All of creation is in a fixed, unchanging state, but we perceive and discover creation according to the attributes that are revealed in us, just as a person can look at the same thing without glasses, with glasses, with binoculars, or with a microscope. That is, it all depends on the vessels of our perception through which we look at creation.

Everything is assessed only with regard to a person. We are actually in the world of Infinity. I remember hearing a lecture of a local Rabbi in Rehovot in the 70’s who amazed me when he spread out his arms and said: “Here is the next world, here is the spiritual world.” I didn’t understand what he was talking about and what he was looking at. He was a Kabbalist who had attained spirituality.

I couldn’t understand what he meant then; how can the next world be right here? He hardly explained anything more than that, but it really impressed me.

So we are in the world of Infinity, in the only state that was created, and we have to discover these vessels of perception. This is all our work.
[129858]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Measuring The Perfect World With Crooked Rulers
Looking At The World Of Ein Sof (Infinity) With And Without Glasses
A Veil Over The Face Of Infinity

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

As a result of the shattering of the vessels we understand that we have to return to the state that preceded the shattering. By raising MAN from the shattered state, we exert ourselves and expand our vessels 620 times. Then we reach the corrected state equipped with such intensity, as a result of our exertion, that we can reveal the Light in all its NRNHY, which is the goal of creation.

The Creator wants us to reveal His attribute of love and bestowal, and not just that we will taste only a drop of His filling. It’s like a baby who receives 100 grams of porridge from his mother and at the same time actually also receives all the love and care his mother feels for him.

Since we were created with a desire to receive, we cannot taste anything more than a tiny spark, “a thin candle,” of all the Light. This is actually enough in order to be in contact and somehow connected to the Creator. But all the rest is the Light of love, the Light of bestowal, our attitude towards one another. According to the law of equivalence of form, we have to reach the same attitude towards the Creator in order to reveal His attitude towards us.

For this reason we were given the shattering of the vessels so that we will discover and reveal this shattered state and from it discover the corrected state. Then we will be able to understand the Creator’s attitude towards us. So all our work is focused on the connection between us, and so that, above the shattering, we will discover the right relations of love and bestowal instead of separation and hate.

The Creator is the attribute of love and bestowal that is revealed inside the vessel, in the desire. This attribute is revealed between us because love cannot exist in one person but has to be directed to someone. We engage in the revelation of this attribute and have to establish the same relations between us.

At first we don’t feel anything between us, neither good relations nor bad ones, but we begin to work on them by evoking one another. We understand that a person will never awaken to love, bestowal, and connection by himself. He has to be awakened; shown an example; envy , lust, and honor must be kindled; he must openly respect those who relate well to the friends and show their love, giving and concern for all.

We should really envy those who behave that way in the group, should want to be like them, and should respect this behavior. It turns out that a person begins to awaken, and from Lo Lishma (not for His sake) and different actions with the right intention, he should simply learn from others and reach Lishma (for His sake). Despite the hardening of the heart, he should always be above any disagreements, different problems, and conflicts between the friends by showing everyone how strongly he yearns for love and connection. All we attain by the Light that Reforms are the levels of connections, states that existed before the shattering.
[129854]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14

Related Material:
The Train Won’t Wait!
An Intentional Mistake Arranged From Above
Shattering For The Sake Of Life

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

There are no weak or strong when it comes to the spiritual work because we all are absolute zeros. We must understand what an integral system means. None of its components have any meaning by themselves. Instead, they all totally depend on all the others.

Question: However, it is said that only the strong and the heroes will reach the King’s palace.

Answer: They are strong because they constantly work on building the system between them in order to discover the source of the upper force in the network between them. They must “hunt” for the Creator!

Question: How can you stick to the spiritual work if there are thoughts that distract you all the time?

Answer: I don’t need to account for what happens to me since I don’t know the upper plan, how it shakes me, and what obstacles it may send me at any given moment or, conversely, what different forms of advancement. My mission is to accept all of this and grow stronger.

