Question: I want to understand, what is Bnei Baruch?

Answer: Bnei Baruch is a special group of people that, for the first time in history, is meant to perform the correction of all of reality and reach adhesion with the Creator. This is happening for the first time not because the Creator has chosen a certain Kabbalist like in the past when he chose a Kabbalist in every generation who had to continue this chain. Here, it is about a real correction by a mass of people who pull all of humanity behind them. It is the first wave that is rising and attracted to Godliness.

The first group that is the vanguard of correction is the Bnei Baruch group, and I am leading it. There is nothing to be ashamed of. On the contrary, we should feel the great responsibility that we have and the support that we have. There is nothing to fear. We should learn how to stand between the two forces, how to cope with our inner enemies and those on the outside, with the entire world and with the general Pharaoh.

This is our work. It is impossible to advance any other way but between these two forces. We are in the middle, managing the battle, the struggle between us. The entire world is against us, and internally, we are also against this process! Still, we must identify with our points in the heart, and then we will succeed and win.

The war will be bigger, wider, deeper, more serious and more threatening as we advance. On the one hand, the world will understand that it has no choice since it is receiving one blow after another, and on the other hand, it still will resist. The Creator will increasingly harden Pharaoh’s heart.

It is time, in fact, to stop resisting because the world is falling into an abyss. However, there is such a hardening of the heart that a person doesn’t understand and doesn’t feel the danger. One may think that, after such heavy blows, people would agree, understand, come running to us, and demand the method of redemption, but the opposite will happen.

We must understand this process. It is a war that depends on us. The Creator cannot fight Pharaoh alone if we don’t use His force. Moses must stand between these two great forces, the Creator and Pharaoh, and by using his staff he should determine what this war should be exactly.

So, we must grow up and mature in order to feel and understand more. There is nothing to fear, but we simply should know that it is the war of correction and we should enjoy this process! I don’t mean that we should enjoy it in our ego, but we should be glad that this process has started and that we are the vanguard in the process of bringing all of Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) to correction.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can I prepare myself even if don’t have the power to do so, if I don’t have the fuel?

Answer: The importance of the goal is given to us from above and we are also sustained from above. There are no heroes here who themselves hold on by their teeth. Each of us lives thanks to the mercy of the Upper. The moment we are given the slightest hardening of the heart, we immediately begin to cry. Everyone is like that and there are no exceptions, and it isn’t that you are weaker than others!

But we should understand that exertions aren’t physical work that I have to do by force. If you overcome something by physical power, it means that it’s a lie. You cannot have the powers for real exertion, which is above human powers. If you can make efforts and do something, it isn’t considered exertion.

Exertion is the attempt to connect to the teacher, the group, and the books to receive the importance of the goal, the importance of the Creator, and the importance of action from them, and to operate on their fuel. You don’t have any fuel to exert yourself. But if you receive fuel through them you will have it.

This means that exertion isn’t just any kind of work, but only when you are attracted to the teacher, the group, and the books in order to be spurred on by them and to receive from them the fuel that you need for your work. Only this is considered exertion and nothing but it. If you had any fuel before you turned to the group, it means that it’s simply ego and not exertion. If you have fuel afterward, it means that you received it from above and this isn’t considered exertion either. The exertion is in arranging things so that you will be impressed by the group.

We have to constantly see these three means: the teacher, the group, and the books that are the link, the coordinators, that connect you to the Creator. There is no other source of energy or vitality. It’s your infusion, your pipeline of oxygen. If you don’t connect to it, you will die. If the friends constantly help you, you will never forget this. This is called mutual guarantee without which you won’t reach anything.

If you don’t use the chance that you are given, then you bring it back once again but you don’t know when: It may be in another ten years or perhaps in the next life. Every moment is detached from the previous one and no one knows when this opportunity will appear again. The current moment is concealed and you may wake up again only after many more lives. This can happen to any of us.

Perhaps only in two hundred years according to the program of development, will you finally receive an awakening again. A friend did not do something properly, was lazy, and you did not get through him what you were supposed to get, and thus went to the next round.

Question: It turns out that I have been already penalized and nothing depends on me?

Answer: It depends only on you; you just need to awaken friends. The Torah is given from above every day. If you created the conditions from below, please, have it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/13, Shamati #219 “Devotion”

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The Generation We Are Dealing With

Baal HaSulam: “The Merit of Recollection”: And this is the matter of the diminishing value of the generations, until they have reached the last restriction in our generation in which “the wisdom of authors shall reek, and those who fear sin will be loathed,” since this is the state the masses are all in, and they don’t feel any obligation to engage in the Godly work and do not feel any deficiency when it is lacking. This is the form of our generation with whom we deal.

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“, Item 36: We learn from the words of the Tikkunim of The Zohar that there is an oath that the Light of mercy and love will not awaken in the world before Israel’s deeds in Torah and Mitzvot will have the intention to not receive reward, but only to bestow contentment upon the Maker…

Thus, the length of the exile and affliction that we suffer depends on us and waits for us to merit the practice of Torah and Mitzvot Lishma. And if we only attain that, this Light of love and bestowal (Lishma), which has the power to extend, will immediately awaken, as it is written, “And the spirit shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding.” Then we will be granted complete redemption.
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Question: There is a bit of time left until the Moscow convention for the graduates of the Moscow Kabbalah Academy. How can we help the friends who study virtually recognize the great advantage of the physical contact during the convention?

Answer: If a person lives in a remote place and doesn’t meet physically with friends on the path physically, he has no chance of discovering the upper world. After all, the upper world is revealed in the connection between us.

Virtual connection alone is not enough. This kind of connection is not enough even for people in this world. Even with the wonderful means of communication today, scientists go to conventions several times a year. Why isn’t it enough to communicate via video conferences? Why is it so important to meet and speak in person at least once every few months?

The main thing in these symposiums is actually the personal talks, the live communication. It isn’t the lectures that are given from a stage that matter but rather the interpersonal contact that conveys the spirit of the event. It isn’t about information but about the spirit, about the atmosphere. This is the reason that they meet in conventions: a word here, a couple of comments there, face-to-face conversations and even fleeting ones are valuable.

And all the more when it comes to our conventions. If we don’t connect when everyone arrives physically, then there is no point wasting our time on studying in front of screens, it will lead to nothing. There must be a personal contact, since it is through this kind of contact that the spiritual urge is conveyed.

So we are all going to meet in Moscow on the 13^th of December. All our friends from all over the world will connect to the convention and some will actually come. This pleases me very much. We all connect more strongly and adhere to one another this way. Let’s hope that the Creator will be revealed in this mutual connection.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/06/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence“

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #219 “Devotion”: But during the Katnut (smallness), one does not feel any benefit for oneself since one does not presently feel any pleasure in the servitude. … And the more he works, the suffering increases proportionally. Finally, the suffering and the labor accumulate to a certain amount until the Creator has mercy on him and gives him the taste in the servitude of the Creator, as it is written, “Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high.”

Question: What does it mean that the Creator took pity on the man?

Answer: In essence, the Creator is not obliged to do anything for us. We demand and think that He has to help us. But on what grounds? He owes us nothing.

In the past, there was a custom that those sentenced to death kneeled before the king and thanked him for his mercy. The King is such a high position that even his judgment is mercy. Malchut (kingdom) means judgment, justice. Since the King granted a person attention from his infinite height, then all his orders are turned into mercy and they are to be accepted as the most gracious. This is customary according to the laws of the true kingdom.

A person works and eventually gets strength, allowing him to rise to the next degree. But at the same time he reveals that he rose not by his strengths but he just fulfilled the condition, after which he received help from above. The Creator gives him the screen, due to which a person reveals a higher degree. It is always mercy on the part of the Creator because a person has not worked on this degree yet.

We never work on the higher degree and do not know what we do. Our task is to fulfill several conditions, after which the Creator will have mercy and help us. Our effort is important. It is established from above that for his efforts a person receives what he is not able to achieve himself.

It comes as a gift of higher mercy. We attain just a thin line of the entire huge circle of the universe. Everything else is connected to us later, extracted from the vast sea of impure forces by higher mercy. But it cannot be said that we get all this for free because the reward comes as a result of our efforts to correct the relations with each other.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/13, Shamati #219 “Devotion”

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The work is always divided into two parts: the period of concealment and in disclosure. Even before the state of disclosure, there are periods when concealment gets stronger and then weaker, and we begin to understand and feel a bit more.

In periods of disclosure, we received illumination in the heart and the mind and then are drawn to unity, studies, the spiritual path, praise the Creator and the goal. And during concealment, we, on the contrary, do not want to advance, are not happy about the working conditions, and neglect the goal. It is possible to move forward here only in faith above reason, due to the dedication of the soul and individual efforts, above one’s own desire and human strength.

These conditions will never change; it is a person who has to change. Just as he sought knowledge and pleasant feelings, filling them during an ascent, so now he must seek devotion of the soul during a descent.

But from where can we get these forces, because the desire to enjoy works only on the fuel called “pleasure”? Pleasure determines the goal and supplies energy for the work that enables us to reach this goal. But if the darkness and concealment thickens, and any desire to go forward disappears, what can we do then?

To a certain point, you need to advance and apply efforts as much as you can. There is a set limit, until which a person can do this, getting fuel from the group, environment, teacher, studies, the Creator, that is, the external sources. But one day he reaches this limit even if all the available means are arranged ideally.

This means that he overflows his measure and a prayer is born above it. He wants to work without any reward, without fulfillment, like a “perpetual motion machine”: to become a machine running without any fuel that is not demanding anything, not the greatness of the goal, not feeling the significance of his action, not any compensation.

He works only because the King needs his work. Moreover, he does not understand that King and does not feel Him in order not to receive from his consciousness any reward and motivation that could be used as fuel. He cares only about not having egoistic fuel! His efforts to do actions without any motivation are called devotion of the soul, self-sacrifice, superhuman efforts, or faith above reason.

That is his goal because it allows a very precise measure whether he really strives to present the upper force, the Creator. If he truly wishes nothing for himself in order to perform the work without any conditions and limitations, infinitely, above any compensations, this is the point through which he begins to touch spirituality at every degree.

This point is called the point above reason. It forms the head (Rosh) of the Partzuf relative to the body (Guf). This is already a higher degree in relation to the current one or adhesion with the AHP of the upper like an embryo. These states are very accurate; a person can measure them and thus advance.

Therefore, devotion of the soul is not a vague concept, but it is measured clearly relative to the human desire to enjoy. If he restricts his desire from all sides and wants to work so that he does not receive any fuel and any compensation for his egoism in anything, either now or in the future, then he rises to the state of faith above reason or devotion of the soul.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/13, Shamati #219 “Devotion”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”: Moreover, even the things we imagine we attain by their essence, such as rocks and trees, after honest examination we are left with zero attainment in their essence, since we only attain their actions, which occur in conjunction with the encounter of our senses with them.

I perceive everything and feel only as an impression, created in my sense organs, not in the original form. The truth is outside of me and unknown to me. Only by perceiving something within myself, distinguishing what was “depicted” in my vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, can I consider something. All names and symbols, all phenomena, and responses, all kinds of matter, everything that happens is due to the perception in my sense organs. The essence remains “behind the scenes,” eludes material sensations, lies outside of the picture of the world that they “draw” for us.

Question: How, then, can we communicate with each other and understand each other?

Answer: We can understand each other because each one has a similar program with a similar template inherent in our sense organs. Their correspondence allows a person to pass his emotions to others because they are in the same illusion as he is. We are all at a certain level of perception and this situation allows us to discuss it among ourselves.

Based on the current “picture,” we admit the existence of our world, in which there are the still, vegetative, and animate natures, as well as people who perceive reality. What it is in reality, we don’t know. Perhaps, it’s just waves as physicists say, or almost primordial emptiness because the distance between subatomic particles is incomparably greater than their size.

How do we perceive the world? How does this affect us? How do we imagine what is happening? Why does reality specifically take these forms in our perception? How do we process the received data? How do we compare them with past results? How and with the help of what code do we pass information to each other? How do we store it to use the accumulated experience later to find something, to draw an analogy? All these are derivatives.

And the most important thing is that people in this material world perceive only a subjective picture. If they are given other sense organs, they will see a different world. If their program of perception is changed, the picture will change. Today we have already invented devices that enable us to modify and augment the perceived reality, to create illusions and false images.

Moreover, animals, compared to us, perceive the world completely differently. A dog orients himself by “spotting” odors; he does not look at a person, but smells him and by this means builds a human image. He recognizes a cat that runs by not so much by the eyes, but in the field of smell. A snake determines the temperature of objects to fractions of degrees, and this gives it a clear picture.

In general, it’s clear that everything in the world is relative. It’s relative even between people, although by nature, there is not such a big difference between us.

Question: In this case, how can Kabbalists, discussing the spiritual world, understand each other?

Answer: A Kabbalist is a person who resides in a body, like you, and who perceives the world through the bodily senses, as you do. Besides that, he has additional perception, in which he distinguishes the forces controlling the world and his connection with them. There is a network of forces before him, that’s all. But it is really everything.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We walk on two legs: left, right, left, right. We should always seek the right, but we always start on the left foot, from the growing desire to receive. It is impossible to do anything without a desire, without a deficiency, without any interest.

The action itself is performed by the Light that Reforms. On the whole, it is a very simple process, but because we experience it by these feelings it throws us into different states. When we are on the left side we cannot see the right, and from the right side we cannot believe that there is also a left side. And so we are like kids that either cry or laugh.

