The whole point is how we awaken. The main thing is connection in different circumstances, the constant additions of coming together in different states and especially during a descent. These states are a real treasure in potential.

During an ascent, when I feel impressed, I operate on the fuel that I am given. The Light that comes from above shines on me and I hop on this wave and ride it for a while. But during a descent, even a small effort is worth a great deal.

On the whole, you should try to see that you develop and are continuously advancing. It’s like the iron parts that hold on the wheels of old locomotives that constantly move backward and forward over and over again. This is also a person’s spiritual work, even when he falls backward, he still advances forward.

So if we can consolidate our forces during a descent, it will help us see things more clearly than during an ascent. The reason is that in the dark I illuminate the corporeal nature that I am immersed in now, and it’s from this Aviut (thickness) that I reach a revelation. It’s extremely worthwhile. Even if I see that I can barely succeed and even with a fall a moment later, I still attain a great deal.
[122075]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/03/13, Writings of Rabash

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The vessels of bestowal are also the desire to receive, but it doesn’t receive yet in order to bestow. Suppose I am a guest sitting in front of the Host. When I see how nicely He treats me in the upper layer of the desire too, I am ready to treat Him the same way. His bestowal that is focused on me brings me to the correct response.

At the same time I am under His domination. He is so wonderful, good, and benevolent that this bestowal alone already corrects me and I am ready to bestow upon Him in response.

Thus I respond to the Light in the vessels of GE that are focused on bestowal in order to bestow. They also have a certain Aviut (thickness) but generally speaking I don’t object to the Host. When I absorb His love for me, I cannot harm Him in my desire to receive anymore. It’s hard to understand this since we would be ready to harm Him in a similar situation, because if He loves me, this love makes Him vulnerable and so I can annoy Him.

But we are speaking about the level of truth here: If I see that a person helps me from the bottom of his heart—even though it’s not easy and requires great effort—I establish the same attitude towards him in me. I don’t work in order to bestow like he does yet, but at least I “Don’t do unto your friend what is hated by you.”

Thus, although it’s only the upper layers of Aviut, I work with all its vessels, desires, engaging them just enough not to use their thicker Aviut. I use it only on the condition that I feel His attitude towards me as great love. In the meantime, I can respond only by belonging to Him and not more than that.

It’s about the animate level. I am like a dog at the feet of his master. I work with all my desires, but only in order to adhere to Him. I am inferior to Him.

This isn’t easy. Thanks to this, He can do what He wants with me. Here dedication, devotion, and a level of faith, bestowal, are required, but not more. I annul myself, “Use me as You wish, I am a tool in Your hands.”

But I still cannot operate myself on the human level; it is against my nature to be like Him. This is the next level that AHP connects to, to receive in order to bestow, not only the redemption from the desire but also in it.

In the meantime, however, I annul myself, and it’s this state which symbolizes Chanukah. I follow the Creator despite everything. It’s clear that I am fighting a war, I am killing my enemies, but only those who reject spirituality; “Live,” they say, “Don’t belong to the Light, don’t connect to bestowal.”

Question: I don’t understand what this has to do with the spiritual work.

Answer: Try to focus yourself so that you will not feel hatred towards anyone and so that you will not want to succeed at the expense of anyone. You will agree that everyone should feel good. Even if you don’t contribute anything, you aren’t disturbing. Try to reach this attitude above your desire to receive.

Imagine that we find a treasure worth billions of dollars. Now let’s split it evenly among everyone, including the two of us. Perhaps you agree now, but what if it’s already in your bank account? Believe me that it will hurt to relinquish every penny, this is our nature. So it isn’t easy to reach the level of to bestow in order to bestow. It takes forty years in the desert and eventually the miracle that is accumulated in small portions, time after time, happens.
[122062]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/13, Writings of Rabash

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There is full abundance in the world, but we can’t manage to arrange it for life; like a family that has material prosperity but such a bad relationship with each other that it’s impossible to live together. Then there is no choice and people either get divorced, or like in our case, the only thing we can do is to connect. We cannot draw away from one another or get divorced because nature still forces us to attain mutual connection.

This is where the war against the Greeks breaks out, the war of how to continue: either in reason or above reason, which means by using the forces of receiving or the forces of bestowal. We see that it’s impossible to live operating with the forces of receiving. Even if nothing is lacking in the world, our life will become unbearable because of the terrible relations between us. Even if we create wonderful conditions, there is still the problem of the hatred and repulsion felt between us, and so nothing will help and we will ruin our lives until it becomes unbearable.

