Question: Suppose a person settles down in some geographical place and acquires its character and mentality. Is this all determined from above?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is there a concept of mentality in Kabbalah?

Answer: No. Earthly human properties have a very small influence on the characteristics of the soul since in the upper world a person begins to acquire completely new properties, new states.

Alongside with this, he sees the limits of his inclusion in the general system of Adam and at the same time his animal states, especially his material weaknesses and inclinations. But it does not really matter for spiritual correction.
[226058]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/31/17

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Question: There are certain principles in Kabbalah: “Make for yourself a rav” (find a teacher), “buy yourself a friend,” and “judge every person favorably.” What do they mean, and how are these principles interconnected?

Answer: The concept of “Rav” (great) is identical to the concept of the Creator.

Once you accept the Creator as your guiding star that you want to constantly aim toward, you must choose a group of companions; this is called “buy yourself a friend.” You must exert great efforts so that your friends truly become your companions.

And then, together with the Creator and the group, you begin to work on attaining the system, bringing the whole world to the scale of merit, i.e., judging every person favorably.

Question: What kind of a friend is this that can be bought and sold?

Answer: Everything in life is for sale. And here it is the same, but in a different way than in our world.

For example, in order for you to become my friend, I have to exert efforts to show you how important you are to me, that I am willing to sacrifice myself to have you with me, that I am willing to buy any gifts in order to bring you closer to me. We work with our egoism, and the ego doesn’t understand anything else. Do not try to make philosophers out of yourselves, removed from earthly matters.

Therefore, everything is “bought and sold” only at the expense of our efforts. We have to show each other that we are ready for anything in order to become close friends, that the great goal can only be achieved together, between us. This is called “to buy.”

Question: And what if you are unable to buy a friend?

Answer: That is your problem. But if you do not “buy” him, you will not be able to advance with him, you will not achieve the right level of connection.

The Creator can be revealed only in the union between you. The Creator cannot be revealed inside an individual, but only in the connection between us! What used to be egoism becomes a sandwich: hatred on the bottom, love on the top, and in that connection the Creator is revealed.

Therefore, a person doesn’t have to correct anything other than his connections with other people.

Question: So first, I need to achieve the state where the Creator (the force of bestowal) is most important for me. Then I have to buy friends, meaning to take care of their spirituality, and then I will be able to enter spirituality myself. And only after this will we be able to justify everything that is happening in the world?

Answer: Yes, because the world is the system of connections between us in which the Creator is revealed.
[226321]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/3/17

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Question: You say that I can receive strength through the group. Is the group a transmitter from the Creator, or a source of spiritual strength?

Answer: Both. The fact is that, with respect to me, the group is the Creator’s manifestation. Therefore, I try to adhere to the Creator to the extent that I try to merge with the group. By bestowing to the group, I bestow to the Creator. But I neither see nor know this.

If I saw the Creator instead of the group, I would be obliged to incessantly bestow to Him, like a slave. I would automatically be in the form of an angel. However, this is how I have freewill, by not seeing the Creator. He is concealed behind this world.

Therefore, “Olam” (World) comes from the word “Alama” (Concealment). It turns out that concealment is a great blessing that gives us freewill. Only to the extent that I can remain free from attaining the Creator can I reveal this great force that controls everything: past, present and future.

Question: Let’s say I am acquainted with a rich person who is respected around the world. Since I do not want to use him for my own benefit, I always hide my acquaintance with him from everybody and even from myself. Is it possible to imagine our relationship with the Creator as such?

Answer: I do not use my acquaintance with the Creator for my sake, although He is fully revealed to me. It is written, “He is faithful in all My house” (Numbers 12:7). He trusts you and you must create a screen within yourself in order to make a restriction (Tzimtzum) on your desires—to not accept anything from the Creator and to work only for bestowal.

Question: Is He constantly trying to reveal Himself to me and I by myself constantly conceal Him?

Answer: He is revealed only once you learn to conceal Him.
[226343]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/3/17

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Question: The outside world puts the modern person into a state of constant stress. How do you cope with it?

Answer: I cannot imagine what constant stress is because everything that occurs I connect with the Creator. What kind of stress can there be if we are in His power, in His constant influence on us? We need nothing more than to relax and swim with the current of His action upon us.

I recommend regularly reading articles by Baal HaSulam and Rabash. They will quickly remove all stress from you. You will understand that the world is ruled by one benevolent power and all we need is to be in constant connection with it, to bring everything to the Creator.
[226240]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/7/18

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Question: It is written: “His wisdom is greater than his strength.” What does it mean?

Answer: According to Kabbalah, it is very bad when intelligence, wisdom, surpasses action. Because first of all, I need to lower my head and receive higher knowledge. And when I adapt this knowledge to myself, I must then work with it within the group.

During the process of working with it, it becomes clear to me what all these actions are for, and only then do I begin to use them as my own thoughts, my own methods.

Question: “We shall do and we shall hear” also applies here?

Answer: Yes. First the action must be carried out because only this attracts the upper Light, and within this Light, we will begin to understand everything.
[225871]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 12/3/17

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Question: Regarding the development of a soul, is it a development of the desire to receive the Light of the Creator?

Answer: Yes. The Creator only gives. We can only receive. Receiving for the sake of bestowal, we turn reception into giving. This is why a quality of reception with the intention to bestow is called a “soul.”