I climb the mountain to the King’s palace. However, suddenly, the guards appear and push me down and I roll to the bottom again. Should I calculate how they pushed me and why? These are desires that have been revealed from the next higher level that I can’t clarify. It is only later that I discover that it all stems from the mercy of the Creator who is benevolent. In the meantime, I simply accept what I have, which means that I justify every state above reason, above my heart and mind, and believe that it advances me in the right direction.

This is how I regard everything up to the current moment. From now on, everything depends on me, although nothing depended on me until now. So, how I can I be sure that from now on everything depends on me? If I adhere to the Creator, I can determine the manner and the speed of my advancement. However, the actual levels and the states I go through depend on the Upper Light and on my shattered Reshimot (spiritual genes).

My place on the spiritual ladder, the states and the levels I must go through are predetermined already. The only thing that is unclear is the manner by which I go through them and my ability to want to actually advance in order to bestow upon the Creator, which is the only independent factor that I have. We stop each step of the way until we establish the intention to delight the Creator in every state and on every level.

The levels themselves are predetermined already, but the extent of their revelation depends on my preparation. How I fulfill them and the pace of my advancement depend on my work in the group. This determines how I accept the next level when it is revealed, how I accept the Surrounding Light, whether I will want it or not. It may illuminate and reveal my terrible egoistic desires, but I will accept it gladly.

However, it also can be the opposite: that I will not want this revelation when afflictions suddenly hit me. It is easy to talk about that, but when the full ten Sefirot approach you and you find yourself in a dark world surrounded by different problems and troubles, everything already depends on your preparation.

This preparation enables you to change your attitude to problems and see them in the exact opposite manner. On one hand, the world is simply terrible, and this is actually what is revealed on the next level, which adds more and more new Aviut (thickness) to my desire. Then, I discover the world of “the good and the whole,” and I realize that all the afflictions were given to me only so that I would ascend.

When some difficult state is over, we realize how much we have gained, although it seems very unpleasant at first. It is impossible to “awaken the dawn” if we don’t reach a state in which Light and darkness are equal. I don’t care which states come along, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant. I agree to stop half-way and not attain anything as long as I delight the Creator and perhaps, without even being aware of it.

Even this is too much! It is enough just to think that I care about Him a little. This is the thin line between this world and the next world.
[129441]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/14

Related Material:
Willingness For The Obscurity Of The New Level
Measuring The Perfect World With Crooked Rulers
If There Is No Joy It Means There Is No Faith

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

Question: Why does it say that a person should hate himself and love others? Why should I hate myself?

Answer: Hatred refers to the inclination to be separated, to drawing away from the hated object. It is about our egoistic attributes that disturb us from reaching the Creator and from resembling Him; attributes that disturb us from attaining love and bestowal and which disturb us from attaining connection between everyone.

These attributes disturb me from surrendering, from annulling myself, from losing myself, which means from leaving my corporeal heart and mind and from trying to acquire a heart and mind of bestowal and to live outside myself.
[129851]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/14

Related Material:
How Can We Hate Evil?
Hating Evil Brings Us Closer To Goodness
Don’t Give Yourself A Guilt Trip Like A Trapped Thief

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

It doesn’t matter whether I read The Zohar or whether I am on duty in the kitchen; what’s important is that I constantly yearn for the Light that Reforms and to connect with the friends. I cannot yearn for the Light without unity or connection. It is an essential pre-condition, which we don’t even speak about since it is obvious.

If there is no connection, my yearning for the Light is egoistic and false and is only for my own benefit. Without it we cannot climb Mt. Sinai because from that point onwards we begin to think only together.

This doesn’t happen automatically, of course, and we have to constantly remind one another about it, and this is the reason for mutual guarantee. This is why it was agreed to accept mutual guarantee at Mt. Sinai, since no one can yearn for a real vessel unless all the other parts of this vessel agree to it, the 600,000 souls that make up a whole vessel.

