Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 24: The essence of the body is but a desire to receive for itself, and all its manifestations and possessions are fulfillments of that corrupted will to receive, which had initially been created only to be eradicated from the world, in order to achieve the complete third state at the end of correction. For this reason, it is mortal, transitory, and contemptible, along with all its possessions, like a fleeting shadow that leaves nothing in its wake.

Nothing ever happens to the desire. It only increasingly divulges itself while going through a 125 steps, whereas egoistic intentions arise together with desires. However, those are two different things: a desire to receive and an intention for the sake of receiving.

We should never cancel the desire. We are not planning to turn into hermits; rather, we strive to change our intention from egoistic to altruistic. It is the intention for the sake of receiving that has to be “eradicated from the world.”

We perceive the picture of the world through our intentions, through ourselves and our surroundings. This picture will disappear if we re-direct our intentions from the will to receive to the will to bestow. Everything we see today, the entire world with all its particularities and phenomena, with life and death, everything unfolds inside our will to receive that has an egoistic intention. If we change intentions, we start seeing an “inverted” world that is called the upper world, the first spiritual level. Then, we start observing something quite different.

While sensing the material, we have a chance to convert it with the help of the upper force, a group, and by using other means. We are the ones who start the “revolution,” because the first  time anything is revealed we see it as corrupt, as if it reflects in a “distorted mirror” of our egoistic intention.

So far, our selfish intentions “saddle” tiny desires of this world; this is what makes this realm look the way it is to us. Then, let’s say at the thirtieth step, there appears a desire that is a billion times bigger, yet it still originates from the will to receive. It would be dreadful as if we were among “dinosaurs,” in a monstrous jungle of immensely, powerful egoistic desires.

People would look as hellish “fiends” to us; they would seem like criminals, crooks, liars, villains, a wickedness that we currently cannot even imagine. In essence, we would see the evil forces that belong to this particular step. We would consider the lessons to be outrageous stupidity, utter nonsense. Even the group would appear in such a terrible shape that we wouldn’t tolerate our friends’ company, nor would we be able to breathe the same air with them.

However, if we find the strength to overcome this situation and change, then we would figure out that everything is just wonderful. In fact, nothing will change, but somehow all of a sudden we will see the world around us permeated with Light, where everybody receives benevolence from the Creator, nobody ever suffers, no one dies of hunger, or kills others. Our friends look as if they are the greatest people on the face of the Earth, and there is nobody higher than them. Baal HaSulam writes about this state in his article “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator.”

We all go through these states, the pendulum swings stronger each time, and everything depends on changing our intention, turning it into the opposite, from egoism to altruism. The desires remain intact, only the intentions change.

One way or the other, the Creator never brings us to bestowal; otherwise, He would have stolen the chance for us to know Him. He leads us only through disasters in our will to receive so that we acknowledge the need to bestow.

At first, we try to escape troubles that force us to blame and curse Him. Then, with the help of a group, lessons, and dissemination, by lowering our heads in front of our friends and the teacher, we turn to the Creator, and plead with Him to help us.

Question: Isn’t it a pretty long path of suffering?

Answer: The trick is how we accept the suffering. Without the sufferings, it is impossible to wake up. Any state starts with sorrows: “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”

Our path is long not because of the troubles we go through but because we don’t react to them in a correct way.

This explains why we need preparation and a correct attitude. There is no doubt that our states will change soon, and we will feel emptiness; moreover, we can start hating our friends as Rabbi Shimon’s disciples did. And yet we continue advancing because everything that happens to us is for a purpose, to lead us forward.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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A person goes through several phases before he reaches his first spiritual correction, the equivalence of form with the Creator. The word “place” is often used in reference to the Creator. Why is the Creator called “place”?

A place is a desire. A place that has received the attribute of bestowal is actually the Creator’s image. So, all the intentions, all of a person’s work, should be aimed at the same place: in order to correct his desires so that they should be in order to bestow. The image of the Creator that is revealed in the corrected place, which means in the corrected vessels, is already the result of the influence of the two lines.

