We should speak about the greatness of the goal in the group, about our desire to rise above our nature, which we cannot remain in any longer, and about the need to reach connection between us. We have enough troubles. If we want to improve our lives in this world, we have to draw positive forces, a positive attitude regarding our connection.

I turn to all the friends so that together we will discuss how we can reach this connection. We have to do our best to imagine the good connection that existed before the breaking of the vessels when there was one soul, one vessel, one thought, and one feeling for all, so that everyone will feel the others as if we belong to one body and are in it, which is called “as one man in one heart.”

Everyone, even if he feels himself, will perceive the others as cells in one organ, and that each cell gives to others and bestows upon them so that the whole body will function properly. If we understand that this should be our inclination in order to attain a state in which the Creator is revealed, Godliness, the Upper force, spirituality, then all the means and the opportunities are in our hands. The Creator puts our hands on the fate and says: “Accept it as goodness.”

The whole world supports us in this work to such an extent that life is becoming hard and meaningless. However, on the other hand, there is a new illuminated road that opens up before us and a delightful and special opportunity. Thus we build an ark in which we can save ourselves and perhaps even the whole world from the flood that is approaching and which is rising higher and higher. In the meantime, this flood only scares and threatens us from a distance, but it’s already felt here and there spreading chaos and helplessness.

In our first meeting with a group or with the public, we have to explain that spirituality is totally based on the power of mutual guarantee. It is purposeful that we first feel distant from one another, opposite from one another, hate and are repulsed by one another. It is on purpose that we are all at the foot of Mt. Sinai in a state of mutual hate, like the students of Rabbi Simon.

But it’s a good state, since by overcoming it, we can acquire the Godly attributes. As created beings, we can only feel a state of “the advantage of the Light from the darkness.” If we have these two discernments, then in the contrast between them we can see and feel one another. We cannot see only Light or only darkness. But we can see the Light in contrast to the darkness or the darkness in contrast to the Light. Therefore, the Creator has arranged this state for us so that we will be able to attain, feel, understand, and attain Godliness.

This is the goal of our first gathering. This is where a group begins. If we want to start the spiritual path, we have to know that it starts from attaining the first condition: the attainment of mutual guarantee. The attainment of mutual guarantee is also divided into several stages: first we should understand and accept things and then start fulfilling it gradually until we reach mutual guarantee. This is actually the first phase.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/13

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Question: The air is always full of love during our conventions, how can we intensify the feeling of love before the convention in February? How can we maximize it? How can we absorb the warmth that envelops you and be filled by it?

Answer: There is only one way to do it: preparation. The creation itself is an indication of that. I am equipped with a desire, with excitement, I worry because I want to fulfill the most important thing, and not only in this life but in all my reincarnations. I have already come to this world so many times that I don’t want to be born again and live here. Even egoistically without an intention of in order to bestow, without any connection to the Creator, but simply. So I have to see this as an unprecedented opportunity, a unique irrevocable opportunity.

What will I gain from this convention that cannot happen anywhere else? There are no such events in our life that can push me so strongly forward along the spiritual path.

Question: What should our preparation focus on? What should my yearning focus on?

Answer: On mutual connection. Through this connection, I will receive what everyone attains and gains. I envy them, I envy the friends who prepare this whole event for us, and I yearn to be incorporated.

It is said: “There is a person who attains his spiritual world in an hour.” So I have come here in order to attain everything the friends have attained. This is possible. In spirituality, like in connected vessels, the abundance is poured from one vessel to another. If I connect to someone who is great, I am also great. This is the rule, so let’s do it.

This is how I want to work and this is the only reason I am coming to the convention. We have another month of such intensive preparation. A person who wants to will be ready to attain his world.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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It is desirable for the word “Arvut (mutual guarantee)” and all the terms of this concept to became closer and as clear to us as possible. Therefore, we must begin to work on this more and reveal the connection it assumes between us.

Everyone should be above the others in order to take care of them and set the right example. Everyone should feel below others in order to get an awakening and inspiration from them because a person will not have the strength to advance without this. And everyone should be concerned that we are absolutely equal, no more and no less—absolutely equal!

On this path, we will start to feel each other internally. I will not see a friend as a material body. I’ll suddenly cease to distinguish his face; it will disappear. I will not notice his clothes and external features. Then, I will even stop seeing his qualities, his character, the habits which first constituted his image for me. I will not relate to an external image, not to his character, behavior, and qualities derived from birth or acquired throughout life.

I will not see his clothes, his physical body, or character traits, but only the innermost point that is called the opposite side of the holy soul. Of course it is still uncorrected, but yet it wants very much to draw itself to the Surrounding Light so that it becomes corrected.

This point is called the point in the heart. The connection between our points, the mutual guarantee, is the means for drawing the Light. This is how we need to see every friend instead of bodies, character traits, or demeanor. All of this is given to a friend from Above and makes him act in this way, or I see him like this “to the extent of my own flaws.” But the main thing is to see the inner point and the desire to unite with it.

The connection of these points into one whole is called a Minyan. It is a union of points in the heart that are ready to act and apply all possible efforts in order to achieve similarity with the Upper Light. It begins to shine on them to the extent of their similarity and yearning for the property of the Light. The Lights always exists; the movements occur only inside the desire.

Everything depends on the connection of the inner points in the heart that attract the Light, on its strength and quality, the reason why we want to connect, and how we overcome obstacles. As soon as we fulfill the required measure of efforts (Seah), we obtain a sufficiently strong desire to unite; the Light completes our first action of unity and brings us to the first adhesion (Zivug), the first contact with the Creator.

Thus we realize our mutual guarantee; that is, we are “together,” so much in guarantee for each other that we turn into one whole. This is the first spiritual degree in which we reveal the upper world, the upper force, the true reality that is above the one in which we are now. This world appears illusory to us like in a dream.

The first correct attitude is to exit oneself from one’s body and garments, all egoistic desires, thoughts, and habits, all innate or acquired qualities. I feel only the point in the heart and want to glue it to the friends. This means that I am going towards the mutual guarantee, the first point of unity.

Thus connected by the Upper Light, we reach the first vessel. All our points are opposite to unity, but our pressure, the tension created between these points reveals to us how much we are inherently not able to connect, and at the same time we want to.

Baal HaSulam describes this state in “Letter 19” in the example of the relationship between a man and a woman who deliberately separate and cannot connect, but at the same time, feel a great desire to be together. As a result, this leads to an explosion of the connecting force overcoming the force of separation, and then we reach unity. “And his seed is for the good,” this is our first spiritual state called birth. In our world, children are born as a result of the connection between a man and a woman, and in the spiritual world, the result of our adhesion is the birth of a new state.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/13, Preparation for the Convention

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The Book of Zohar, “VaYikhael,” Item 131: …It has also been clarified that while Bina and TM ascend and rise to their degree from the firmament and above, they take with them the lower degree that clothed them while they were fallen in her, and raise her above the firmament, as well.

Question: Who are the “upper” and who are the “lower?”

Answer: There is a sea of the Upper Light that fills everything equally. There are different desires in it that also fill the Upper Light and it is in them, in these desires. These desires of the one created being begin to operate together with the Lights that they reveal independently. Each desire discovers a Light in him since they are separate from one another.

The sequence of states that they go through is called “the correction of creation.” Before that there was a preparation for the corruption of creation: The world of AK, the world of Nekudim, the breaking, the correction of the worlds of ABYA, and then the birth of first man (Adam HaRishon), the sin of the tree of knowledge, and the relative correction of first man, to such an extent that it brought him to the beginning of the recognition of evil.

From this point onwards, from that state, from that discernment, onwards, everything that happens in the relations between the desires and the Lights is a relation called the correction of creation, which is the state we are in. This is the only thing we speak about. The correction is simple: How to balance the vessels, the desires, with the Lights, so that the Lights and the vessels will both feel good and thus reach an equivalence of form.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/13, The Zohar

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It is said that “confidence is the clothing for the Light.” Confidence refers to the Returning Light, the Light of Hassadim, a state of a righteous who doesn’t even have a shirt but doesn’t need one either, because he has such a strong Light of confidence.

We don’t understand this since our whole world exists by the force of receiving. The Creator is the force of bestowal, the spiritual world, that is our spiritual state which is in accordance with the Creator, means that we with our force of receiving acquire the Creator’s force of bestowal and manage to integrate these two forces in us.

The spiritual world, which means our spiritual state, is established when we balance these two forces. We don’t understand what the force of bestowal is. It’s a totally different heart and mind. It isn’t just an opposite state that we can somehow imagine as being like the opposite of our state. It’s impossible to imagine it since there is nothing in us that belongs to bestowal, to giving. Whatever we consider bestowal is not bestowal at all.

Therefore, it says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Acquiring a second nature is called birth, redemption, as it it written: “I have seen an opposite world.” The force of bestowal is attained from Above. Only when the Reforming Light comes do we feel and understand what it is by starting to work with it to some extent.

Our first impression of the Light that Reforms is a certain feeling of freedom, of being independent of the desire to receive, of the desire to fill myself, of worrying about myself, of the constant feeling of my vessel, of the deficiency, of looking for something else that can fill me. Once we experience the first feeling of freedom, we also have a feeling of confidence. We stop examining and checking our vessel, how full it is and to what extent it needs a filling, and measuring everything with regard to myself.

We stop asking, “What have I got?” and begin to ask, “What can I give?” or at least try to do so. We receive the Light that Reforms that raises us and brings us to a level on which we become independent of our desire to receive. This means that one acquires confidence. The more we can restrict ourselves and the higher we raise the Returning Light by wanting to fulfill bestowal by ourselves, the more we acquire the force of confidence and the Light of Hassadim in which we can reveal the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/13, Shamati #72 “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light”

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Question: How is the demand to justify everything that happens related to the usual scientific approach of Kabbalah?

Answer: It refers to how we should see reality correctly. This is what we are taught. A scientist may try to change the tools he has: the chemicals, if it’s an experiment in chemistry or the microscopes or the telescopes, but here he is told that if he wants to reach the initial cause of the phenomena, he can do so only by an equivalence of form.

This way is the only way to start working with the two forces of nature: the force of receiving and the force of bestowal, the universal plus and minus. These two forces are the basis of all of creation. It’s possible to discover them only through the equivalence and the balance of the two, which is attained by the gradual equivalence between them.

We will discover that these two forces meet and contradict one another inside us. Whatever we feel now, our existence and the existence of this whole world, is a result of these two forces that come together and cannot reach a state of balance between them. But this imbalance is revealed in a range that we can discover. If we can balance these two forces now, we become the middle line that goes between them and includes the two inside us. Then we will see the real state.

By the right connection and the integration of the two, by bringing them to the equivalence of form, by serving as an adaptor in the middle, we establish the point of our existence in which reality opens up before us at this point, on this level, on this ladder, in the middle line. Thus we discover the picture of the true reality. This is called the wisdom of Kabbalah: the balance on the middle line at every point of our existence.

Such a scientist is called a Kabbalist. One who reaches the balance of forces and who controls them, checking and studying them and working with them through his research, his exertion, his work with the innermost tools, with the desires, not with external equipment, but with his inner vessels.

It turns out that he doesn’t need physics, chemistry, or all the other external sciences, since he changes nature from its basis. He doesn’t need all the superficial methods in order to manage his life and to control some natural phenomena. This is so awkward and futile compared to the state he is in.

Justifying every state means reaching the root of creation in every state, on every level. When these two forces are balanced, I see how the force of bestowal is dressed in the force of receiving according to the law of equivalence of form between them. Then I see what happens in the force of bestowal, in the created being as he identifies with and is adhered to the upper force of bestowal, to the Creator. Then I justify the creation as the created being reaches the level of the Creator, which means the state of the absolute good and benevolent.

In the meantime, as long as I haven’t reached a correction in which I feel and discover the Creator as the good and benevolent, my states are called work states. I have to justify them too, which means to try and reach the justification. I cannot say that the Creator is good and benevolent and at the same time cry out in pain. It is only “from Your actions we shall know You.” I don’t know what the good and the benevolent is if I haven’t attained it. The good and the benevolent is different in every state.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/13, Shamati #15 “What Is Other Gods in the Work”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,”: Thus, the Thought of Creation itself necessarily dictates the creation of an excessive will to receive in the souls, to fit the immense pleasure that His Almightiness thought to bestow upon the souls. For the great delight and the great desire to receive go hand in hand.

The purpose of creation is to benefit. Whom? To anyone who wants to get this benefit. To what extent is it possible to bring him benefit? To the extent he wants to receive it. It turns out that the Creator needs to create in the created beings the desire, matching His benefit. If the Creator wants to give the created being endless pleasure, to bring him unlimited fulfillment in all directions, then it’s necessary to create such a being that could understand, comprehend, and feel endlessly.

But that does not mean just to be fulfilled. The goal is in another thing so that the created being constantly wants more, without limit, without end. How can we get this ability? How can I form the vessel of desire that will always want more and never be filled? Is this possible?

Comment: It’s necessary to be integrated in the group.

Answer: Well, I integrate in the group, put myself under its influence, and adopt the friends’ desires. But eventually, the end will come. Can we imagine an infinite desire?

Comment: We need to take fulfillment beyond the limits of desire and then it will become unlimited.

Answer: Correct, this is already a solution. Fulfilling myself in the end I always “become closed.” We understand that in order not to “close” the vessel of desire, the opposite approach is necessary, which is based on bestowal, love. Striving to get outside, being out of myself, it can then be unlimited in my senses.

And yet, isn’t this vessel unlimited? After all, I give others what I have. Even if I obtain their vessels, desires, I fill them with what I have. This already imposes a limit.

In essence, here is a question of whether it’s not enough to love only created beings. Why do we have to achieve love of the Creator, mutual bestowal with Him? Indeed, this is the condition: In order to do good to His created beings, they have to enter into relationship with Him, which is based on bestowal – reception.

Meanwhile, we cannot imagine what the infinite love of the Creator is. We have nothing infinite inside and that is why these words tell us nothing. Even the entire universe is not limited, as it has been discovered. In fact, there is no true concept of infinity in our world. “I love you immeasurably,” we say. But it means, immeasurably for the time being. We cannot comprehend true boundlessness; it’s not manifested in our senses.

On the contrary, we feel that we exist only due to limits because of restrictions. We perceive our existence; see ourselves and our surroundings within this framework. But in boundlessness, everything will immediately disappear, and it’s a terrible sensation. It’s called the “illumination of Malchut,” which is revealed in the form of a dark abyss. There’s nothing worse than it.
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From the 4^th Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What can I say to a person who wants to “attain the world in one hour”?

Answer: It is said: “There are people who attain their world in one hour.” In one hour means by one action. One action can only refer to connection. Attaining one’s world in spirituality refers to a certain revelation of the true reality in contrast to our fictitious reality. The stronger we can connect, reaching not just a quantitative change, but a qualitative one, the sooner we reach great success and discover a new world.

We are preparing for a great convention with this motto. Although it doesn’t mean that this motto should actually be written, this will be our intention: to fulfill this opportunity and to attain the spiritual world in one hour. At the congress, we will meet people who are distant from us, people who have had no contact with us, those who have learned about the wisdom of Kabbalah via our TV channel or the Internet and do not know each other.

We invite everyone and we hope and expect them to reach a feeling, an understanding, of what spirituality is by being incorporated with us. We can do this in a short time during the days of the convention or even in the few hours that a person will attend the convention with us. Therefore it is said: “There is a person who attains his world in one hour.” A person a long the journey of his life doesn’t know where the greatest treasure that can give his life meaning is. We, on the other hand, do have a special book, The Book of Zohar, which we want to open for everyone.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #19, “What is the Creator Hates the Bodies in the Work”: We must know that “God hath made even the one as well as the other.” It means that as much as there is disclosure in Kedusha, to that extent the Sitra Achra (Other Side) awakens. In other words, when one claims, “it is all mine,” meaning the entire body belongs to Kedusha, the Sitra Achra, too, argues against him that the whole body should serve the Sitra Achra…

One must know that it is a sign that this work hits the target.

All of nature, all the levels from the bottom up, still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature, and also every level width wise, every cell, every species, are all based on the connection between opposites. A difference means oppositeness, a plus and a minus. Everything, from the tiniest particles to the bigger structures all connect since they are opposite from one another and can thus add or complement one another.

So nothing can be stable unless it is made of two opposite parts. Only when two opposites can mutually complement one another, despite their oppositeness, can they exist. This is the only way the connection between them can exist and the only way they can exist.

This principle stems from the initial development of the Light, which means “something from something” that created the matter of the desire to receive as “something from nothing.” We can discover the Light only in the desire and the desire can exist only if the Light sustains and revives it.

So in all of creation, every discernment in any thought, in any desire, in any action always includes two opposite parts that are in relative balance. So if there is goodness, there must also be evil in it which balances the goodness. It’s because of the evil that a person can discover the goodness and vice versa. There cannot be one without the other, just as we cannot be balanced standing on one leg, but we always need two legs. So it’s clear that we develop by two opposite forces, and each time one overcomes the other alternately; the right leg is put forward and then the left leg, and this is how one advances.

