappointment in it.

We receive blows from egoism, not the Creator. However, it takes time to understand that. Really, what do you want from the Creator if you are being hit by your evil inclination?

This is why we need to strictly determine that our place of work is the group. Only then will we reach a true prayer, and naturally, it will happen through a number of disappointments.
[60648]
From Lesson 3, Israel Arvut Convention, 11/11/2011

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Question: As Baal HaSulam writes in his article “Mutual Guarantee,” I have to take care of all the needs of another as take care of my own. I cannot satisfy even my own needs. How can I deal with someone else’s?

Answer: Starting to really care about each other, we naturally let go of “excesses.” After all, if I aspire to bestow to the other, how much do I need for myself? I need just enough to be able to act for bestowal. Basic necessities are enough for me, while I have an inexhaustible source of energy. The Light, not its tiny spark, supports me, and thus all kinds of problems vanish.

The Light provides everything in the corrected system. We think about how to build new relationships, how to calculate everyone’s needs, how to heal the agonizing economy, and so on. And in reality, we first of all need correction. According to Baal HaSulam, a new society should consist mostly of corrected people.

If you are in such a society, if you hold this course, if the upper Light raises you from one degree to another, then you know how to arrange everything. Moreover, everything is arranged by itself. You will not have to carry the world on your shoulders: The upper Light will do everything necessary. It is doing this even now, only without your knowledge, against you. There is no other force but the Light. Just open the door, and everything will be settled.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarante)”

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Question: Time and time again I hear you correcting false perceptions of your students during lessons, and I also hear how in my local group the inner meaning of the terms “Creator,” “faith,” “prayer,” and so on gets revealed as opposed to their idolatrous meaning. I understand that Kabbalists hid this wisdom in this language for a reason centuries ago, but why must we continue in this way now?

We have all spent years being shaped by our religions and society to the point that these terms have become inextricably linked to false images. If we are behind in our work towards the public, and the speed of our correction is essential, wouldn’t it be better if we finally dropped this double-speak and only talked with people using the right language? It seems that we are wasting precious time with the confusion and misunderstanding.

Answer: You are right, and lately our language is changing, especially because of the need to talk about the crisis and its causes to people who are not interested in Kabbalah. I hope that we will switch to a more understandable language and get away from the confusion in definitions.

Question: I work in the religious sector. It is difficult because people with whom I work every day do not want to develop by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. They believe that it is forbidden. How can I influence them?

Answer: Keep quiet about your studies!
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Question: Do we need to acquire some special Masachim (screens) and overcome ourselves in order to reach the spiritual state of greatness (Gadlut)?

Answer: Suppose I live in human society and discover that everyone needs a certain food product. By a twist of luck, I am the only one who can produce it and to provide it for everyone.

I feel everyone’s general need. The desires of billions of people are now felt in me together with their filling! That is, I feel that everyone will enjoy what I am going to give them. The immense desire and filling enable me to feel the “newborn,” meaning the next stage in the development of this state.

How can I resist the temptation and not enjoy this immense pleasure by myself? After all, I took this desire and made it my own. We don’t understand now what a connection with others is, when by connecting with them, I take their desire and turn it into mine. It is like a mother who gives her child a spoonful of food and enjoys when he swallows it. She actually feels this pleasure physically. She receives because he does.

So there is a great danger that I will begin to enjoy egotistically. After all, I have received great desires and I am going to receive great pleasures. I have to create a screen (Masach) over the desire of others, which I have attached to myself and turned into my AHP.

Now I work in order to fill these desires. I perform a union with the upper Light (Zivug de Hakaa) within me, as if it is my desire and also my pleasure. When I receive all the filling in my vessel with the intention to bestow, I am ready to pass on the filling to the lower ones. This means that first I perform the correction for them, and then I fill them.

It says that “an older son receives twice.” It means that the upper one works with the desires of the lower one, which he perceives as his own and values them even more than his own.

There is an extra coarseness (Aviut) in these desires because when he later fills the lower ones, he receives a pleasure that is “620” times greater than their pleasure, just like a mother in relation to her child. Imagine how he enjoys the food and how she enjoys the fact that she has fed him. And for all of this we need a screen.…

This is why the depth of the desire revealed in AHP is so great. To achieve this depth, one needs to cut off the “stony heart (Lev ha Even)” and later perform many other corrections, layer by layer, which is like “many pennies that add up to a large account.”
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From the 4rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/8/2011, TES

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Question: How can we measure our spiritual progress?