Thus, we reach the recognition of evil in human nature and understand that we only need to correct ourselves from hatred to love. Otherwise there is no chance of existing. The sooner we identify this only option, the better off we will be. Instead of sufferings and troubles that taint the existence of our big family, of all of humanity, we can reach a wonderful corrected life.

This is where the war erupts, each for himself and everyone for everyone else, in an attempt to help everyone leave the hatred and reach love. We feel that it isn’t in our power and that we need another partner here, which is called the upper force.

What’s more, in this process we begin to understand that it’s all predetermined. The problem isn’t that we have to simply make peace between us and forget the hatred we felt before. Everything is done on purpose with this intention in this way so that we will not be able to take a step away from separation, from the ego, from the hate we feel, towards connection, love, and bestowal by ourselves. Then we will need the help of the upper force and to connect to it so that we are adhered to it. Thus we discover the upper force, the only force that operates in reality.

This whole process is possible only by getting closer to the upper force that manages all of reality, that shows it in our minds, and changes reality if we turn to it with this request. Get closer to it and become increasingly more dependent on it. This is how we are incorporated in our root.

All these battles are divided into two major wars: The war over the vessels of bestowal and then the war over the vessels of receiving in order to bestow. The first war is called the Maccabean war. It’s in order to get rid of the current perception of reality and to move to the real perception of reality that allows us to see the spiritual world. Therefore we are only allowed to see the light of the Chanukah candles and not to use them. After the victory of the Maccabees, a second war breaks out in order to fulfill the desires to receive in order to bestow.

So Chanukah symbolizes the end of the first part of our work. The truth is that it is the most difficult half. Therefore, this holiday isn’t mentioned directly anywhere in the Bible but is only referred to by hints because it is the holiday of the Light, of bestowal. It’s impossible to express this correctly in our corporeal language and to describe this war clearly.
[122054]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/01/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: But as we have seen, it is a simple thing, and should be observed by each and every one of us. For although everyone has “his own source,” the forces are revealed openly only through the environment one is in. …

And so our sages warned, “Make for yourself a Rav, and buy for yourself a friend.” And there is also the choice of books, as we have mentioned, for only in that is one rebuked or praised—in his choice of environment. But once he has chosen the environment, he is at its hands as clay in the hands of the potter.

The possibility to choose the right environment is given only to those people who have the point in the heart. Indeed, they now have to develop to the degree of the human being (Adam), similar (Domeh) to the Creator. It is the people in whom this point has been awakened, the root of their soul, that receive the impulse to enter the correct environment. Then they have to decide for themselves whether they will do it or not.

This is the free choice between the desire to receive and the point, the “rudiment” of the desire to bestow, not it itself, but its opposite side. I can choose when I have these two “poles.” How? I strengthen myself in the correct environment. By this, I want to reinforce one factor as opposed to another.

But if I do not have the second point, if I am just the desire to receive, then it does not influence my “choice.” In this case, I pursue self-interest like a dog that sniffs something on the street; that’s all.

Question: But at the same time within the framework of integral education, we suggest that people create a better environment for themselves.

Answer: True, to create a better environment for their desire to receive, but not for the point in the heart. So that a person knows it is possible to improve his life in a common circle, in unity.

However, everyone has the point in the heart; it is inherent in every desire at this or that depth. It is said, “They will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.” That is why in organizing, gathering people, and bringing the Light that Reforms to them, we force the awakening of this point so that it begins to “surface.” And once a person, undergoes the integral method, he tells us that he wants to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. Why? He does not know himself; he just suddenly wants to.

Anyway, integral groups are not a Kabbalistic environment because they do not have the left line. We take care of them as one of our dependents, teaching them good relationships, sympathy, and unity but without internal disturbances from the side of egoism that “feels” what is coming. We speak about a more serious work in our environment.
[122183]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How is it possible to maintain the integral team in ascent in various conditions?

Answer: Exactly as in the group. You see we need to support each other. From above,  we only receive the ever-increasing Light, and if we become like it, then it attracts us towards it. And to that degree in our characteristics we are different from it, we feel distant from it. Therefore, everything depends upon our work otherwise we don’t get any help from above.