Question: What determines the level of the soul?

Answer: There are five spiritual worlds—Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon—after which comes a world of Infinity. Each one has 25 levels of attainment in it, so there are 125 levels in total.

They come from the integration of Light and desire; therefore, we simply state this fact.

The level of the soul is determined by the number, that is, the strength of my desire from 0 to 125.

The strength of the desire is determined by where I am. If I am able to bring the right intention to my desire, then the Light of the Creator enters it, and all three components—the Light that fills me, my intention, and my desire—will be called a “soul.”

Question: What kinds of souls are there, for it says that there are still, vegetative, and animate levels?

Answer: They are simply gradations that have no relevance for us. You should not think that there is an animal soul in an animal, a human soul in a person, and an inanimate soul in a rock. It means that each desire contains five components: still, vegetative, animate, speaking, and universal.

Based on that, we say, “His soul has settled into an animal or a plant.” They are nothing other than levels of desire. Just as I have a desire to consume, let’s say, 100 grams of one thing and a kilogram of another, such is the difference between the animate desire and the speaking one. These are simply token names having no connection with our world.

Indeed, everything is accurately regulated, spelled out, and quantitatively divided according to levels of energies, strengths.
[225217]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/14/18

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Question: How can one get rid of fears in life? I have been looking for the truth for a long time, I understand a lot, but I cannot get rid of my fears.

Answer: We need fears. They always push us forward. Therefore, you need to change egoistic fears to altruistic ones, to fear separation from the Creator, failing to achieve the goal and positive connection with people.

If you shift your fears to the arena of bestowal and love, you will lose the fear of getting hurt or that someone can harm you. Work toward the positive, outside of yourself, outwardly, toward people, and then nothing negative will be come from people toward you.
[225574]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/7/18

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Question: What is the meaning of the Kabbalistic principle: “If I am not for me, who is for me?” It seems to be so corporeal…

Answer: A person is an egoist. There is only the ego at work inside of us, it first pushes us to do everything for ourselves. And then that same egoism, realizing that its best application is in bestowing to others, leads us to do everything for the sake of others.

It follows, in any case: “If not me, then who?” How else can I be connected to everyone else in order to give, to work for their benefit, if not through my egoism? Nothing new happens, only the technique of applying the ego changes.

Moreover, the work for others is not done for the sake of an individual, but for the sake of the whole system; when I understand that it is universal, I begin to involve myself in it, and therefore my present and my future depends only on the extent of my involvement in this system.

Here everything happens differently than in our world where we preach: “Let’s live together and put everything into a common pot,” while each one thinks of how to snatch from it and whatever comes out of it is of little consequence. By studying Kabbalah, we reveal the system of nature and understand that we exist in it completely, integrally interconnected.

Therefore, by giving to the universal system, I give to myself and do so in the best possible way, eternally and perfectly. If I seemingly take something for myself, it goes against the system and I see that I cause damage to myself. It follows that egoism works in both directions: good and bad.

“If I am not for me, who is for me?” is the healthiest attitude because a person knows that he is supposed to do and earn something. The question is only in how to use one’s egoism. That is why Kabbalah, in Hebrew, means “the science of reception.” It explains how to receive all the good, righteous, eternity, and perfection that is in the world.

Question: How do we combine the approaches: “If I am not for me, who is for me?” and “There is none else besides Him”? Do we act on it consecutively or concurrently?

Answer: We have to act simultaneously because we are all in one system in which the Creator is activated by the request of a person, and the person is activated by the Creator. It follows that we are partners, but from different sides of creation: we are from the bottom, and the Creator is from the top. The system of connections between us is called the “worlds.”
[225672]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/3/17

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Question: What happens to a person when crossing the Machsom?

Answer: A person dissolves in others. He remains in the physical body, but leaves the inner egoistic essence, and begins to grow in the spiritual essence.

Question: Does he lose fear for himself?

Answer: Fear appears at the descent and disappears as one ascends because a person again adheres to the Creator. This happens time after time. The state of disconnection from the Creator is called a descent, and the state of adhesion with the Creator is called an ascent.
[225916]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/31/17

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Question: Is the birth of the soul accompanied by physical discomfort?

Answer: Physically, a person goes through many states. But, the further you advance, there is less discomfort because you begin to understand it, get used to it, and even guess, based on your experience, what actions will be done to you.

Therefore, you calmly go ahead, knowing that there will be a descent again. The light “goes off,” you fall through all the steps of the ascent, like in an elevator flying down, and then gradually come to your senses.

First, you do not understand where you are and what you are, as all connections break off, and the feeling of the upper world disappears. You remain only in the perception of this world, not really understanding what is happening here, what kind of people are surrounding you, and what they are doing here.

Then, you begin climbing up again through an even bigger connection with the group, but the extreme states are amazing.

In fact, there is nothing scary about it. On the contrary, you feel the tremendous power of life, the world, nature, the Creator, and you, yourself, are in it as an accomplice.

You simultaneously look with regret at how people are living in this world because they have a great opportunity to fill themselves with the whole creation from beginning to end, and they are busy with something petty, insignificant, and languish in this way. We must do everything to help them. By helping them, you help yourself, and vice versa.
[225881]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/14/18

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