Answer: Spiritual progress is indicated by the extent to which a person feels that he can attain the spiritual state only through unity. This means that he begins imagining the spiritual world correctly and understanding that spirituality is the quality of bestowal, which we attain only through practical unification in the group until we totally lose ourselves.

This happens by a person’s own desire, which the Light helps him realize. He assesses himself by how many disturbances he receives while doing this and by accepting them the right away, as help from the opposite side.

He perceives all of these disturbances and resistance as constituent parts of the same system of connection. And when every disturbance connects correctly to support this connection, it operates precisely to strengthen it.

Nothing was created in vain. Any force of resistance or contradicting force in the common system has to occupy its place and assist the unity. The forces can be “for” or “against” in all possible forms and directions, but the system is built so everyone unites in this complex, multifaceted construction. Every element in it acts in its own direction, but they all complete one another, and the system exists precisely by virtue of that.

If we take any complex geometric pattern or construction, we will see many lines in it that extend in different directions, as well as unifications of all sorts of forms. And precisely the size, might, and diversity of these connections creates the rich system.

If there are several systems that are opposite to one another and complete one another, they create the right balance, which is Malchut of the world of Infinity. The more flexible the system, the more highly organized it is. And flexibility is attained by virtue of the multitude and diversity of forces. The sharper the polarity of these forces, the greater might they achieve.

The more different connections there are between the elements, the more complex and sensitive the system is, and the more it opens itself up and is able to accept and process the entire upper Light with its infinite diversity of forms.

The entire diversity of our qualities and desires was created by the Light, by its 613 Lights. Therefore, nothing that exists is extraneous. We must only place every quality, thought, and desire that does not match it in the right place, which the Light had initially intended for it.

Then we will reveal an extraordinarily rich, flexible, and highly organized system that includes such a great number of connections that separate connections disappear and everything turns into one, infinitely connected whole.

This mutual connection becomes so tight and multidimensional that it goes from being discrete to analog. All three lines, Sefirot HBD-HGT-NHY existing in the system, merge into one.

These separate, discrete forms of unification turn into one monolithic whole, which does not divide into parts and does not consist of elements, but becomes one, simple, infinite Light.
[60669]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/11, Shamati

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Question: At the December convention, will it be possible to make a huge leap in the inner worlds?

Answer: We do not make a leap at the convention, but we go from our lowest state, which does not even have a name and does not belong to the spiritual ladder, to the first degree on it. This is not a leap.

We have to understand the difference between our preliminary work, which takes place before we step onto the ladder of the spiritual degrees, and work on these degrees. The preliminary work is very group-oriented. I include myself in others, they influence me and I influence them. I don’t have my own spiritual individuality yet. I don’t exist as a spiritual individual yet.

Therefore, if I include myself into thousands of people who are around me, I receive their opinions, desires and forces, and like in our world I use the capabilities that society has, which enables me to reduce my path a great deal. It’s analogous to taking an uneducated person from the jungle and teaching him to be a prince, like in the musical My Fair Lady.

We can all receive support from the common brain and the common heart, from our inclusion in one another. When I become included in the general field that others create and in which all Kabbalists of past generations take part, all souls, the entire common soul, then I receive the forces enabling me to make the leap.

It turns out that others worked for 20 years to attain the spiritual level while I came just a couple of years ago (or maybe 3 or 4 years ago, since every person requires a minimal time period), yet everything depends on my desire. I can become included in this common unity and ascend together with everyone.

There is a saying that goes, “Ask Me and I will render,” which means we can receive the spiritual state in advance and pay for it afterwards. This is possible.

But when a person already starts rising up the spiritual levels, a more individual development occurs there. Even though it also presupposes mutual inclusion with others, there a person starts consciously working with the Light and discerning desires.

Therefore, those who do not have spiritual attainment yet can adhere to society the way a small child holds on to an adult. Everything depends on a person’s efforts: He has the opportunity to participate in the convention and enter spirituality by virtue of the whole system.

Similarly, we also don’t repeat the corrections that the great people of the past generations completed. We are like little children they lift in their arms, allowing us to rise even higher. We are standing upon the platform they created.

