Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: Now you can understand what our sages said (Berachot 7): “Serving in the Torah is greater than studying it, as it is said, ‘Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.’ It did not say studied, but poured.” This is perplexing; how can simple acts be greater than studying the wisdom and the knowledge?

But according to the above, we thoroughly understand that serving one’s Rav with one’s body and soul in order to bring contentment to one’s Rav bring one to Dvekut with one’s Rav, that is, to equivalence of form. Thus, one receives the thoughts and knowledge of the Rav by way of “mouth-to-mouth,” which is Dvekut of spirit with spirit. By that, one is rewarded with obtaining His greatness sufficiently to turn bestowal into reception, to become sufficient fuel for devotion, until one is rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator.

If there is a corrected intention, then certainly the study will be more important than everything. However, since the intention is not corrected, then necessarily the study will be for oneself. Therefore, the student must do everything possible to give contentment to the Elyon (upper) to the degree that he cannot make him happy by studying with the intention of giving contentment to the Creator. So, the maximum that remains for him is material actions.

Even though the action is also with an intention to receive, but the doing itself remains and therefore attracts the Light to it. In spite of this, in some way, the lower transmits to the higher what is in his power to transmit. As it is written, “Whatever your hand attains to do [as long as you are] with your strength, do” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). So, a connection is created between them in which each gives to the other. Therefore, Elisha did the right thing by pouring water on the hands of Elijah.

Serving the teacher in body and soul means acting according to the teacher’s desire. In particular, this relates to dissemination because this is the main thing that the Kabbalists recommended for us since they are our spiritual ancestors. Therefore, by involvement with dissemination, it is as if we are giving to them, are serving them, and to this degree, we attract the Light that Reforms to us through them. There is no greater bestowal to the higher than the continuation of his activities, his Torah, and his teaching, and bringing a greater and greater amount of souls to him in order to unite them and bring them to the Creator who will fill them; it is specifically with this that we give Him contentment.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/14, Topic of Lesson: “Teacher”

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Question: Is the inner concern we feel regarding the public’s suffering the right indicator for building the spiritual Kli?

Answer: When we invest our forces in working with the public, we want to succeed for egoistic reasons. Therefore it’s easy for us to continue this work. We invest so much in these people that we already feel them as if they are relatives and we want their success. Therefore dissemination expands our vessels. If we are “cooked” only within the group, ultimately it will degenerate and remain in a static state. We will find it more and more difficult to take steps toward one another and to come closer to each other. This is really what happens.

But if we take care of people, we begin to be concerned for their advancement and success. It’s reasonable that we will advance together with our students, even though each one of them advances according to his level. And when you come from your students to friends, then you already relate to them differently, not like before.

It’s very difficult to reach an immediate and strong connection directly with people who are on the same level with you so as to be like one man with one heart. But only after you are concerned about the people who are on a lower level than you, do you soften and get the feeling of bestowal within your desire to receive, and as a result of this, you will pass to that inclination a desire to bestow toward the friends.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/14

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After the beginning stages of the right connection with the group, it’s necessary to continue through studying of The Book of Zohar with the same method that the students learned with Rabbi Shimon. They wrote this book themselves, revealed the levels, the spiritual states, and expressed them in writing. Rabbi Shimon taught, Rabbi Abba and Rabbi Elazar explained what he said.

The Ramchal described this in the book, Adir BaMarom: And Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai revealed the secrets of the Torah, and the friends listened to his voice, and they joined with him in this connection, each one answering for his part. That is what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai wanted, that a book would be written that would include the sayings of all the members of his Yeshiva, and the book would be written about the Torah, for other writings speak about particular ideas, yet The Zohar that is made about the Torah is called the great opening of the entire Torah. And Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai commanded Rabbi Abba to be the writer and arrange all the things that the sages of the Yeshiva said, whenever and wherever they were, everything arranged according to the order in the Torah.

That is also how we must get along in groups in order to study The Book of Zohar, and then its Light will influence us. If we make an effort to be like the students of Rabbi Shimon in order to connect together so that all of us will be like one man with one heart and with love of friends, then the Light will influence us and will give us a greater sense of connection. And within this, we will begin to discover the network of connections between us called a Partzuf of ten Sefirot.

First within these ten Sefirot, the smallest Light will appear, Ohr Nefesh de Nefesh de Nefesh. But this is already a breath, some kind of feeling of the spiritual world. Although I still cannot act independently, I am found and exist in the spiritual world. So we develop the relationships between us more and more; we discover Ruach de Nefesh de Nefesh, and so on.