600,000 souls is a symbol of your yearning for reaching the goal by planning it first. The ultimate goal is to reach the level called 60 Ribo, Arich Anpin, and so we have to collect 600,000 souls, which means that we have to yearn to climb to the top of the mountain together.

Question: How do we strengthen the mutual guarantee between us by yearning for the Light while reading The Zohar?

Answer: One simply doesn’t work without the other. This is the principle. Therefore, “love thy friend as thyself” is the general rule and the only way by which we can receive the Torah. Without it the Light will not come, or may come only in a very weak form.
[129833]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
A Recommendation For Reading The Book Of Zohar
Degrees Of Mutual Guarantee
The Light Of The Soul Breaking Through The Fence Of The Ego

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Mutual Guarantee, Spiritual Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: What does it mean to hit the ego in the teeth?

Answer: Every word a Kabbalist says stems from his spiritual attainment,

Thirty-two teeth symbolize thirty-two elements which correlate to the thirty-two currents of the Light of Hochma that descend from the mind, from the head of the spiritual Partzuf, go through the hairs and the inner parts of the head, and create the inner part of the mouth and the teeth, including the teeth for grinding food.

The spiritual filling includes water and food: Water is the Light of Hassadim and food is the Light of Hochma. There are thirty-two attributes called teeth that are used to grind the Light of Hochma, which isn’t easy since we have to receive in order to bestow.

It is a whole system by which we understand why we were created the way we are and why the forces of nature integrate in such a way in order to create the ultimate forms, which on our level are fulfilled in the form of a mind, brain, head, and all the other forms of the face. What is more, these forms differ in different peoples and different civilizations.

All this is necessary! And we will discover all this on the way to our correction. There is no point studying the wisdom of Kabbalah artificially since we will not be able to correct ourselves that way.

Thirty-two teeth are thirty-two systems of correction of the upper current of wisdom before it can enter the body in which there are many systems: the trachea, the larynx, the esophagus, etc.

A person should perceive information according to his feeling, not mentally but by his feelings. A small child doesn’t always understand what he is told, but when he grows up he can already perceive and understand this information.

A “blow in the teeth” means that a person doesn’t chew properly, which means that he doesn’t digest the information and he clarifies it in an opposite manner, clarifying everything for his own sake.

There are very clever people, but they turn everything for their own sake, since this is how their mind works. In the end, after many years, this turns out to be a mistake, but in the meantime, they avoid this fact and so nothing can be done with them. Five to ten years may go by before they gradually realize how to clarify things correctly.

So “hitting the teeth” means to annul the option of the wrong clarification of the Light of Hochma in us.
[129818]

Related Material:
In-Between The Heart And The Mind
An Acquaintance With The New World
A Lily Among Thorns

Filed under: Conventions, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

Question: What does working with “faith above reason” mean?

Answer: Working with “faith above reason” means investing effort, using all kinds of strategies in order to get a vessel that is called “faith,” meaning a desire that is entirely bestowal. Faith is bestowal.

What is called bestowal is that I make a Tzimtzum, stop thinking about myself, and use all the possibilities in which I have the opportunity to make changes in the group, in the connection between us, to give contentment to the Creator through this connection.

A group is a unique device found between me and the Creator. According to how I change it, I bestow to the Creator. Therefore, I think about what kind of changes need to be made in society, in my environment, in order to bestow contentment on the Creator. I perform the action in society but I think about the pleasure that I will be making for the Creator.
[129766]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/14

Related Material:
I See The Goal Through The Group’s Periscope
An Evasive Intention
Not In Words But In Deed…

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: If I don’t agree with the Creator, then in order to rise above my disagreement I need to overcome it with a great deal of work. What is this work?

Answer: Certainly you don’t agree with Him! After all, new egoistic desires appear in you, a bit greater than before, on a new level and in different styles!