So when we are not very developed, we think that everything has to be ideal and that ideal means one thing for us. But when we grow, we understand from our experience and by the expansion of our perception that the states must be complex, and that they must always include two forces, two opposite attributes. Only then can they exist, as it says: “and there was evening and there was morning, one day,” only according to this principle.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”: … the secrets of the Torah are revealed only to those who fear His Name, who keep His Glory with their hearts and souls…

Even though we tend to feel “reverence,” we must realize that trepidation is a law that we are talking about here. The Book of Zohar writes that fear of the Lord is the first condition, the first correction that precedes the next step, love. If one doesn’t yet feel trepidation or has not yet acquired the vessels of bestowal, the level of Bina, one cannot attain the Creator.

That’s why it is said that the secrets of the Torah are revealed only to those who fear Him. The vessels have to be corrected so that the Light can dress in them due to the equivalence of their properties. We are not talking about ethical teachings here, but about a firm conformity to the law. A “mystery” is something that is revealed to one who fears the Creator, i.e. to those who rise in their self-correction to the level of Bina. Only they happen to reveal things that were previously hidden from them.

It is said in Midrash Rabbah: “Everybody who fears Me and follows the directions of the Torah has the whole Torah and the entire wisdom in his heart.” A simple condition applies here: similarity of properties between the vessel and the Light.

Question: This excerpt is about those who “fear His Name, who keep His Glory with their hearts and souls…” Is it the same thing?

Answer: No. “Fear” means that one has a screen and the reflected Light at a level of Bina, whereas “keeping His Glory” is at a higher level. The Torah contains the words of Moshe (Shemot, 33:18): “Show me Your Glory.” This is a level of Hochma, a perfect faith, vessels that receive for the sake of bestowal.

On the other hand, we bestow through vessels/desires that tremble in front of the Creator, thus we initiate our “acquaintance with the Creator,” yet a passive one – same as in this world where we live without knowing much about it with the exception of things that provide our sustenance.  In spirituality it is quite similar; an analogue situation precedes the next step – the revelation of the Creator that lets us penetrate in His laws, His nature. How do we do this? For that, we have to receive the Light of Hochma; it becomes possible only if we keep and reveal His Glory. His Glory is in fact the Light of Hochma.

That’s why it is said: “Show me Your Glory.” It’s about seeing and knowing.

Question: What does it mean “to fear the Creator”? What do we have to be afraid of?

Answer: The one who experiences trepidation in front of the Creator is afraid that he won’t be able to please Him maximally. We should not worry about ourselves, our families, or about this world, but just about Him. If we keep His Glory, that is, reveal the Light of Hochma, it’s even better. However, for that we have to use not only the vessels of bestowal but also the ones of receiving.

As to trepidation, let’s say you love and respect somebody very much. It means that you constantly think of what you can do for those you love and how to please them.

Question: What pleases the Creator?

Answer: If you constantly think about this, you’ll find the answer. He needs your concern. If you really are eager to know what exactly He likes because you want to please Him, it’s already the Reflected Light. The Creator will reveal Himself and will show you what you are supposed to do on one condition: that you enjoy taking care of Him and are happy having the opportunity to please Him.

In this case He interacts with you and you both give pleasure to each other. By doing so, you feel love.

Question: Who exactly do we want to please? Who is the Creator?

Answer: You should be careful and never materialize these notions. “The Creator” (Bo-Re) is the property of bestowal that reveals Himself in us according to the principle “Come and See” (Bo-Re). We “play” and “have fun” with Him and He enjoys our “company.” We should not treat this property as a personality, but rather as the Upper Root.

Question: What do I have to imagine before this reveals in me?

Answer: There are certain details of perception that are inbuilt in us and let us see the upper reality. Gradually, we transition from love of the creations to loving the Creator. This level is gradually formed and built in us.

The answers to fundamental questions are hidden: Why does this step appear above our current nature? Why is it contrary to our egoistic desires? Why are creations built this way? Why is it so arranged that in the creation’s search of the Creator has to be “above reason” and go against its desires? …

In any case, now, we do not have any idea of who the Creator is, nor should we “draw” Him in one form or another.

Question: How should I relate to the upper force at this time?

Answer: You have to relate to it through your friends and your teacher. In this case, you won’t make mistakes.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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