And the same thing will happen with the beginners who join us at the convention: They will receive the same kind of support from us, from their “previous generations.”
[60635]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: I understood that there are laws and forces in our world. What law or force prevents me from attaining bestowal and why? How can I change this in myself?

Answer: Your egoism prevents you from this on purpose. It can be tamed only by an external force, which acts only when you study, communicate with similar people, and teach others because the force of correction is hidden in the connection between us.

Question: If the 99% of humanity can’t change anything themselves, what exactly are we trying to change in them with our circulation efforts?

Answer: We, the 1%, should correct ourselves through uniting in the group and by the force of our unity (Arvut) unite all those 99% who are outside the group. See “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Items 70-71.

Question: Can a man or a woman who studies and disseminates Kabbalah and is in our environment be depressed? If so, what is the reason?

Can people who have a genetic and hereditary susceptibility to depression or mania study Kabbalah?

Answer: In our time, depression is the most common phenomenon, and the cure for it is greater involvement in group activities.

Question: I have three teenagers at home, and they absolutely refuse to listen to the wisdom of Kabbalah. How and when can I talk to them about this topic?

Answer: Do not talk to them about Kabbalah until they grow up and desire to hear about it themselves.
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Question: Why does the state of smallness (Katnut) not disappear and, in contrast to the state of greatness (Gadlut), remain forever?

Answer: The state of smallness doesn’t disappear because it is the foundation of the degree, independent and unrelated to the state of greatness. It exists in itself.

If we look at our world, the “small state” is like a person who is alone in this world. He doesn’t need anything except basic necessities. But since he is surrounded by others who instill different desires in him, beyond necessity in the small state, he begins to want everything! These are not his desires, and therefore they can disappear.

And, then again society pressures the person, he adopts its new ideas and once again enters the state of greatness. The “great state” refers to a surplus.

In spirituality, the state of greatness (Gadlut) is really a surplus in the present level. It is impossible to be in this state if I don’t find someone upon whom I can bestow, according to my power and ability and the other person’s desire.

Therefore, the state of greatness disappears. If the lower one no longer desires to receive from me, I cannot bestow to him, and if another lower one develops a desire to receive from me, I begin to bestow upon him. These are things that do not depend on me.

In our world, greatness or adulthood means that a person grows up and becomes part of society, begins to work, and gives and receives from society. A grown-up is someone who started his independent life and is incorporated in the general work. Therefore, his desires are not his desires, and his actions are not intended for himself. This is called a state of greatness, adulthood.

We can see it clearly from examples in this world. After all, we are in a world in which we bestow to each other. It only seems to us that each one works just for himself. It is a false perception arranged for us from Above and confusing us.

In spirituality, the upper Partzuf merges with the Light only at the request of the lower one. Therefore, it necessary for us to understand the difference between the state of smallness and the state of greatness: The state of smallness (Katnut) is “I” myself. The state of greatness (Gadlut) isn’t me at all. The desires are not mine, but rather they are the desires of the lower ones. The powers that enable me to fulfill these desires are not mine, but come from Above, and the filling isn’t mine either, but is transmitted down. And I am in the middle, between the upper one and the lower one, in the middle third of Tifferet.

There is the huge difference between the state of greatness and the state of smallness. The little “me” is me, and the big “me” is the others, that is, “We.”
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/8/2011, TES

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Question (from the Hebrew blog): I am listening to Channel 66 at home all the time. I am attached to it, but do not understand everything. I am not in the group and listen only at home. Is this enough?

Answer: If you can do only this, it will be enough!

Question: I was invited to a Kabbalah class this weekend so I was doing a little research before attending. I came across an article on numerology and realized that my name number is 4. It said accident, shatter, and death. I am very concerned since learning this. Is this true and what can I do?

Answer: Do not read anything but our sources. All others are written by amateurs who are not familiar with Kabbalah and only think they understand it. A Kabbalist is someone who received his knowledge from a true teacher in the lineage from Abraham to our days. My advice: Throw away the book and thoughts about numerology and read more from our site for beginners.

Question: How should I behave every day at work and at home with people who do not know about Kabbalah, and how should I behave in the group in the evening?

Answer: Do not talk about Kabbalah to anybody at work or with the family and friends, but only when you go out to circulate. You can be sincere in the group.
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