But sometimes it seems to you that you are not such a great egoist, because from the start another characteristic is beginning to be created in you that seems small to you in the beginning. Suppose that you finished growth at the height of some cockroach and you have already become a chick, but you were a big cockroach there, and now you are a little chick. So you grow up turning from an ugly duckling into a white swan, but in spite of it all, you understand that you are sitting in cold water. And after that you become small again, but a fawn. And so on.

In other words, from growth on a previous level, you become small in the next level, meaning that it is a small state in development but it is greater in quality. But you don’t feel this yet and therefore sometimes it seems to you that you are in a descent in comparison to the previous level when you were a big spider and successfully trapped and ate all kinds of flies, and now you are a little snail.

I am saying this seriously! It seems to us that we have descended, but in fact we simply rise in quality. This is because we are consecutively passing through the developmental stages, embryo (Ibur), breastfeeding (Yenika), small (Katnut), and large (Mochin). So there are no descents, only constant changes. And that is how it is with all of humanity.
[129738]

Related Material:
The Gradual Implantation Of The Creator Into The Creature
When Your Ups And Downs End
From Perfection To Perfection

Filed under: Conventions, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Must we agree internally with all the disturbances that come from the external world?

Answer: In general, the first reaction of a person to what is happening in the world is a desire to change everything, to organize the world anew, to change the borders, to make the economy healthy. This is the natural reaction of our ego, meaning ourselves, which is discovered until we suddenly begin to understand that all of this is nonsense!

Where have you seen that a change from one system to another has helped to improve the situation? On the contrary, in the end, it will get worse. At first it seems to us that everything is going well, that apparently we have achieved something and that everything is okay. But as time passes, it turns out that it will be much worse than what had been before. And this is natural because we are not advancing towards correction.

Now what is left for us is only to recognize our uncorrected relationship to the world.

Everything that happens in the world can be corrected only through our approaching the Creator, because everything is derived from Him in order to push us to become closer to Him. We are constantly moving away from the Creator. If we understood that it is necessary to yearn for Him, then we would truly begin to approach something good. But in the end, He pushes us further and further away so that we will reach a full recognition of our ego.

When we begin to correct ourselves somewhat, we advance into our ego like the right and left lines, and we already understand further how to act. A method of how to work with the crisis appears within us and we correct it, that is how through it we approach the Creator. Through this we correct ourselves; we remove and clear away the crisis without touching the economy, education, information, technology, or anything else. This is all nonsense because change and new organization in all of these areas will not ensure anything good in any case.

But the more tightly we approach the Creator, the further He keeps us away from Him, and through this the evil is discovered, and in this way we quickly move all of the evil towards the good. Therefore it is not necessary to aspire to change the world, society, and all areas of life.

All we need to do is to change the person as a foundation for changing the world. This is specifically what we need to learn by ourselves, to explain to humanity, and to teach others.
[129728]

Related Material:
To Change A Person
An Obscure Cloud Over The World
Global Crisis Solution: Change Yourself To Fit The World

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: I always magnify and elevate the friend. For me he is a means and a help for acquiring life in spirituality. So how can I be envious of him?

Answer: We always see others through the prism of our ego. And so it seems to me that everyone is worse than I am. And if someone is better, here I begin to feel bad and need to balance this somehow, otherwise I will suffer.

In fact, only I exist. All the others are my negative characteristics that are wandering around me. If I were corrected I would not see them, instead I would see the parts of my soul that are connected together with me into one unified whole, I would see the Light. That is how I see all kinds of people. They are all my internal characteristics.

How must I relate to them? As if they are angels.

Question: But that envy that should exist isn’t in me. Am I envious of anyone? I see that everyone is as miserable as I am.

Answer: This is because you see the friends through your ego. In fact they are all perfect! For the Creator created such a perception of the environment for your sake. If you correct yourself, then you will see everyone as perfect! Nobody needs to be corrected, only you.
[129726]

Related Material:
Breaking Out Of The World Of Fantasy Into The World Of Truth
Envy That Helps Us Advance
Envy Is Not A Flaw

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →