Question: How is it possible to hasten spiritual advancement?

Answer: Time is a very large and important factor in our progress.

I cannot imagine that it is possible to reduce it very much. You do not know how many spiritual states you pass through every minute of your earthly life in, which you do not even suspect. The counter is spinning and spinning and everything is constantly changing.

Suddenly a person feels that he is beginning to grasp things differently, feeling and understanding something, and so forth. This is a result of the inner changes he is going through.

Therefore, on the one hand, we need to hasten time, but on the other hand, we are living in particular frameworks. If you are in a group in a lesson and are working on yourselves and on the group systematically and mutually, in the framework of our general world group, then only the joint efforts play a role.

In this way you can hasten the time, but in any case, the time factor exists and it is necessary to take it into account and to respect it.
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From the talk at a videoconference with the Learning Center students, 5/21/17

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Question: How can a student help a teacher?

Answer: This can happen only according to the degree of his devotion to an idea, to the study, to unity, and to helping the teacher in his work with the general group.

When I found my teacher in 1980, after a few lessonsI had no doubt that I needed to move closer to him and do everything possible to help him. In his time, conditions were different, there was no Internet, books about Kabbalah were scarce, a real rarity. Since then, 37 years have passed; today there are many books translated into many languages.

Helping the teacher is a very serious incentive for advancement; for this, the student needs to try to resemble the teacher. This is because the “lower face” must aspire to resemble the “upper face,” in the same way that we educate children.

Always try to take an example from the higher and from his attitude toward the world, to the lessons, to dissemination. In this manner, you will advance. This is basically the best incentive for advancement.
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From the talk at a videoconference with the Learning Center students, 5/21/17

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Comment: Baal HaSulam says that it is actually our egoism that gives us the feeling of time. There is an action and its outcome, and it is the outcome that is important to us, not the pleasure from the action itself.

Answer: Egoism is the desire to receive, to take, to draw for yourself, to stretch the zero point to two different directions. This is how the concept of time is felt.

Question: If that’s the case, then there is no time in spirituality because a person enjoys only the action itself and does not wait for the outcome of his intention?

Answer: In spirituality the intention is the action.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/26/17

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It is written in the Torah that when the sons of Israel cross the Jordan, the six tribes will be standing on the Mount Gerizim and blessing people, and the other six tribes will be standing on the Mount Eival and cursing people. These are two lines: the right line and the left line.

The left line (curse) is in no way worse that the right one. We must move along the middle line, including both parts. After all, it is written, “I (the Creator) created evil and I created goodness to balance it.” If we match them with each other correctly, we will go along the middle line, combining evil with goodness.

Therefore, selecting goodness over evil, we select one over the other, but in no case one of the two. Otherwise, we will not exist as a creature. The absolutely egoistic creature dresses into an altruistic external form and exists in the upper world in this form.

It turns out that evil is the basis, which must be dressed into the correct gown.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/23/16

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Question: How can we achieve love in practice?

Answer: If you make efforts and see that you cannot do anything, you are reminded of the Creator and that He must help. When you turn to Him, you see how He arranges everything. This way the love for the Creator will come to you.

You will begin to see that He has prepared all the obstacles for you, all the problems and troubles, with such love, devotion, and care. You will start feeling love for the Creator because “love will cover all sins.” After all, you will see that He has never done you any harm.

When love is revealed and covers all evil, you see that evil has never existed. It only seemed to you that this problem existed, and now you see that it does not. It had to be this way so that you could reveal love.

This also happens in our world. Sometimes you argue with someone—say, with your wife. You are burning with anger! And then you make up, and it seems to you that everything that happened was just a folly and there was nothing important in it. And then you ask yourself how could you want to leave and divorce over such a little thing.

That is life. But what have you attained? You attained that everything that happened was as if unreal and now you are enjoying intimacy even more. This does not teach you too much for the future, so sometimes you will argue again.

That is, if we treat what is happening to us in our lives, our family, and any other place in such a way that it comes to us from the Creator so that we learn to cover everything with love, we will see a completely different life.
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From the Convention In Brazil “Day Two” 4/30/17, Lesson 9

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Question: Is the desire of a stone to lie on the side of the road the same desires built from the ten Sefirot?

Answer: That is the Malchut of the desire, which is formed from the previous nine influences. The first nine Sefirot are the higher influence on an object to form the desire in it.

Question: Is even the simple desire of a person to buy a Mercedes the result of such influence?

Answer: So is any desire. Even the aspiration of people to ascend to the stars is a desire formed in Malchut as a result of the nine influences on it.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/5/17

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Torah, Deuteronomy 27:18: Cursed be he who misguides a blind person on the way. And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’

There is a sighted and a blind within each of us.

The blind within me is the one who goes by faith above reason, closing his eyes. If, on the contrary, I misguide him on the way, meaning I want to advance according to my views, then this disturbance leads me away from the correct goal and this is a curse.

Comment: It turns out that the blind is on the right path, and the sighted is cursed.

Answer: Yes. However, a person makes himself blind. He says: “My eyes shall not see, my ears shall not hear, I must advance by faith above reason.”

Closing my eyes, I begin to acquire the upper vision, the upper mind, and advance through them. At the same time, I go against my vision and my mind. Here we receive very different tools for advancement.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/23/16

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Question: Why was the world created corrupted?

