Question: Why do we see concern or worry as something negative? Should it rather be viewed as the opposite of indifference?

Answer: A concern can be either positive or negative. I experience it as a negative sensation because it troubles and worries me. But what if I am concerned about good things, about how to bestow to others? There are concerns about our personal needs, and there is concern about the Light. Isn’t the Creator constantly concerned about His creations?

We need to attain the property of Bina and from it, the degree of Keter. In this property, a person is constantly concerned about the souls for it is written, “more than the calf wants to eat, the cow wants to feed.” And this is the level of Bina (Elokim [God]), meaning the suffering of Shechina (Divinity) in its worry about the souls.

However, this concern speaks of completeness, not a flaw. When I worry about others, I remain in a perfect state of existence. The spiritual world teems with mutual concerns, but this type of worrying is for the well-being of all. This kind of worry is sweet, it is like my guarantee to the others.

The difference between the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature is defined by the type of concern they experience, what worries them exactly? The state of concern is an important, central point of attention. The Creator also worries about the created beings.

A person is practically rid of corporeal concerns at the first spiritual level. When you don’t worry about your own needs but switch to concern for the needs of others, you don’t see it as something negative. Therefore, such a person is regarded as righteous since he justifies this entire process and feels comfortable with such concerns.
[23810]
From Kabbalah for Beginners, “What is Mutual Concern” 10/13/10

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Question: How do I know when I start to feel the system? What are the first sensations that a person experiences?

Answer: Responsibility! Just as it is in the family, I start feeling that there is a certain system for which I have to take responsibility. It isn’t accidental that a family is established in the corporeal world and a person has to take this responsibility seriously. Family is the foundation of society, life.

In our case, we must feel as if we are in a “spiritual family” where we all have to reach similarity to the Upper One. In accordance with nature and the law of root and branch, we have to meet the condition of the mutual guarantee and implement it first in the group and then in the entire world.

The whole world, as Baal HaSulam describes, is one family, and nature will force us to learn this law.
[24081]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Arvut”

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Question: The law of the system is total reciprocity. What practical instructions does this law give to each person?

Answer: Since it is a unified, integral, and global system, every part of it must take into account this law and comply with it in its actions. Every individual has to understand and absorb this system, feeling that he is responsible for establishing it to the extent that he has been given free will.

Freedom of choice is the part that I must independently establish in the system and advance in this manner until everyone, on their 125 rungs, discovers more and more of their own free will which is the measure of one’s free and compulsory participation in the system that one establishes from his part.
[24084]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Arvut”

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Question: What is the law of the system of Arvut (mutual guarantee)?

Answer: The law of this system is absolute reciprocity. This is how it is described in the Torah: “As one man with one heart.” This means that the one desire in the entire system, mutual bestowal, is realized in the adhesion with the Creator. The law is defined by the word “one,” as in “unity.”

It could be said that unity of “one” cannot be a law. But the definition of “one” contains many different properties connected with each other above hatred and rejection by relations of love and bestowal. This is the internal formula of the system: Qualities opposite in their nature are connected above this opposition by the law of equivalence of form.

This is the way our body and any integrated system are constructed. In order for such a system to exist, it must be built from the different forms and opposite parts over which there operates a universal law: existence for the sake of one unified purpose.
[24087]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, "The Arvut"

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Question: I don’t understand: What is the freedom that we must attain?

Answer: Our freedom amounts to attaining the desire for bestowal that will fill us with infinite enjoyment. The goal is to achieve the most comfortable state of existence, although it requires us to first change and correct ourselves.

The Creator, Who is Good that does good, wished to create a being in order to bestow pleasure to it. And He will give this pleasure to us! Yet, like a little child, I dream only about one thing: that my parents would give me a bicycle for a present. For me, it is the greatest dream, but my parents fear that I will ride on a dangerous highway between the cars. Instead of buying me a bicycle, they wish to teach me to play the violin. Do you see the difference?

Similarly, the Creator wants us to “play the violin,” but we want a “bicycle” for our egoism to ride. Yet, when we make our desire as His, change ourselves and realize that to play the violin is the greatest joy, then we attain all the pleasure prepared for us by Him. After all, the Creator placed enjoyment in the “violin,” not in the “bicycle,” and I will have to change my desire for I have no choice. However, as a result, I will attain pleasure as conceived in the plan of creation.

My reward in this world is to gradually build for myself the necessary environment. I seek and discern which environment is needed to advance me to the example that the Creator gave me, and by doing so, I construct myself. From all the opportunities given to me, I build myself a “wrapper” that I can dress in.

A person creates for himself a new world, his next spiritual degree. He doesn’t simply give himself into the hands of the Upper One, permitting Him to do anything He desires. Rather, he has to know precisely what kind of person he wants to become, by way of which forces and influences. He creates himself and his entire world anew.

It is the kind of freedom that makes you the Creator. You start to understand all of nature’s components and to assemble them like a new puzzle game every time according to your opinion and advancement to the form of the Creator. You are constructing this world. This free choice grants you new desires and instruments of perception. By building it, you get to understand and know the Creator, His Upper force, the program of creation, and its laws that everybody follows. Hence, you can control it all.

It turns out that you are in place of the Creator and are governing everything. By inviting this force to govern you, you accept it, and with its help, you rule the world. It will be you, and your free will is the foundation for it. You are not the one who is governed anymore, but the governor. To do this, we just need to find out what our freedom is.
[23699]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Freedom”

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Question: What if my duty is to be a security guard during a lesson at the convention? Everyone is sitting and listening to you while I am outside checking passes. Even if I get to listen to the radio broadcast in my headphones, it is not the same thing.

Answer: This is your “earning.” After all, you are serving others: Everything they “catch” at the lesson is organized and provided by you. In other words, at that moment, they are receiving fulfillment because of you.

Question cont.: But how is that when I do not receive any of their impressions?

Answer: On the contrary, all their impressions come through you from Above. It is as if you were receiving everyone’s rewards. Not bad, eh?

Question cont.: But what if I am on duty as a security guard, and I am enjoying it because I am helping disseminate Kabbalah? Is it all right to receive this type of fulfillment?

Answer: Go ahead, receive your fulfillment. Overall, perform less theoretical calculations. An action is an action.

Question cont.: Let us say that I came to the convention, I do not have a desire to work in the kitchen, but I was given the responsibility of peeling, like, a hundred pounds of onions, a half-day’s work. I do the work without any desire, I am disgusted, I feel woeful, I keep cursing my friends and the entire convention, and keep wishing to run away every coming moment.

Answer: Just take a look at the enormous work you are doing. Look at the thoughts about the importance of the group and the goal that are running through your head every second of your work with these onions. Look at the amount of calculations that you need to make in order to stay in the kitchen all these hours.

You will think so many things over, you will figure out your attitude toward friends and the Creator, you will fight yourself, suffer, and, in the end, you will see that there is no other place for you. Where else would you do all these examinations?

In situations like this, the precision of the analysis is very high. Thoughts and apprehensions start falling over you as soon as you begin any kind of work from the most to least pleasant. This is a wonderful opportunity. If everyone were able to work in the kitchen while listening to the lecture, I would stay in my room and do a radio broadcast without a camera. Even if there were no need for people in the kitchen, it does not matter as long as there are disturbances and the ability to overcome them. This is the best condition for advancement.
[23710]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, Shamati #16

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Question: Can I hasten the unfolding of the Reshimot (spiritual records, genes), or is it a constant value?

Answer: We descended into this world from the World of Infinity (Ein Sof) through five worlds, and from this world, we must now ascend back to the World of Infinity. Baal HaSulam describes this quite in detail in the  Introduction to The Book of Zohar. On the way downward, the Reshimot broken in the process of the descent remain within us. This world has existed for fifteen billion years, and today, in 2010, we are the first to start the ascent, our correction.

We need to take the broken Reshimot and realize them anew in the five worlds, ABYA and Adam Kadmon. We must take the same steps, but this time, do so in the corrected way. In truth, these are not two different paths, upward and downward, but one ladder, one line. We descended it without awareness, unconsciously. Even in this world we are still completely unaware of what is going on.

When we start realizing our Reshimot, we don’t know what is happening to us, until we reach a certain level, cross the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality). But after the Machsom, we begin to lift Reshimot through the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, and Beria to Malchut of the World of Atzilut which is called Shechina. In the World of Atzilut, there is a mechanism of correction. That is where we correct everything and then begin to understand, feel, and comprehend the entire process.

We don’t pick the Reshimot. Everyone has a “helix,” a chain of Reshimot placed in them, and we pass through them one by one, from the first to the last.

The Light will work on them if we arouse it. Hence, we can only determine the pace by which the Reshimot unfold. If I plug into the group and studies, if I think and care for it during my free time, then by doing so, I hasten the pace of my development. Besides, it absolutely doesn’t matter how many free hours I have day by day. Somebody gets twenty and someone just two, but what matters is how you use them.

Everyone is placed in the setting most beneficial for him or her; it is not up to us. We, however, have to seek the most efficient use for our free time for the goal of spiritual development. This is discussed in the article “The Freedom“: One should get involved in the group as much as possible and there, in unity between us, aim all our effort farther: at dissemination and studying.

These are our main actions: unification in the group and transition from unity to dissemination and study. Thereby, you awaken the Light; the rest is not up to you.
[23685]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, Shamati #16

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Question: Would it be correct to say that the first stage is the unification between us and the formation of a spiritual vessel (Kli), while the second stage is the mutual guarantee?

Answer: The mutual guarantee does not depend on us, but comes with the help of the Light. All the corrections and all the states are the result of the Light’s influence on the Reshimot (spiritual genes, reminiscences), but our readiness and desire for this to happen is for us to display.

I open the book so as to facilitate the formation of a common desire whose quality will be bestowal. The Creator will be revealed within this common desire to the extent that it will bestow in accordance with the law of equivalence of form with the Creator. I don’t need to draw the Creator for Him to be revealed within my desire. I don’t need to forcefully reveal Him. I simply need to worry about the desire assuming the form of bestowal, and then the Creator will manifest.

The law of equivalence of form already exists; it is the fundamental condition in nature. If this condition is met, the Creator becomes revealed. I only need to worry about my desires (Kelim, vessels). The Light is at absolute rest; we only lack the right desires, the qualities to perceive it.

Therefore, my only task is to desire correction. I don’t actually perform the correction either; I merely give the Light the opportunity to correct me. This is why we gather together and think of the Light correcting us, meaning the connection between us. We want the Light to correct the breaking that took place in our roots.

Then, because by thinking about this, we as though raise the Shechina (Divinity, our common soul) from the dust, we achieve spiritual revelation, the Creator, the Light of NaRaNHaY, which is 620 times greater than the original state before the breaking where there was only the Light of Nefesh.
[23716]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, The Zohar

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Question: It seems to me that I understand every word you say. Why doesn’t it bring me any joy?

Answer: “It’s because you do not realize the importance of it.”
“Yes, I do understand, but what does it give me?”
“You acquire more than what the rest of the world has.”
“So what? I don’t care about what others have. I still don’t have it.”
“What do you want?”
[silence]

A person has to work together with the group on enhancing the importance of the goal. If he doesn’t feel or value the importance of the goal, it is because of his silliness and the concealment, and not because he is wise. His desires do not differentiate what’s in front of him. He is blind. For him, the world is dark and empty. “Open your eyes!”
“I don’t want to.”

Only after a person gets to realize the importance of the goal and begins to sense the sparkle of the group will he acquire the power to advance correctly. However, without joy he cannot move forward. If a person is overwhelmed with sadness, then no matter what he does, he won’t achieve his goal. He limits himself from the inside and directs himself to a different road.

It is impossible to keep to the right direction without experiencing joy. It is similar to hypocritical “confessions” that we are “extremely happy” while we, in fact, are crying from the blows that we receive from the Creator. This kind of lie shows that we are making the wrong type of connection between us.

There can be a certain amount of nervousness, tension, and even some minor arguments in the group; they are signs of energy and desire. At the same time, there has to be joy which originates from the greatness of the goal that shines ahead of us. There is no room for desperation. In fact, desperation is equivalent to arrogance. “I am unhappy with what I have. The Creator doesn’t take me seriously, whereas I deserve much more. I can abide with less, but I cannot agree with having nothing.”

We have to experience lack of fulfillment in order to start working without getting a reward, but we are not ready for this yet. We have to see the rewards that make us excited and begin chasing them.

A person doesn’t comprehend that he is given various opportunities to make another step ahead. He acts like a silly child and sets forth “conditions” and sticks to his “principles.” All right! What cannot be done by reason will be done by time. Stubbornness and refusal to join the group may cost a person many years of delay until he rids himself of desperation and starts to progress.
[23285]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/12/10, “The Matter of Mercy”

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Question: Why is it written in The Book of Zohar that “only jealousy completes the love?”

Answer: Love cannot be complete if it’s not underlain by jealousy. It is written: “Envy (jealousy) of the wise multiplies wisdom.” There are different types of jealousy, but ultimately, jealousy is the revelation of the empty desire that must be filled specifically with love.

We discover empty desires in various states. If the will to receive (Kli) is so strong that there is love being revealed against it, then this desire is the Kli of jealousy. If I desire something, then everything depends on the degree of Aviut (thickness, coarseness) of my desire or attraction. With Aviut Shoresh (0), my desire is weak; with Aviut Aleph (1), it is stronger, and so on, up to the Aviut Dalet (4), when my desire is infinite.

Therefore, every level of desire has a corresponding degree of jealousy, meaning to what extent a person is “burning” with the desire for the lacking fulfillment. And hence, against the love that has to become revealed, there is the empty desire for its revelation: jealousy, a true “hell fire (the fire of netherworld).”
[23315]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/12/10, The Zohar

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