The first phase of a person’s correction is when he stops thinking about himself and already begins to understand and to feel that the correction is fulfilled only though connection. A person already understands that he must be in a group that is considered one with regard to the Creator. Gradually, he understands the concept of connection and doesn’t see himself as a separate part from the group, as being cut off from the general. As it is written: “…for I the Lord dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.”

Thanks to his work in the group in order to attain mutual guarantee, the friends’ thoughts, and the influence of the Light that is drawn by our collective efforts, a person reaches this state when he begins to look at everything from the center of the group. Then, he feels a new hardening of the heart, and he must reach the right “place” over and over again. After a while, he understands that he has undergone a change that didn’t seem important before. The public opinion, the state of the group, becomes very dear to him.

The people in the group become important and dear to him, and he begins to worry about them more than about his own children. It is because he feels the family on the corporeal, physical level, while he feels the friends on the spiritual level. He understands that he has an obligation to his family, but he begins to fully enter the hearts of the friends, wants to live there, and to guarantee them all the best. Eventually, the state of the friends determines and dictates all his thoughts and actions, and determines what he worries about, like a mother who only worries about her baby, and everything that she does is for him. This is how a person begins to treat his group.

Gradually, the concept of the Creator is cleared in the group according to a person’s efforts to arrange and to picture the general vessel, the corrected place, the one general heart and mind, and the pain that he feels at the moment since he cannot reach such unity, and according to such efforts, the Creator’s image starts to become clear to him in this one unified group.

The Surrounding Light influences him through his yearning for the center of the group, for the desire to see that everyone is corrected and delighting the Creator who is revealed according to a person’s efforts in the group. Thus, a person gets closer to the Creator through the group.

At the moment, we don’t understand how a person can lose himself in the group and at the same time, feel that he exists, that he acts and operates. From the perspective of his ego, his self totally disappears, but, from the perspective of bestowal, it actually grows until a person rises to the level of the Creator that is revealed in the group. Baal HaSulam says, “It is natural that, when the Light of the general illuminates, the individual is nullified with regard to his own self and he doesn’t feel himself,” but he does feel the general and the Creator in it!
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/14

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Baal HaSulam says in Letter 5 that he is happy about the evil that are revealed. It is the forces that are designed to help, although they are submitted in such a form because they are not corrected yet. It is about desires that cannot be revealed any other way.

The Lights and the vessels are revealed in accordance to each other. The desires, revealed as good or evil, are the components of the new vessel. It doesn’t matter how I see them, as long as they are revealed. Now I have to work with them.

We mustn’t ignore, negate, or annul them. I cannot close my eyes like a child and pretend that they don’t exist. I cannot detach myself from them, get rid of them, fall asleep, get drunk, or take some drugs. No, I have to confront them, and for this I have all the necessary means to do so: the group, the study, etc.

I don’t ignore any obstacle. I mustn’t think that it would be better if there were no interferences because they build a new vessel, another brick in its structure. If there were no flaws in me, then I wouldn’t discover anything. If something is revealed, it means that it’s time to correct that part of my vessel and put it in the right place.

This is why I am glad. I draw away from the problems a little, look at them from the side, objectively, and then I see the height that I have reached! It turns out that I can correct this too!

It’s hard to understand, but on the corporeal, physical levels what comes to the world is only what is sent to us from the upper Providence, and it’s meant to bring the creature to perfection. On the other hand, it’s all because we cannot advance towards correction.

So why do the righteous suffer? It’s because the world is round and united. They also depend on it and cannot draw it after them, although they feel the problems on the corporeal level. This is part of the general correction.

So what should I do when evil is revealed? If I can draw away from it and see the cause of what is happening, then I ascend above the body and above what it feels. I look at everything that happens to it from the side and I am glad that I am going through these great corrections. What is more, I don’t take the body into account but the soul. I already see a different picture.

On the whole, the solution is simply to make any effort in order to get used to the intention of in order to bestow upon the group by ascending above my body, above this life. On the corporeal level I continue to do everything that is necessary: I worry about the family, go to the doctor when necessary, etc. But at the same time I am above and detached from this level. Everything that I do is in order to ascend.

Thus I identify with the Creator who sends me the obstacles. I understand that His “packages” were meant to help me establish the right perspective to all the states, both the evil and the good, and to keep in touch with Him. I now view this whole life from this perspective.

The Book of Zohar describes how Rabbi Chiya saw himself sitting in the upper assembly as everyone listens to him. He was allowed to see this state, and I too look at myself from above from another state while adhered to the Creator. No, it isn’t a split personality but a realistic view of things.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can a person who has decided to participate in the convention for the first time overcome all the hardships and see the importance of the convention above all?

Answer: He should simply be with us, keep in touch through our TV channel or the Internet. Then in the time we have left things will get better.

There are no obstacles along the way to the convention that cannot be overcome. It’s when a person comes, when he is incorporated with us, that he will see how helpful it is in every aspect of life. By exerting himself in faith above reason, he will be able to solve many personal problems and will overcome many troubles.

I am not afraid to say this because it’s exactly what Kabbalists promise us in their writings. It isn’t what I know, but what they say.

A person who has only seen us on the screen for two years can dedicate two and a half days for the convention because he may have to wait for another year at best for the next convention; how can he not come? How can you miss something like this? What else has he got in life? How does he intend to fulfill his life?

It is said that the soul of a person who passes away is asked two questions: “Did you engage in the Torah?” “Did you expect salvation?” A soul is the vessel that receives the filling, which means the feeling of the Creator. “Did you engage in the Torah?” means did you want to draw the Light that Reforms? Were you drawn to where there should be love?

The Torah is the spice for the evil inclination, the means in which there is the Light that Reforms. This is exactly what the convention is meant for, so that together, everyone will draw the Light for the revelation of the Creator in the connection between us.

This is what a person’s soul is asked: “Did you draw the Light in order to resemble the Creator; in order to reveal Him?” This is called “Did you expect salvation?” This is the principle of “I have exerted and I have found.” The “finding” is the spiritual salvation.

When a person is behind the TV screen can he engage in this? How should he know how to do it? This is why he is invited to a special event in which everything is prepared for his arrival and the opportunity of engaging in the most important thing in his life is served to him on a platter. Then he would certainly have an answer to such a crucial question.

The angel inquiring the soul at the spiritual gate is a metaphor which explains to us how important it is not to waste our life in vain. Especially when you have such an opportunity, as it says: “There is a person who attains his world in one hour.” And you still have different calculations? If he had another opportunity now, he would have no calculations. So we should understand that it is here that the principle of the resistance of the forces of impurity is revealed.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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“The Light and the Sun,” VeYechi: The main point regarding the assembly is that we should all be united and that everyone should ask for one thing only, to find the Creator, since the Shechina resides among a group of ten. Of course, if there are more than ten, then the Shechina will certainly be revealed. And each one can join his friend and listen to how he should worship the Creator and to find the Creator.

And he should annul himself before his friend and so should his friend before him and so should everyone. And so if this is the intention of the assembly, then more than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to feed him, and thus the Creator comes closer to them and is with them and all the salvations and the blessings and the good bestowal from the source of mercy, and the great mercy and the benevolence are revealed upon the assembly of Israel.

Everything depends on the connection, on the correction of the shattering, on the correction of the sin of the “Tree of Knowledge.” This is all our work by which we become Adam, which means the one figure that resembles (Domeh) the Creator, one soul, one vessel. With the help of the friends, we overcome the resistance of our ego, draw the Light that Reforms, and thus advance.

We see that our advancement is only due to the connection and is fulfilled in the connection, in the point where we feel the crisis and where the repulsion, the hatred, the cooling down, the mutual disgust is revealed. It is always a problem to locate this point because we avoid it, forget it, and are in a state of numbness.

It’s in that central point where we really have to be connected that all our feelings disappear! All our sensors and our senses cease to work there. It’s as if we discover and enter a void where there isn’t even hate, but where all the feelings simply disappear. Thus we gradually discover the spiritual space that we have to fill by our connection.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14

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The great dark depths of my desire that are still unknown are called the “heart of stone,” which is revealed only as a result of my efforts. The system of Adam HaRishon (first man) committed the sin of the “Tree of Knowledge” because of the concealment of the stoney heart. It reveals itself if we advance towards adhesion. When I yearn for adhesion, I suddenly discover that I cannot do it and that it simply isn’t for me.

When I turn a reasonable amount of desires into “in order to bestow,” I discover an addition, a giant rock inside laughing at me: “You have no chance, this doesn’t affect me; you will never be able to correct me.” I cannot reach adhesion as a result. I resemble the Creator in some way, but the stoney heart doesn’t let me get near it.

This is the reason for Adam’s sin, he discovered the stoney heart, the snake, but couldn’t keep the intention of to receive in order to bestow. Therefore, we also have to clarify this state gradually in order to ultimately decide that there is no other choice and that we have to correct it. Eve also felt that this was all their work, which means that without the revelation of the sin, of the fruit, life is tasteless. She found a special force in the tree of knowledge that doesn’t exist in any of the trees in the garden.

Question: It turns out that the stoney heart is kind of a Pandora’s box. Do we discover it gradually on every level or do we discover it all at once at the end of correction?

Answer: A bit of it is revealed on every level. After all, the lowest level also includes everything in it. Infinity is revealed in it, but you perceive it according to the resolution of your screen. So you should constantly work on the sensitivity of your vessel of perception.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: During the Arava convention, how can we feel as responsible for the friends as a submarine crew who won’t leave their friends and would rather drown with them if only half the crew can be saved?

Answer: They don’t feel that they are about to die since true death for them is being detached from their friends. They are brought to the feeling of an upper level of life and death, although it is a shell (Klipa), it is still in regards to the spiritual connection with friends.

You can reach such a state only with the Creator’s help. You need the Upper Light for that since otherwise you cannot even come close to such a state. If you organized a commando unit in a submarine, you would succeed. If you are going to organize a commando unit of mutual guarantee, you cannot do anything since you are given problems, descents, and interferences on purpose so that you will need the Creator.

Ultimately, we need to deal with Him. The general soul was shattered so that from this shattering you will get to know Him. We look at the broken shards and understand that we have to glue them together, but how can we put this puzzle together?

We try to connect these pieces in different ways, but nothing works and nothing will work! We don’t even know how to connect two parts: 1+1, since the Creator must be inside for these things to connect. This happens only when we reach an equivalence of form with Him in certain attributes.

But we don’t have these attributes. We don’t have the attribute of bestowal! This is why we cannot advance by even one step. We see that in the outside world people do organize commando units in which everyone is ready to sacrifice himself for the well-being of his friends. We cannot even think about this. After all, we need the Creator with us in every thought in this direction. This is the whole difference.

This is why the shell (Klipa) is so proud before holiness: “See what I can do! Everything is fine with me, everyone is happy, everything is nice, and what do you have?” After all, the egoistic connection is based on the mind, on confidence, while bestowal requires faith above reason. So a person who wants to reach true bestowal encounters great problems.

We can reach unity like in a submarine, but in order to do so, we need to reach a real demand for the Creator. This means that connecting is not the goal; the goal is to adhere to the Creator, and this final action must be in the initial thought. This is why we act and connect.

We need to check whether all our actions and connections between us are necessary for the revelation of the Creator, which should be the goal in every request, in every action. We can’t be confused and think that we need Him in order to connect. We actually need to connect in order to reveal Him and to delight Him.

We must properly build this formula each time, not forgetting that everything is for the sake of the Creator, and not for the sake of connection itself, neither is the raspberry ball, or the correction of humanity. We must constantly focus on the Creator.

So during the Arava convention we must constantly aim at the Creator, since this is the head of the Partzuf. We must constantly hold on to the same one thought, to the same intention, to the same plan that is aimed at the Creator.

Every question in the workshop is like a riddle that can be solved only when you build the sentence correctly, when the Creator is the goal, when everything that is aimed at the revelation of the Creator will reside among us. We need the Creator not so that he should glue us together; we want Him to glue us this way so that we will reveal Him and thus delight Him.