Answer: So we could correct it! After all, in the process of working on correction, we penetrate deep into the world and can explore it, and therefore, understand how it works and how it should work if it weren’t corrupted. That is, we reveal all of its internal laws.

Question: Wouldn’t it be better to initially have the world corrected and live a good life?

Answer: Not at all. If I get a device in good order, then I would only need to click on buttons to get what I want from it. But if this device is broken, then I have to go into it and study how it works, find out what is wrong and why, how to repair it, and how the device should function in working order.

So I get familiar with the whole system. As I am correcting it from beginning to end, I become its master.

Question: And why should we become masters of the system?

Answer: So that we can rule the world. Man has to understand and feel everything, and control the entire universe. Correcting the world means correcting a person, so I learn who I am and I can correct myself. The Creator allegedly spoiled me, but I correct myself. Through this, I will learn what the Creator did and what the right form should be. I align myself with Him in his work: He spoiled me and I corrected myself.

It turns out that I become equal to the Creator, rising up to His level. That is, the whole process of damage and correction is designed to raise a person to a higher level of reality and perception of the world to another life.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/13/17

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Torah, Deuteronomy 26:18 – 26:19: And the Lord has selected you this day to be His treasured people, as He spoke to you, and so that you shall observe all His commandments, and to make you supreme, above all the nations that He made, [so that you will have] praise, a [distinguished] name and glory; and so that you will be a holy people to the Lord, your God, as He spoke.

“To make you supreme, above all the nations,” means to elevate within yourself the quality that is called Yehudi (from the word “Yihud” – adhesion, connection with the Creator) above all your other desires that are called the nations.

We see this in history. The people of Israel never, even in the best years when they had strength, engaged in any conquests.

Only in ancient times, did King David have to protect Israel from enemies. Then, the so-called “Kibush David” was carried out—the conquest of the territories from the Nile to the Euphrates—in order to keep all the tribes that inhabited them under control because otherwise these tribes were constantly raiding Israel.

Therefore, when the Torah speaks about the people who are chosen, praised, and great, it is referring to the work to annul yourself. Then, you elevate the part of Israel within yourself that is directed to the Creator above all the rest of your egoistic parts. This is only about the inner state of a person.

In addition, it is about serving the world in order to be, as it is written in the Torah, the Light or, in other words, an example for all the nations of the world.

The same applies to the Temple. It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). After all, from ancient times, not only Jews went there, but absolutely everyone. A person could go there from any place, from anywhere, in order to pray, to ask something, or to participate in the classes. This is how many non-Jewish scholars appeared among us.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/9/16

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Question: “It is written, ‘there is none else besides Him.’ This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him.” This is how the very first article in the book Shamati (I Heard) begins. What is it talking about?

Answer: It seems to us that there are many forces and sources of different actions, thoughts, and desires in our world, and everything that happens is a consequence of thousands of different reasons. But in fact, there is only one reason, one force, one thought, one desire, which affects us all in every possible way.

And we need all these sources, which appear to us from all sides and affect us, to return to the Creator because we see that everything comes from Him. When I begin to relate all the influences to one upper force, I begin to know it through its influence on me, through all these means.

It turns out that it is due to these means, returning everything to the Creator, I study Him and I find out why He influences me in different forms, why these forms evoke all sorts of reactions in me, and how I can connect everything with the upper force.

It turns out that I have three components: one source, thousands of means that affect me, and me. Through all these means, directing them to the Creator, I study Him and reveal the upper force.

So there is the upper force, the whole vast world, and me. The Creator affects this world, and as a result, all kinds of forces—that seem to me to be disconnected from each other and to be pursuing different goals—start acting on me from this world. But I cut myself off from this picture and say: “This is not true! I send all these effects back to the one force they actually come from.”

This action, through which one force is divided into thousands of different paths of influence, gives me the opportunity to connect them and reach the upper desire, the understanding of the upper thought, the program of creation, its direction, and my role.

I understand how the whole world is constructed and why it exists in such a form, how the upper force clothes in reality, and how I can relate this whole world to the Creator. There is nothing besides this, that is, nothing besides the Creator.

Question: Where does the spiritual world begin in all this process?

Answer: In all its diversity, this world turns into the spiritual world for me if I send everything back through it and turn it into my appeal to the Creator. When I am directed only to Him, by using all the means through which the Creator addresses me, I see Him.

And then I see one force that awakens me through the students, family, police, illnesses, government, news, relatives, friends, enemies, and tax audits—through everything that exists in a person’s life.

I find out that in everything I am governed by the upper force, but at the same time, I can react and recognize that the government comes, not from 30 to 40 sources, but from one reason which stands behind everything.

If I constantly work to direct my attitude to the Creator through all these means, I begin to understand how He built them, why He created everything, and why He awakens me in this way, which means that I attain and reveal Him. I reveal the clothing of the upper force in all possible means used by Him to influence me. The Creator clothes in my world.

Question: How can a Kabbalistic book help me achieve such a correct view?

Answer: When reading a book, I imagine that I receive influence from the upper force through it. The book describes the actions of the Creator, that is, I relate everything to Him, which is called: “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one.” There are three components: the first, Israel is me, the second, the Torah is the whole world through which I want to achieve the Creator, and the third is the Creator. And all these three components are one since everything must be attributed to the same source.
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From the Virtual Lesson “The Time Of Kabbalah,” 6/13/17

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