Question: Where is the center of the group found and how do we direct ourselves towards it? Is this a mental activity?

Answer: The center of the group is found in a place towards which all eyes and all hearts are directed, at the point where the friends expect to get a response for all of their efforts.

We have a common task and each one of us invests in the center of the group to the extent of his efforts and desires. In other words, the center of the group is the center of all the investments and hopes, the location of the prayers, and from there all of the requests rise upward. We invest all of our lives in the center of the group and we want the center to become the conclusion, the result of our lives.

We want to discover the guarantee there, for otherwise we cannot discover the Creator. The guarantee and the Creator, the Kli and the Light are discovered together as one thing. One cannot be without the other.

From the beginning of creation, there is no Light without a Kli and naturally, there is no Kli without the Light. This is what the Ari tells us in “The Tree of Life”: “Behold, that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created, the upper simple light had filled the whole existence.” This is to say, the reality and the Light already existed. One never existed without the other.

In the thought of creation, in the program of the Creator, the two components already existed as a single whole. There is no benefit to the Light if there is no Kli.

Therefore the center of the group is the place in which the Light and the desire need to be discovered together. This is the place in which the Creator is discovered within the creatures as a result of the correction of our properties.

The Kabbalists say that there must be at least ten people who invest effort in accord with the complete spiritual structure of the Ten Sefirot. If the group of ten (Minyan) invests effort in order to be a single whole, then in its center the Creator is discovered.

In order to be a single whole, they must maintain the general rules: “Don’t do to your friend what would be hateful to you, and you shall love your friend as yourself,” which means, to yearn for connection, unity, to be like one person, so that in a link between us, the characteristics that we attribute to the Creator will be discovered.

For we mold the Creator within the Kli, within our desire. And the moment that this desire will be somewhat like the Creator, to the smallest degree, then to that degree we can immediately discover Him. For this, a complete Kli is required, a HaVaYaH, the smallest Ten Sefirot, but it already exists.

To the extent that we kill our egoism, the image of the Creator begins to live in us. The attributes of the Creator live only in those people who kill their egoism for His sake, for the sake of His attributes of bestowal.

The center of the group is everything! There, in that center, all the worlds, Partzufim, Sefirot, the entire spiritual ladder, and the world of infinity are revealed. Everything takes place only at that center because when we begin to reveal the true concept of the group, it turns into the limitless vessel of the world of infinity for us. We learn all the systems—the entire world of Atzilut—from the center of the group.

So, when the creators of The Book of Zohar got closer to each other, to this center, they attained something new and told us about it. Thus they wrote The Book of Zohar, chapter by chapter, from attainment to attainment, defined by the measure of their unity.

Attainment comes from a new place every time: from Rabbi Yossi, Rabbi Abba, Rabbi Elezar, Rabbi Shimon himself, depending on what Sefira of the 10 was the most important in this attainment, and a new look, a new perspective, opened through its properties. Each Sefira is a different quality; that is why we see a complete structure through the prism of one quality or through the prism of another, which helps the understanding.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/13, The Zohar

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Question: The Creator said to Abraham: “Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them and they shall afflict them four hundred years.” Why does the exile have to be accompanied by afflictions?

Answer: This is the period of the exile by definition. You know that you are about to go through very bad experiences.

First you go through the seven years of satiety, which is the positive phase of the development of the ego. You feel good as you establish a flourishing democratic society in which everything glitters and sparkles…

Then the seven years of satiety are over. Do you wish to continue this “dream flight” endlessly? But suddenly something changes and you don’t have any idea why. We can see this especially among young people: There was a generation of “flower children,” hippies., then people lost interest in having children and getting married. Many settle for drugs instead of grand projects. No one is interested in flying to the moon. Space and the stars are not as attractive as they were before; what do we care about them?

Humanity has suddenly lost its future. Why? What is the reason for that? We know where this stems from: People have fulfilled the end of their ego. It has dried up.

So today we seem to be going backward. The same ego that we developed has begun to consume us now: Today’s food only causes us harm, social services don’t function as they should, the healthcare system only wants to make a profit and doesn’t care about your health, governments only exploit the citizens. The ecology is an excellent example of our carelessness: We don’t care what will be left for our children and grandchildren. What is more, many people don’t have children at all. If this goes on most people will have no children in the next generation.

Thus the ego consumes itself during the seven years of famine. “Want” in this case is the recognition of evil, the same ego that we have developed during the seven years of satiety. Although things can get even worse and there could be world wars and other disasters, it is still possible to come to a conclusion and hasten the exodus from Egypt. It all depends on us.

But it is impossible to manage without the feeling of sorrow here, without the exile. Exile means the lack of the Creator’s presence in me, in us. We can feel that only when we are dispersed, separated, divided, and shattered. Then in the final phase of the exile, we want to connect since in the connection we can find the new, inner, upper force.

