Question: What does egoism feel when working in the ten?

Answer: Each one in the ten pushes back his egoism and aims toward the quality of bestowal and love for the other nine friends. This is called “the first nine Sefirot.” The tenth Sefira (egoism) goes down.

It turns out that we build a network between us that should be equal, through its qualities, to the Creator.

What does “equal to Him” mean? To the extent that I exit myself and rise in the ten by one or two units in connection with the friends, that is my spiritual level. To this degree I attain the Creator and reveal the lights of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida.

Question: At the same time, do I constantly push myself away from egoism without losing it in my sensation?

Answer: Yes. Depending on the level of egoism (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5), I attain the Creator, His force in the soul. The Creator is the light and the entire system in itself is a soul.

The more egoism, the more I rise above it; precisely contrary to the ego, I use it to connect with the friends, and to that extent I reveal the Creator. This is how the system is arranged. We must work together. The whole problem is in implementation because all of this is within us.
[242615]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/9/18

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Question: You once said that the Creator gives wealth in order to distance Himself. But poverty also alienates people from spirituality because all strength and thoughts go to feeding themselves and their families. Do wealth and poverty interfere with Kabbalah?

Answer: No. Everything depends on how a person, despite wealth or poverty, relates himself to the highest governance, realizing that the Creator gives him exactly what is necessary for his soul. Even if I do not understand why He gives me conditions such as wealth or poverty, which in principle hinder me in my smooth movement toward the goal, I justify it because I received it from the Creator. Moreover, probably, from the point of view of the root of my soul, it is justified, natural, and absolutely balanced.

Question: So, such an understanding helps me steer away from constant thoughts of where to get money?

Answer: No, I also regard this as a spiritual work.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/25/18

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Question: What is the difference between the creation at the beginning and the completion of correction? Is it the degree of awareness or the degree of similarity?

Answer: Consciousness and similarity (attainment) are the same thing.

Question: If we become similar to the Creator and achieve adhesion with Him, can we also create something that never existed, actually something from nothing?

Answer: No. You can create something that did not exist from elements that already exist. This means that you can correct your uncorrected desires and create correct desires.

Question: Must I ask the Creator to reveal the evil in me in order to feel the right attitude toward goodness?

Answer: Not at all! A person never needs to ask for the revelation of evil in himself. He should only ask for goodness: for revealing the good in himself. When a little goodness is revealed in you, you will see how next to it, appears evil.

Question: What is the difference between Adam and the concept of the Shechina (Divinity)?

Answer: Adam is the desires created by the Creator. The Shechina is the light that fulfills these desires. The Shechina is called the desire filled with light. The Shechina is Malchut and the Shochen (dweller) is what fulfills the desires: the light, the Creator.

Question: How can we feel that the Creator, in response to our request, corrects someone from egoism? What are the signs of a corrected person?

Answer: When you truly become higher than your friend, you will see how much your requests for him are fulfilled by the Creator.

Question: How can it be that in order to change my personal spiritual level so it will be +1, I need to connect more closely with other souls to the +1 level? It is a vertical, not a horizontal movement.

Answer: Vertical and horizontal are the same thing. You yourself do not change. It is only due to your connection with others.

Question: Is it possible to take an example from the physical manners of a teacher?

Answer: No. There is no need to take an example from what you see in me, even with your eyes. This is not good. It is unnecessary to learn anything from me other than one thing: perseverance on the way. All the rest is yours.

Question: They say that every person in this world has his own task, his own correction. Do Kabbalists not take others’ tasks upon themselves by connecting with other people?

Answer: No, this is impossible. How can I take on the correction of others ? I have my own personal properties. I can only correct myself.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/16/18

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Baal HaSulam, “Letter 11”: I will also ask that you make great efforts in love of friends, to devise tactics that can increase the love among the friends and revoke the lust for bodily matters from among you, as this is what casts hate, and between those who give contentment to their Maker there shall be no hatred. Rather, there are much compassion and love between them.

We are participating in the correction of a broken vessel, a desire that once split into many broken parts. Now we have to connect them together, and as we join them, we begin to increasingly feel the Creator.

Each of us represents a single egoistic desire. Connection with anyone requires us to be altruistic, giving, yielding, possessing a quality of bestowal at least in some way. Such connection is called “love” because to do so I must  feel the desires of another and fulfill them, and that person should also relate to my needs and mutually fill them. Our desires are clearly directed toward the Creator. Therefore, I understand my friends’ aspirations, as does each of us.

The more we unite, the more the Creator will be revealed between us. Therefore, we have to constantly think about how to rise above ourselves so that the connection between us will be more important than a person’s connection with himself.

This is possible. We just need to think about the mutual connection, to read more. This is how the surrounding light’s influence grows on us, and I begin to understand that this has become very important to me.

Sometimes our efforts take months, even years. The higher a person’s soul (that is, his desire), the lower it fell after the breakage and became very coarse and heavy. A person with a bigger soul has a harder time connecting with others because in the broken state he is further away from correction. The heavier the soul, the worse it is in its uncorrected state, thus the better and higher than others it becomes when corrected.

Therefore, one can never despair. On the contrary, more effort should be applied. In general, the work in the ten, thinking of how to reach connection and reveal the Creator in it, all these thoughts and efforts attract the light and the light corrects us.

We have to apply as much effort as possible toward attempts to connect, toward thoughts on this topic, and then we will succeed. Especially now, when many of us are beginning to feel the need to connect and others feel the necessity of increasing the importance of the Creator in obtaining the desire to bestow, we approach a state where these actions become actual and real to us.