We begin to understand more and to feel the connection between us. The quality of our Partzuf gradually grows, and the general Light will begin to be clearer and clearer within it, in that it reveals its relationship to the Kli. This is how we reach a feeling for the general program that operates between us and we understand what is happening between us, what is happening in all of reality, in the entire world, and in all the worlds.

All this will be revealed within the ten Sefirot of the connection between us, exactly as the ten students of Rabbi Shimon discovered it when they were connected only within their group. They weren’t connected with the rest of the world at all nevertheless they discovered all of the infinite reality.

In other words, all of the means are in our hands. And in the meantime, the world deteriorates becoming darker and more sinister. It is written about these times that insolence will be multiplied beyond measure and all the problems and all kinds of misfortunes will befall the world. But we must understand that all of this is happening specifically because the Light is approaching our world, and the world must be more and more adapted to the Light. And if it doesn’t accommodate itself to the Light, then instead of Light, it will see Darkness, because it is in properties opposite to the Light. And therefore our obligation is immediately to begin to explain to the world what our best future depends upon. That it’s only through connection between us and thanks to The Book of Zohar that all of us can go out from the exile, from this Darkness.

Therefore, I am happy that we have begun to translate The Book of Zohar into several languages. We hope that this convention will be a good beginning for the acceptance of this gift that we have received: The Book of Zohar, and from here on we will continue with the correction with a much greater power than we have had until now.
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From the World Zohar Week “World Zohar Convention,” Day One 2/5/14, Lesson 2

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 64: …with respect to the wisdom of the Torah, it is increasingly revealed in the latter generations. This is so for the reason we have mentioned, that the overall measure is completed specifically by the latter ones. This is why more complete Lights are extended to them, although their own essence is far worse.

This stems from the reverse order of between vessels and Lights. The purer and more refined the vessels are the less Light is in them, even though these vessels are expressed and corrected by the vessels that precede them. And conversely, the greater and deeper the “thickness” of the vessels, the more difficult it is to correct them. In contrast to this, the Lights in them are greater and are revealed by means of their correction.

These lights are specifically clothed in the finest and most refined vessels, being that the Lights are implemented in the order of NRNHY, while the order of the correction of the vessel is KHB ZON. In other words, the vessels are revealed from Keter to Malchut, from the highest to the lowest, whereas with the Lights it’s the opposite, from Nefesh to Yechida, from the smallest to the greatest. They are linked between them in such a sequence.

This principle is not simple and confuses us and it’s very difficult for our understanding of the reciprocal relationships within the system in general, in every world and between the worlds. Sometimes we simply need to accept this as a general rule, as a law, until this gradually “settles” and is integrated with new internal vessels. And only after a person feels the essence does he begin to understand it. In the beginning the feeling comes within the corrected vessels to a particular degree; after that, understanding comes. So intellect always follows feeling.

People who are not linked to the inner essence of the Torah and are guided by their external intellect don’t understand this principle and therefore don’t see the uniqueness of our time and generation. They are familiar with the process of general deterioration; yet together with this, they remove themselves from the responsibility to correct the world. They suppose: “If we have deteriorated so much already, then all that is left for us is only to hope for the coming of the Messiah.”

Yet this is not right. Our generation is the most important for the general goal. And even though we are bent under the heavy burden of our ego, it is intended that we will work on it and will not be rid of it. Through work like this, we attract very great Lights for the highest souls that are beginning to correct humanity, and these souls are Adam, Abraham, and so forth. And we receive a thin and small Light according to our place in the general system, and we advance in this way until we reach the complete ten Sefirot of the entire creation.

Then in fact, we reach attainment and understand what difficult work we have carried out. Even if we were to make a mistake and be confused, even though we don’t succeed in solving and interpreting, even though we have erred and violated, this is unimportant. Otherwise it is impossible. In the end everything will reach the right analysis, the true account, and only then, on the highest level, can we correctly evaluate our state and discern its significance. And in the meantime, it’s up to us to proceed with “faith above reason” and believe in Baal HaSulam who wrote that the first generations were significant because of their refined desires, whereas we are significant because of our “thickness.”
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Section 63: ….this is the rule in all the Partzufim (plural for Partzuf) of the worlds and of the souls, that the purer one is the first to be selected into the Partzuf. Therefore, the purer Kelim, HBD, were selected first in the world and in the souls.

Thus, the souls in the first two millennia were much Higher. Yet, they could not receive the full measure of Light, due to the lack of the lower parts in the world and in themselves, which are HGT NHYM.