The desire to enjoy, the desire to receive, is all of our matter, which totally determines our state: all our feelings, our mind, and our perspective. We all depend on it until we reach the middle line. There we can already be above our desire, both on the left line and the right line, and manage ourselves, which is called above reason, above pleasant impressions or unpleasant ones in our desire to receive. We can already use all these states for our advancement from our own freewill.

But we will be thrown from side to side: to the left and to the right, until we attain the control of the middle line. When we are on the left, we need to somehow control our state so that we will not lose our heads and despair of the fact that everything is bad, that everything is dark, and that we don’t see anything. We have to use the left line effectively and constructively by trying to make something out of it and to not just having a bad feeling, drowning in despair, helplessness, and hopelessness.

It is clear that if a person is totally made of a desire to receive and it totally under the influence of the Light, then nothing will help him but the environment. If he doesn’t lose connection with the environment but invests in it, then the environment will always provide him and influence him with a certain measure of Light. If a person puts his exertion into the “warehouse” of the environment, his connection, his submission to the environment, the more support he will receive in this warehouse during a descent, and then he will be able to rise faster.

It is the same the other way around, when everything is nice and good. Then he shouldn’t lose his head, but rather try to use this situation in order to advance. We will also need the support of the environment that should balance us in such an ascent. The main thing is never to forget and to be aware of the fact that we need to reach a real deficiency. The only way to reach a real deficiency is by the support of the environment, since a person will always escape from the work in such states when he is by himself. The main thing is to go through as many pleasant states as possible and not to think about how beneficial they are for one’s advancement.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/13

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The Torah, “Exodus,” 26:32 – 26:35: “And you shall place it on four pillars of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, their hooks [shall be gold], on four silver sockets. And you shall place the dividing curtain beneath the clasps. You shall bring there on the inner side of the dividing curtain the Ark of the Testimony, and the dividing curtain shall separate for you between the Holy and Holy of the Holies. And you shall place the ark cover over the Ark of the Testimony in the Holy of Holies. And thou shall place the table on the outer side of the dividing curtain and the Menorah opposite the table on the southern side of the Mishkan, and you shall place the table on the northern side.”

All the elements of the Tabernacle are the embodiment of our ego that is made of four levels. By being prepared to be burnt, which means: to totally resemble the Light as if you place a table, a Menorah, in a certain direction on a certain side.

We may say that the Tabernacle, the tent with all its features, is the complete resemblance to the corrected world but on a small scale. If we study only about it, it is enough in order to understand what the corrected state of our soul should be, in the same state, in our relations, in everything.

This means that all the elements of the Tabernacle tell us about the end of correction that we have to attain.

The Torah, “Exodus,” 27:1, 27:9: “And you shall make the altar of acacia-wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide; the altar shall be square, and its height [shall be] three cubits. And you shall make the courtyard of the Mishkan on the southern [there shall be] hangings for the court of twisted fine linen, one hundred cubits long on one side.”

It is about discovering the full egoistic essence of our soul above which we eventually put up the tent, which means that we build a Masach (screen) and the intention of in order to bestow.

The whole spiritual work begins from the first commandment of the Torah, which spreads to all the components of creation, to the whole mass of the desire that was created by the Creator.
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From Kab TV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/13

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I’m acutely aware of people’s attitude towards me. When I visit different cities in Europe I feel the local internal antagonistic opposition,  I try not to justify the Creator in order not to blur this feeling of exile that gives me the opportunity for spiritual work, and I  even enjoy it.

After all, I came from a country with a society that was taught to sharply feel anti-Semitism. Of course, it was all planned this way on purpose.

Interestingly, it is more evident and revealed more simply in Eastern Europe than in France, for example, where it is subtle and elegant. When negative feelings are revealed more simply, you can talk about it, discuss it, and directly object to the hatred people feel towards you, and can analyze such states, even together with your enemies. While in Western Europe everything is veiled.

It is intriguing. I am always glad to feel this and often try to summon such crooked stares so as to feel the negative attitude towards me. It is essential.

Question: What do you get from this as a Kabbalist?

Answer: We know that Rav Zosha and other Kabbalists in Eastern Europe, in Russia, use to go out to exile on purpose. They used to leave their village behind them and go to places where only gentiles lived: Russians, Ukrainians, etc., in order to experience repulsion and hatred, the negative attitude others have towards you as a person.

The feeling of exile is essential in order to need the Creator, specifically from the oppositeness of this attribute. It isn’t an inclination for sufferings but rather the recognition of the state you are really in, but which you may be hiding from yourself.

We mustn’t blur such states. You have to live with everyone and feel them deeply; what they really are.
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From Kab TV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/12/13

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