The extent to which a person is engaged in the group, even if, due to the heaviness of his soul, he is not easily influenced, he will still advance under the group’s influence. Therefore, we have to try to achieve full connection between us and the Creator.
[242795]
From the Daily Kabbalah lesson in Russian, 2/11/19

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #70, “With a Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out”: …those who want to enter God’s work in order to truly cleave unto Him and enter the King’s Palace, not every one is admitted. Rather, one is tested—if he has no other desires but only a desire for Dvekut (adhesion), he is admitted.

And how is one tested if he has only one desire? One is given obstructions. This means that he is sent alien thoughts and alien messengers to obstruct him so he would leave this path and follow the path of the populace.

Baal HaSulam writes that everything in nature is attained in collision. Life is a struggle, not with someone or something, but rather with yourself. If a person understands this correctly, then everything is fine.

It all depends on how to attune to this to understand that two forces are governing in the world: reception and bestowal. The force of reception is our great egoism and the force of bestowal does not exist in us. We must develop it gradually. It is quite complicated.

In order to do so, we must somehow interact in the group, trying to come closer to each other. We do not want this. It is exactly at this point, when I feel that I do not want to, but I forcibly push myself to connect with the friends, that I must turn to the Creator and ask Him to give me an opportunity to want this. If I do not run away from the struggle, but I catch myself on this, I can then reach balance in the middle line.

Question: What are alien thoughts?

Answer: These are any thoughts that are not directed to adhesion with the Creator, to equivalence with Him, and to the quality of bestowal.
[241815]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/16/18

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Question: What does it mean to be included in the group? Can a person check if he has succeeded in this?

Answer: Firstly, it depends on the frequency of his appeal to the group in order to connect everyone together and in this connection to reveal the Creator.

Secondly, does he turn to the Creator above all obstacles personally, from himself, or does he turn to the group and through the group address the Creator? These are different things.

At first, we address the Creator individually because it is much easier. Such exercises should be constant.

Later, they become more or less a habit, and by constantly remembering this, one as if automatically connects to the Creator and every second is a stop-start motion: “yes-no, no-yes.” If one constantly works in this pulsating rhythm, one becomes connected to the Creator through the group.

One ties oneself to the group, advances with it and helps others pull friends out of the “river’s current” (relative to the Light of Hassadim) or from the “dungeon” (relative to the Light of Hochma).
[242830]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/11/19

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, article 187, “Choosing Labor”: A trial means that a person cannot decide either way, and it is when one cannot determine the Creator’s will and the will of his teacher.

Although one can work devotedly, one is unable to determine to what extent this devoted work is appropriate or not, that this hard work would be against his teacher’s view, and the view of the Creator.

Question: Is it possible to somehow see that I am working correctly?

Answer: No, because that would be your egoistic reward. If you really are engaged in bestowal, then it is absolutely unimportant for you what consequences your actions have. You just want to know whether you do them correctly.

There is nothing you can do about it. This is a serious system. If you want to be in bestowal, you must rise above yourself and exit yourself. You are given such an opportunity. If not, stay as is.

You can simply learn Kabbalah. This is a source of knowledge, it is a method that explains history, geography, and the interaction of people in the world, the present, and even the future.

I would like all people in the world to acquire the set of knowledge that can be learned from Kabbalah even without engaging in spiritual improvement, but simply studying it like any other science.

Question: A person does not have evidence that he is advancing correctly. Then what should he hold onto?

Answer: Onto nothing. Onto the air, onto the Creator.

Only in a group, when you connect with the friends, work for them, and they for you, you receive what is called Arvut (mutual guarantee), and you can hold onto it.
[242206]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/25/18

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Question: How can you not fall into enjoying yourself from thinking you are so smart, important, and concerned about the purpose of life? How can I achieve real results?

Answer: The fact that you feel that you are great and smart is good. However, you must keep in mind that you have to be grateful to the Creator for this. Where does all this greatness and knowledge come from? It is from Him. This comes first.

Secondly, what do you really have? What did you receive that you feel proud about? A little child who has received a new toy also finds himself in euphoria, maybe in a state even more fulfilling that yours.

Everything depends on the size of the desire. If it is small, it is easy to fulfill and you will feel like you’re at the peak of success. If the desires are large, it is much harder to satisfy them and you will feel empty. Therefore, everything is measured against your desire, how big it is. For now, our desires are still very small.

Certainly, it is desirable to be in a good state, but at the same time, you must understand that this is because the Creator is shining upon you and not because you have achieved something on your own.
[241080]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/25/18

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Question: What is the point of freedom in me and how was the Creator able to make it free of Himself and from everything He predetermined?

Answer: Each of us has, beside our ego, a point in the heart called “a part of the Creator from above.” Therefore we are drawn to Him, we want to attain Him.

The people who have this need can feel the point in the heart, and that is why they try to connect between themselves to reveal the Creator.
[241157]
From the Kabbalah lesson in Russian 11/18/18

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Question: Is the energy released during the loss of strength or with the emptiness we experience during the descent used somewhere?

Answer: Definitely.

Question: Does the law of conservation of energy apply in this case?

Answer: Absolutely. Moreover, in our world, this law almost does not work. We do not know where everything disappears, we just make assumptions that this is how it happens in nature. Actually, all energy vanishes, goes into black holes, etc.

However, in the spiritual world, nothing disappears because there is a clear connection between Malchut and Keter. Everything happens within these ten emanations. It is an absolutely enclosed system.

Question: Does that mean that all my efforts to get out of descent, all my energy invested there, does not disappear?

Answer: Do not worry, everything finds its place, address, and justification.
[241218]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 11/25/18

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