Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

Connection Based on Interests

253Question: You said we cannot unite with people who do not study Kabbalah. What did you mean by that?

Answer: If I study something, I usually seek out people who are close to my studies. If I am interested in something, I prefer people who have the same interests. This is what Baal HaSulam means.

This is how we form groups in all countries, on all continents. We are spreading information about ourselves, and anyone who wants to join us is invited.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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Examine Your Desires

252Question: How can I determine whether my desires hinder spirituality or not?

Answer: All of our desires that are directed toward revealing and fulfilling themselves are naturally opposite to what we are meant to attain. They are contrary to the Creator’s intention to ultimately and completely delight us within the desire to bestow, through which we become similar to Him and connected with Him.

Therefore, our task is to examine our desires in the light of the Creator, that is, by comparing our desires with His desires. Those desires that are incompatible with the Creator’s goal we define as Klipot, forces opposite to the purpose of creation. Hence, we set them aside and engage only in fulfilling those desires that are intended for the fulfillment of others.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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Approach Spirituality

239The first tactic is to accustom oneself not to receive anything for one’s pleasure, even the permitted and necessary things for the existence of one’s body, such as eating, drinking, sleeping, and other such necessities (Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of theTen Sefirot“).

Question: How does this exercise bring us closer to spirituality?

Answer: This exercise brings us to a state where we ask, turn to the Creator, and pray that He will illuminate us with a light that will calm our desire to receive so we will not feel any difference whether we receive more or less.

This is precisely what we must come to understand.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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Questions about Spiritual Work—270

281.02Question: Can we consider the revealed Torah as a desire to receive, and the hidden Torah as a desire to receive for the sake of giving?

Answer: No, we cannot. The “hidden Torah” is what we reveal in the process of learning Kabbalah. And the revealed is what is revealed to us as children.

Question: Does the iron wall get broken on both sides? How can one feel the other side?

Answer: You can feel the other side only when you strive to unite with what is outside of you, on the other side of the wall.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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Questions about Spiritual Work—268
Questions about Spiritual Work—267

My Ten Is My Passport to the Spiritual World

934First of all, one must connect to one’s private ten, and only afterward to the entire world Kli. My ten is my personal Kli, from which I cannot exit, to which I am connected, and into which I must invest myself. It is like a pacifier for a baby; once he grabs it, he immediately calms down and comes to himself.

That is how we should feel about our ten, as if without it we do not exist and cannot manage. It is my shield and my umbilical cord that connects me to Adam HaRishon, to the general system of all the worlds. By entering the ten, through it I am connected, like by an umbilical cord, to the common soul of Adam HaRishon and to the Creator who is revealed within it.

During the convention, I received a great desire from the large Kli. Having felt the whole world, I have to  bring all this force into my permanent ten. And each friend in my ten must bring into it his own impressions from the great Kli that was at the European convention. From all these impressions, our ten will seem to swell and become greater, and it will also feel a stronger connection with the world Kli.

This will happen every time after conventions, expansion and contraction, expansion and contraction, through which we will grow.

With all the impressions received from the great world Kli, I now come into my ten confused, and I must again find unity and connection within it. But this will already be a different connection because each of us comes filled with impressions from the great Kli, as if expanded, and therefore we must work anew on our connection.

There was an expansion, and now it must be translated into contraction so that our new connection will be much stronger than before, with deeper inner qualities. It is as if before, ten children were connecting, and now they are ten teenagers, and later they will be ten adult men.

Each time, a new quality of connection is attained due to the fact that after expansion we return to contraction. In contraction, it seems as though we return to the same state, but on a higher level.

The permanent ten is my shield, my beloved pacifier for the baby. Without it I do not exist. In the spiritual world, my ten is my passport.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/19, Hardening of the Heart—An Invitation to Ascend

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What Does My Future Depend On?

165The environment and the teacher are the only factors that determine a person’s future. At every moment, he must see his state as one in which he has received everything necessary from above, and all that remains for him is to connect himself with the right environment.

And such an environment is always near us; we only need to be able to choose it. This is our only free choice because everything else already follows from it.

That is why I don’t have to worry about anything except where I get my nourishment from, with whom I am connected, who influences me! That is, to always think not about myself, but about what external environment I am connected to. If a person wants to manage his development, his life and destiny, then he should think only about whom he is in contact with.

But it is completely unnatural for a person to think about this! After all, we constantly think about ourselves: who am I, why, what will happen to me? What is the meaning of my life?

All these questions of yours are directed inward, and they are correct! But how are you going to resolve them? With what do you connect their resolution?

Kabbalists explain that the solution depends only on the environment. And that is why I need to immediately turn my attention to the external forces that act upon me because their influence on me determines all my future.

And in essence, this is not external, but a single system of souls, an integral part of my spiritual body, there, where the shattering occurred and what needs to be corrected. And only there can I change something, because with all the other desires I can’t do anything.

It is as if to bury oneself into an archive and read the protocol of long predetermined events. I can only influence the environment somehow. And it is a pity to waste my attention on something other than that.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom”

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Put the General Mosaic in the Right Order

75.01Every person is obliged to attain the root of his soul. This means that the aspired-for purpose of the created being is Dvekut [adhesion] with His qualities (Baal HaSulam, “The Acting Mind”).

It is written that “the outcast will not be cast out from the Creator.” All universal desire, including the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels, all of reality, must return to the source, to the root. The creation came out of the source only in its imagination, and now, by trying to overcome this illusion that separates it from the root, it must remove the veils and return in its sensations.

Overall, the reality of the universe is a desire, divided into the four levels listed above. The greatest desire related to the human degree can carry out this work. The previous levels have no free choice, they should not have to work, exert effort, or realize this goal, because they cannot attract light, they cannot oblige the Creator to change them, and remove the concealment. Only the human can bring himself and the whole reality to correction, in other words, back to the sensation of the source, or to the removal of concealment.

The human degree, in turn, is also divided into four levels; in fact, the “human in man” who carries out the plan. This means that some people perform the necessary actions, influence others, and pull them along. Others draw the remaining levels along with them, the animate, vegetative, and inanimate. This is how everyone returns to the single root.

Thus, all people must reach the root, adhesion, but they differ in the implementation of the work and the final form. Depending on the root of their soul and desire, everyone returns in their own way, adheres to their own extent, fulfills their function, and rises to their own level.

Of course, we are talking about the process of returning, when we remove the concealment and assemble a mosaic of the overall picture. And then, when everyone takes their place, we begin to understand there is no difference between big and small, between individual desires—all this is important during the work, on the way back to the source.

But after we return to our root, our differences disappear. Then, a single force appears, a single desire, a single light, a single reality—as it is written: “He and His name are one.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/11, “The Acting Mind”

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Prayer of the Kabbalists

942Praying does not mean gathering together at a certain time, weeping, kneeling, and crying out.

Prayer is a collective, huge, purposeful, correct desire that arises in us under the influence of the upper light, Ohr Makif (surrounding light). Such a desire can manifest itself at any moment, and we will feel it as one common whole, in which the Creator will reveal Himself immediately without any intermediate actions.

The spiritual world is not like ours where people gather in one place and mechanically pray. We work together, attract the upper light, and it tightens the final screw in our common system, “seizing” us as we desired.

Somewhere we acted on it correctly, locked ourselves together, and the upper light manifested in us, which is the quality of bestowal and love. In principle, we achieved this ourselves, and the light appeared because we developed a similarity of form with it.

Therefore, this is not an ordinary, conventional prayer, but a joint action of Kabbalists to create one unified desire, which must be connected, woven, and glued together from their individual desires.
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From the 3rd Lesson of the Moscow Congress, 5/2/16

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And the Palate Will Taste the Flavor of Light

943How can I forgive this to you while the ladder that is placed on the ground is empty? No one climbs it, and instead of today you say “tomorrow.”…

Therefore, let me remind you of the validity of love of friends in spite of everything at this time, for it is upon this that our right to exist depends, and upon this our near-to-come success is measured.

Hence, turn away from all the imaginary engagements and set your hearts on thinking thoughts and devising proper tactics to truly connect your hearts as one, so the words “Love your friend as yourself” will literally come true in you, for a verse does not reach beyond the literal, and you will be cleaned by the thought of love that will cover all crimes. Test me in that, and begin to truly connect in love, and then you will see, “the palate will taste…” (Baal HaSulam, Letter 47).

It is so difficult for us to work on the connection between us because it is precisely in this place that the spiritual shattering occurred. A person resists this action with all his might and by every means, thanks to one’s nature, their egoistic inclination.

One must pass through a vast number of states before they see that nothing helps them and ultimately return to the simple and closest principle that has been right next to them all along. Then, if there is still time left for the person in this cycle of life, he or she may yet succeed in properly connecting with one’s friends and understand that only through unity with them does one attain the spiritual world, correction, and everything in general.

Therefore, what is required here is a collective decision, a pressing need, and great joint work to constantly awaken the feeling of the importance of connection. Each one must show everyone, and all must show each one, that correction lies precisely in connection—it is within connection that the spiritual world is revealed.

All other occupations that we invent for ourselves instead of this are called artificial work and exile, exile from connection, from readiness for unity, exile from approaching contact with a friend, from love of one’s neighbor, which no longer stands as the goal behind every step and every deed in a person’s life.

The goal is precisely in connection, by which the measure of our success is determined—until it turns into a ladder of spiritual degrees, and the measures of connection become Partzufim, Sefirot, and worlds. In the end, we compress and unite to such an extent that we become as one man with one heart, which is already the degree of the world of infinity, for such connection is absolutely perfect and boundless.

And if we make this our primary, sole, and central aim, the only task we must engage in and nothing else, then we will succeed. Otherwise, our ego will gladly cast us far away from the true work, enticing us with all sorts of imaginary occupations.

As Baal HaSulam writes: Begin to truly connect in love, and the palate will taste, that is, it will taste the flavor of the inner light that is revealed to us.
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From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/12

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There Is a Way Out!

423.02Even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation, facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, may grow beyond himself, and by so doing change himself (Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning).

When a person stands before the absolute, before the realization that he cannot change anything, he understands the necessity of changing himself, that the only possible way to do something, to continue a correct existence in the world is to change himself, from this very moment, to the next, and the next, and the next. And so, step by step, live your life in such a way that in every moment you change yourself.

Question: So do you actually welcome dead ends?

Answer: Of course! How could it be otherwise? If a person does not feel a dead end…

Question: So is a hopeless situation the way out for you?

Answer: Yes, it is like a little toy car. It bumps into something and starts to turn. It bumps again, and turns again. And so it keeps trying until, out of all possibilities, it discovers that there is a way out.

Question: So will a person who moves from one dead end to another eventually find a way out?

Answer: Of course, everything is programmed.

Question: So in principle, as a person, should I sing a kind of hymn to the dead end?

Answer: Certainly! That is the very force of our formation.

Comment: But I always want to avoid dead ends. A person wants to avoid them.

My Response: Can you truly make the right decision without reaching a dead end?

Comment: It isn’t likely.

My Response: Not at all.

Question: What correct decision should humanity make today? It is an essential global question.

Answer: The answer is the same in all cases: to annul oneself.

Question: Is this “annul oneself” understandable to your students?

My Response: It must become understandable to everyone else as well.

Question: So what do you mean by “annul oneself”?

Answer: It means that I do not decide what to do, I do not determine the goal, and I do not imagine it for myself and then try to achieve it. I can do only one thing: annul myself before others in such a way that they can achieve their goal.

If I set any other goal for myself besides helping others, it means that I am standing in their way. If I annul myself, then I help them move toward their goal. And as a result, everyone should be busy in precisely this way—helping others achieve their goal.

Question: What then happens to my “I”?

Answer: That is when this “I” is revealed as a collective common self within which the upper force of nature, the only one existing and guiding force, is revealed.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/15/25

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