Baal HaSulam explains the gradual decline in the generations, as a result of it, our generation is the lowest and has sunk to the bottom.

Today we don’t know where we came from, where we are going and why. We don’t know our root or our purpose, or what we need to do in our lives. We have no connection with the sources; essentially we have no concept of what the Torah and Mitzvot are in their true and inner sense.

For what and why we are alive? What is the reason for our lives? All this is unknown to us. There are no longer any of the great Kabbalists who could lead us as shepherds, guides. But the main thing is that the connection with the source, with the foundations of the nation, is lost; it has disappeared. And therefore, we are found in total darkness.

It’s not by accident that we find ourselves in this darkness. This is because the revelation of the Creator to the creature, from beginning to end, is divided into six thousand levels that are called the “six thousand years.”

We begin to count these levels from the first revelation of the Creator to the creature, who is called, Adam HaRishon. This was the first human who discovered the Creator; this was the first Reshimo to be realized, meaning that he corrected himself. And further, from him until the last Reshimo that must correct itself, six thousand levels must be traversed which are divided into three periods of two-thousand years each: HBD, HGT, NHY.

From this it’s understandable to us that the decline of the generations is not derived from anyone’s fault. From the start, we had to descend to the present state, until our present life. And precisely from this wretched life, from the deep abyss, we can begin the ascent to the summit. Then we will understand how great the difference is between the vessel and the Light, and thanks to this we can truly appreciate the Creator.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: It says that the Light is revealed according to a person’s need and desire (yearning) for the Light. But how can we long for it if we don’t remember anything about the shattering?

Answer: We can long for something that we never had and not necessarily for something that is lost. I can long for some special car that costs a lot of money. This means that I feel pain because I don’t have the Light and constantly feel a hunger, a deficiency, a desire for it.

It can also be interpreted as longings for a past filling since we have its Reshimo (reminiscence). We don’t awaken to anything if a new Reshimo isn’t wakened in us because we are in a closed system of all of reality. There was a desire to receive that was shattered and all its parts drew away from one another, but there is a chain of Reshimot in each part that should recreate its connection with the other parts, until they are all connected into one whole vessel.

If we feel a yearning, if we feel sorry about something or long for it, then it means that we already had it before. Whatever I can imagine stems from the shattering of the vessels. Otherwise it couldn’t be revealed, not in our feelings, not in our mind, and not even in our imagination.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/14

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The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 33:3: “…I will not go up in your midst since you are a stiff-necked people, lest I destroy you on the way.”

This means that there can be another destruction because a person has to have free will so that he will go through all the trials, through the clarification of his nature in relation to the Creator’s nature. Therefore nothing should interfere with this work. This means that a person’s desires, his yearnings, come first and the Creator’s help is second. Therefore he has to be outside the people’s camp.

The Creator calls the people “stiff-necked” since they have egoistic attributes. “So that I will not go up in your midst!” means that the moment a person has incorrect desires and attributes, they are immediately in conflict with the Light, with the attribute of bestowal, and then there is a destruction again and a descent to the previous state. When the Creator is absent, a person can go wrong along the way.

Indeed our whole way is made of clarifications, trials and errors, and we constantly advance like a missile that is targeted at the goal. It needs to constantly divert and then get back on track, divert and get back, since otherwise it will not feel the movement in the right direction. If the Light begins to shine every time it diverts, it will move the missile off track and will destroy it, so the missile has to look for the Light by itself.

A persons forms the Creator’s attribute inside him by himself, he builds the future upper world inside his feelings by himself. So his movement is based on personal experience. As it is written: “You make Me,” which means that a person forms the Creator inside him.

This advancement is clear in our spiritual work. Attaining the Creator occurs only in the right desire that a person discovers inside him, assembles, connects, and presents as a desire that is ready, necessary; you need a passionate desire to reveal the attribute of love and bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/16/13

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The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 33:6-33:7: So the children of Israel divested themselves of their finery from Mount Horeb. And Moses took the tent and pitched it for himself outside the camp, distancing [it] from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting, and it would be that anyone seeking the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

There are such egoistic attributes in each of us with which there is nothing we can do, while the desires that we can raise ascend to the level of Bina, to the attribute of bestowal, to the attribute of Moses. It’s there in these single awakenings that we can be in contact with the Creator for a while. “Outside the camp” means outside all the desires, when we only have one specific intention that is aimed at the goal, to connect to the level of Moses

The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 33: 8: And it would be that when Moses would go out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each one at the entrance of his tent, and they would gaze after Moses until he went into the tent.