Everything should end with Him, in delighting Him, since the guest wants to delight the host. The Arava convention is the connection between us for His sake. Next there will be the integral education convention: The connection between us for the development of integral education. Then we will fulfill the integral connection in practice with the help of The Book of Zohar in the final great convention: The World Zohar Convention.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 32: The third period is in Torah and Commandments Lishma, that is, for the sake of bestowal and not for receiving a reward. This work purifies man’s desire to receive for himself and turns it into the desire to bestow.

Everything depends on the awareness of importance. I can develop this awareness in me relative to anything. If I constantly think and take care about something, the object of my care becomes so important to me that I cannot forget about it. I am attached to it physically, emotionally, or intellectually, no matter how. The main thing is how much effort I give it.

We know how it happens: A person learns a profession or begins a fine meticulous project, and he gives it not just time but his entire heart, he invests in it so much that it becomes extremely important to him.

The same thing happens in the spiritual work: The awareness of the importance of the goal is the key to everything. I become included in the group, participate with the friends in workshops and other events, and if I exert myself fully, then suddenly, without knowing why, I begin to appreciate the property of bestowal, the ability to give. This feeling, this aspiration, is awakened in me and gains importance, in some “supernatural,” inexplicable way.

I, myself, am amazed by this inner change. Indeed, in the past, always and in everything I thought about myself and how to use others, how to arrange them so I would feel nice and comfortable, so everyone serves me. It is a natural approach.

But suddenly, I begin to care for others around me; they gain importance in my eyes, become as the people closest to me. I look for opportunities to bestow upon them, to benefit them, just as I want to bring happiness to those I love, I enjoy that they enjoy.

Then, I wonder: Why do I bring them good? For the sake of this pleasure? Or is bestowal itself so important that it motivates me to act? How can I distinguish one from the other?

In short, I suddenly embrace new phenomenon that possess me and I do not know where they come from.

This is accomplished through the incessant connection between friends. Another workshop, another lesson, another festive meal, one more effort with a bit of intention, which we are able to connect—even artificially, it does not matter—nonetheless, we thereby awaken the Light that Reforms and its influence produces in us these “supernatural” changes that lie below our nature.

I can recognize in myself only the results of this process when I discover that something strange happens to me. Then I understand how the Light that Reforms acts. Today, we have entered such stages when everyone has to “delve into himself” to detect the changes that occur in him.

Thus, we move forward through the process of “purification,” cleaning ourselves from the egoistic intention to the level of bestowal for the sake of bestowal. Then, we enter into the process of “sanctity,” purity, in reception for the sake of bestowal.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The development in the group is surprising and beautiful because during a very short time I pass such states and details of perception that without friends would have required a few reincarnations in the physical life—long transformations of Reshimot. Among the wonderful friends we accelerate development.

Nothing on this path can be “passed,” “walked over,” “removed from the list.” The process of realizating Reshimot is set initially and I must go through this entire spiral. But the pace of progress depends on me and is determined by how much I integrate into the group.

Even if I sit in class emotionless “like a log,” devoid of understanding, it does not matter. Everyone goes through this.

The group is a wonderful system in which we complement, add, to each other. Some reveal new “thicknesses” of desire, others are imbued with spiritual impulse, and we interact as a whole.

The main thing is to live in the group as deeply as possible, and bow down before it with all, to bow down in any state: both when I am full of life, unity, and when I am “dead.”

Talents and abilities will not help here; it’s not the one who is wise that learns spirituality. First and foremost, I am required to surrender.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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When I listen to a friend who speaks during the workshop I am incorporated in his words without any doubts or criticism. I perceive what he says as the most important opinion and want to be incorporated in it, to connect so that it actually becomes my opinion. I want his words to touch my heart and to play on it like on strings.

This is how I relate to everyone who speaks. I don’t criticize what he says in any way but simply want to be incorporated in the same thought. We open up to one another and are totally candid as we speak from heart to heart. Everyone tries to totally annul his criticism so that there will be no barrier that blocks the friends’ words and so they will directly enter my heart as if I said them myself, fully confident that it is correct.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/14/14, Workshop

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