In people there is an attitude that everything passes, that everything will take care of itself, the malady will pass and everything will be okay. Nothing will pass and nothing will be good. On the spiritual path it’s impossible to give a person fulfillment without a Kli,vessel,  without creating the right desire from his side. There won’t be anything to give. Therefore, either you prepare yourselves for discovering the Upper Light, and it will be discovered only between us, or you simply need to leave this.

You need to grit your teeth, bow your head, and work on connection and unity. And the worse it is and the more problems there are the better. Clench your teeth more strongly and go connect with a friend in spite of it all; show him, even out of spite, how much you yearn to connect and unite with him even though he relates to you with contempt.
[122144]
From the Talk About Group and Dissemination 11/24/13

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Question: How is it possible to evaluate the adequacy of our integrality in order to realize we are ready to go out to the masses?

Answer: After working with the public do you feel the compulsion to connect? Do you feel that without connection between you, you have no strength to work with the public? Do you feel how much you need the support of the friends during the lessons for the wider circles of the population?

If you have a feeling like this, then you are working correctly. If there is no feeling like this, then it is a problem; then you are not involved with integral upbringing and education, but are simply fooling yourself. You must feel the group within you all the time, its center, its help, the Creator, that you want to reveal. Only in this way will you become conductors of the Light and able to influence the public that will agree with you and follow you.

But you need to feel the importance of the link with the group, with its center, with the Creator, within this center, as well as the fact that you are working specifically from this connection.
[122035]
From the Talk About Group and Dissemination 11/24/13

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People are moving away from trappings and feigned manners. Once aristocrats walked the streets in tail coats and top hats, automatically holding themselves in strict decorum, performing adopted  rituals .

Today, however, people are becoming more liberated of the rigid frameworks: They dress simply, speak plainly, the media are less formal, children are more relaxed in their behavior with their parents, more people wear sandals and sneakers, etc.

In short, we are drawing away from the external form as it is clear now that this isn’t what makes a person.

People are not ashamed of what was considered social taboos in the past. Non-traditional sexual inclinations, for example, over which people used to kill themselves in the past, are openly declared today without any feelings of shame. People don’t feel they need to hide their natural tendencies anymore, and society accepts everyone. Everyone receives innate attributes to which he adds what he has received from the environment.

Thus, we gradually approach the question of: “So who am I really? If everything that I am is inherited, then I am actually nothing, a kind of a robot with a built in program instead of a real individual.”

This question isn’t asked explicitly yet, but humanity is getting closer to this and soon it will be ready to actually ask it. When the superficiality comes to an end, we will want to identify what it is that makes a person a human being.

Then we will discover that there is nothing but the point in the heart and that even this point doesn’t give us the right to be called a human being yet. It is only a drop of spiritual semen that we have to bring into the group, which means to bring one’s self into the womb. The more strongly I adhere to the group, the more I adhere to the womb, and then according to my efforts I am fed and receive blood, oxygen, etc. Then this drop becomes a spiritual embryo.

The main thing is that this whole process is carried out by the group. This is where one is nourished, and the more the embryo is adhered to it, the more spiritual force it receives to grow.
[121566]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/26/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We incarnate to the lowest level which is called, “this world,” and we discover ourselves in it. We are born here, develop, live, exist within the physical body, and comprehend reality through the five senses.

All of this is so that from this condition, which is absolute zero relative to spirituality, failing each time, one can know how to enter the spiritual world through our free choice,  free action.

We penetrate spirituality a little, rising with the help of the Light that Reforms, improve our characteristics and senses, and fall again to this level outside the spiritual world. Again we rise and again we fall. Every time there is a fall to this world, absolutely complete separation from the spiritual, again a new elevation begins, but greater in value and quality.

That is how we work until we clarify all of the shattered desires and connect them together through our relationship to them as a friend  in love and unity. Ultimately we make a single Kli, one desire, which means we reach the end of our correction.

There is nothing more to do on Earth, that we feel that we exist upon now, besides attracting the Light that Reforms, the power that can elevate us from this low level to the higher level. After that, we will again fall for this must be, and again we rise, but to a higher level than the previous one. As it is said, “For a righteous man can fall seven times and rise” (Proverbs 24:16) or “No person can rely upon the matter of a Mitzvah unless he has failed in it” (Mishnah Halachot).

This is the way of the clarification of the shattering and its correction through which we attach more and more shattered Kelim, connecting them together. Essentially this is elevation from the point of this world upwards in accord with the levels of the spiritual ladder. All of this depends only upon the number of Kelim that we attach to one action, to one intention.