A tent symbolizes the attribute of Bina, of bestowal. “People,” which means all of a person’s desires, are aimed at this attribute, but cannot move and cannot be in it yet. Only the point called Moses ascends to this level.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/16/13

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Question: Our world is a world of consequences. Do we need, by ourselves, to build the same whip that will force and commit us to correction? Is that the way of hastening (Achishena) time?

Answer: The way of Achishena is not the whip, but a way that attracts us to the purpose of creation due to its elevation in our eyes. We need to raise and elevate the goal so much so it will be so special, so desired, for us that we are prepared to do anything for it. And it won’t be difficult for us to go to it. Then we feel no pain, only inspiration.

For the sake of a higher purpose, people are capable of much: conquering mountain peaks, performing spacewalks, diving to the ocean floor instead of sitting comfortably on the sofa and watching football. People who are involved with creativity or with science burn themselves out, literally. They are willing to experiment with new drugs on themselves and conduct experiments that endanger their lives.

Everything depends on the importance of the goal! After all, our goal is not so difficult. If you arrange yourself in a group and the group begins to support each of its friends, then that will be the easy and wonderful way of inspiration, and you won’t feel even one drop of suffering.

What is that whip that you intend to use on yourself? Self-torment? A thing like that shouldn’t happen. All kinds of religious movements are arranged according to restrictions, while Kabbalah speaks about our path needing to be joyful.

In one of the Shamati articles, it says that the ego runs in front of everyone and shouts, “Catch the thief.” If you feel it is difficult for you, it says that you are progressing in an incorrect way. Make a clarification!
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/04/14, Workshop 5

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Question: What happens when a person can annul himself?

Answer: He feels that he is already on a higher level in his connection with the upper, with the one to whom he has annulled himself. This is a question of equivalence of form. A higher level is a higher attribute.

Now I have a certain attribute of receiving or bestowal that depicts the world for me. When I annul myself with regard to the upper, I feel myself and the world, which means the inner and the external part of my attributes, in a more sublime manner. So I feel that I am in a different world.

Question: So it turns out that self-annulment is simply impossible and unbearable for a person.

Answer: We cannot annul ourselves and perform any spiritual action at all. But we must be convinced that we are helpless, and then we will be ready for a prayer. Our goal is to do whatever we can, to pay any price, to do whatever is in our power, and to see that nothing helps. Then we will cry out and stretch our hands to the Creator.

Question: If everything is predetermined, why can’t I save time and skip this intermediate phase?

Answer: But how can you turn to the Creator? A prayer is a real desire in answer to which you receive the perfect Light. Your request must also be perfect and then it will draw the perfect Light. This is actually what the whole period of preparation is concerned with. Reaching the perfect request can take a decade. Then you already have everything: You receive the Light that Reforms and you have a new attribute, the first spiritual state.

Then you advance to the second state, to the third…but all the following states are not as corporeal. It’s like the geological periods in the evolution of the Earth that lasted billions of years; there was the evolution of the animals that lasted a billion years and that of the plants that took half a billion years, but the evolution of the monkey, and of man that evolved from it, took only 100-200 thousand years, while the evolution of humanity has been only 50,000 years.

The development time reduces exponentially like on a logarithmic scale. It’s the same with the period of our preparation for the spiritual work, which is the longest and most exhausting. The other phases are much shorter. We have also developed in our technology, moving from DC to AC appliances, and now are working at high frequencies with lasers.

Question: How can a person hold on to this process which exhausts all his powers?

Answer: We can only count on the Creator’s help and on luck. Luck means holding on to the group, the teacher, the study, the daily schedule, as if you are in an army where everything is like clockwork: you get up, go to the lesson, from the lesson you go to work, and the whole day is according to this alarm clock. This is called God’s work.

After all, only at the end of correction will you be able to get rid of your desire to enjoy and until then you have to work. If you raise the importance of the goal to the right height, you will constantly feel elated. If you curse the Creator who gave you such hard work, it will not end well. You will suffer your whole life, torture yourself and your environment, and will come to nothing.

You should at least continue your participation in the group, even passively, as it says: “Anything but leave.” Eventually you will change, whether you want to or not; the influence of the environment will have its effect. We should understand that our state is perfectly arranged so that we will change, and there is nothing else we can do in this life.

We need to continually adhere to the group. If you are incorporated in it, you will feel that the group is an ideal state: that it is high, strong, and that you can always receive powers from it and adhere to it like a baby adheres to his mother.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/14

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