Therefore, the one thing that is imperative for us is to attract the Light that Reforms. It is necessary to be organized in order to influence it most effectively, to clarify what the desire, the intention, and all of our actions must be. If the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) acts upon us to the same degree that we attract it, then it is up to us to organize the group, the studies, dissemination, and all of our lives accordingly, so that everything will be directed and connected to that goal: maximum yearning for the Light that Reforms.

And so all the talk, study, and intentions while studying must only be about this subject; it is up to a person to understand that in this life, in the existence of the present level, where we are found today, there is no other goal. If one carries out this work and attracts the Light that Reforms that raises him or her to the first spiritual level, then one will merit this elevation. For clear laws operate here in compliance with the Lights and the vessels.

And if one doesn’t merit revelation, then one remains with the same Reshimo (spiritual gene). Of course, he will improve it a little through his efforts, but ultimately he will end his existence on the material level and will pass to the next level of this world. In other words, he will die and be born again; he will begin to develop within a new level of this world. These are ten Sefirot but without a Masach (screen); therefore, we see them just as the birth of a body in this world.

There is no choice, if we want to realize ourselves, we must be concerned only about the Light that Reforms! Therefore it is always necessary to make a critique, a clarification, an inspection of the study, the dissemination, the assembly of friends, the meals, everything in life. Is everything organized such that all of our efforts will be maximally useful for continuing the illumination and attracting it to us? Are we attracted to its characteristics, its direction?

On this basis it is up to us to organize all of the relationships between us. Only the illumination is our main goal and determines all of our actions.
[121117]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/13, Writings of Rabash

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I recommend applying a thorough scrutiny at what we bring into ourselves. We can more reliably deal with the “animal’ needs, to satisfy the needs in food, sex, family life, etc., than to act in the group without analysis and scrutiny.

It is one thing to simply pass out and fall to the level of “bodily passions,” and it is different when your work in the group is not exactly correct. In this case you already exist at the human stage of corruptness and this is bad. It is worth it to apply meticulousness here.
[122073]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12.3.13, Writings of Rabash

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The only thing we can ask for is connection, the welding points between two parts. This is the only thing we speak about, and it is only with regard to this issue that there are problems and wars. This welding point between two components is crucial to the condition of the world, and the entire struggle and the development of our reality take place in that point.

Even if I ask for myself, it isn’t for my personal benefit, but for being adhered to others. The world is whole. Everything in it is perfect, except for one corrupt vessel. There was a vessel and it was shattered. We can ask only for the correction of this vessel, and there is nothing else for which we can ask. However, you are asking for many other things.

Yet, you are told, “It isn’t true, you are wrong! Everything is fine. What aren’t you happy about? You need only one thing: to correct this vessel. If you correct it and put the vessel together again into one whole vessel, you will find great pleasures in it: delicious food, knowledge, feelings, warmth, health, whatever you want. You only need to correct this vessel, to put it back together.”

However, you are saying, “No, I want something pleasant and tasty,” and the answer you get is that this will happen the moment you put the vessel together and when it is whole again. The moment you put all its parts back together, you will discover all the pleasures in it. Yet, we are asking for everything we want, except that! It isn’t only your problem but the problem of every person in the world. People don’t understand that this is the only way to reach correction; it’s only through correction.

All the religions, beliefs, problems, and wars are only about this one issue: to connect or not to connect. We were given a means that allows us to reach connection and to solve all the problems in the world and overcome the hatred. The moment we begin to connect, all of nature also begins to connect: all the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature. The wolf and the lamb will live together in harmony and will obey the small child, as it says in Prophets.

Everything depends only on our desire to bring about and attain connection. We will be able to correct all of reality, our whole life, by such changes that apparently have nothing to do with our problems. It all depends on our connection. We only need to ask to be connected, welded, so that the good force will dominate us. We turn to the good force (to the Creator, to the attribute of love and bestowal) so that He will correct and fill us.

There is nothing but the point of unity, the drop of unity. This entire world that is before me now is the revelation of all the phenomena that are opposite from unity. It is for this reason that I see the stars, the earth, people, and all the phenomena that are external to the framework of unity. It is for this reason that these phenomena are called this world.

So, what should I think about: about this world or about unity? If I just worry and think about this world, then I will remain in the lie in which I have been living. So, I constantly play this game, spinning on the carousel of life. However, if I want to leave this fixed game and refuse to be a mere puppet in it, I need to think only about unity.
[121450]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/13, Writings of Rabash

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