Who can do that? Only a small group of people.

This is the time we are living in now. We can hasten our development and turn away from the path of deadly afflictions, which means that the path of “I shall hasten it” exists. But how? Through integral education and the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah, since this is the reason it was given. Otherwise we could keep on developing along the path of suffering. The wisdom of Kabbalah was given to us so that we will advance by the path of “I shall hasten it,” and not by the path of “in its time,” in order to summon the Light that Reforms and not to wait for the troubles and blows.

But I’ll say it again, the sufferings still have to be felt, all of them. The question is when will we be smart enough to transform the corporeal sufferings into pangs of love? When will we want to love, to bestow, to connect? This depends on our dissemination, on your attention, and your sensitivity.

Question: It turns out that no matter what efforts we make, the troubles and the blows will be even stronger.

Answer: No. The blows will be more qualitative. We will perceive them in our understanding and our feeling. They will be sweetened blows if you are connected to the center of the group.

Then you will receive these blows but in the Light of Hassadim, which means that they will not be blows and troubles. The point is that you will have to receive a medicine, but its bitterness will be concealed by a sweet coating.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/06/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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If we go out to the wide audience without concern for our inner connection, then why are we going out? We aren’t going to educate them, to campaign for a healthy lifestyle, or to moralize. There are many other organizations and associations that have many means, vast resources, talented leaders, and we cannot compete with them if we are not equipped from the start with the spiritual power of our unity. So we need to understand clearly with what we are moving forward, what our goal is, and what the means for attaining it are.

Our goal is the revelation of the Creator in the world, and the means for this is the Light that Reforms. This is our uniqueness;  we don’t have anything besides this and we also don’t need anything else! We must be very careful not to mix and add some other kind of tools here.

Therefore, the power with which we fight is mutual responsibility, which brings us to faith, that is, to bestowal. In this way we attain everything; the Creator will fight and not we ourselves. We only need to constantly adapt ourselves to open the way for Him. This is called the war of the Creator, serving the Creator.

We constantly need to remind ourselves,  always formatting ourselves anew to adapt ourselves a little more and a little more. The tunnel through which we are passing is becoming narrower and we need to adapt ourselves more and more precisely to its format, to its form, and to gradually advance in this way. Therefore, what was yesterday is already past, today more is required, and tomorrow even more will be required. We need to to adapt ourselves to the instructions of the sources and the teacher  in a more and more precise form, and to try not to forget and understand what the goal is.

Sometimes we forget about this and are confused. The Kelim are renewed all the time and again drop us back into this world. “Shattered Kelim” are discovered and bring us down again; we must consider all kinds of external factors that distract us from the goal. Therefore, the group must hold, support, strengthen, and demand of each one.

If the condition of mutual responsibility acts among us where each one is concerned for the others, is responsible for them so they will not lack anything and will have everything necessary, then a group like this is called Israel (Yashar-El). And then it deserves to receive the Torah.

To the degree that we keep the guarantee in the face of all the disturbances and all kinds of results of the shattering that are discovered at every moment and every time strengthen the guarantee and renew it, then to this degree the Light that Reforms illuminates us. And by means of it, we transform into a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

And we must explain all of this to people. Maimonides once wrote that to women and children it is necessary to reveal this secret gradually, in other words, not to give all the explanations at once. But Baal HaSulam wrote in the article, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” that the time has arrived to reveal the true meaning of serving the Creator to people. For we are already found in this kind of crisis and despair, people already feel they have exhausted their own powers and that they lack the means to change anything in the world. Therefore, we must tell them about working with mutual bestowal in its cleanest form. Only if we reach a state like this will everything be okay.

It’s not even necessary to conceal this; this must transform into our “credo,” into our foundation. We suppose that the world must reach this form and that’s it! These are our views and our knowledge that the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about. If we begin to pretend, then with this we distort and destroy all of our work. For to the degree that we outwardly tell a lie, we need first to be clothed in it internally. And this is not worthwhile to do.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/1/13, Shamati #38 “The Fear of God Is His Treasure”

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When opening an article written by a Kabbalist, I must first examine my relation to its author. He must be an unquestionable authority for me while I myself am a mere tiny sliver of wood carried by the water’s current.

I have to be willing to follow him and engage my mind with his, removing all my criticism, feelings, and definitions, absolutely everything. I need to forget everything I know so far, because it has already been processed by my mind, and therefore is flawed. I must withdraw from all my emotions and just enter him.

This is the first stage of the correct reading of a Kabbalistic source: the annulment of self before someone greater, someone who wishes to give me something right now. Later on, I will be able to engage my mind and feelings so I may see how well I connect with what I have read and to what degree I feel and agree with it. But at the same time, I still must be immersed in it.

Not so long ago, it was very difficult to obtain Kabbalistic books, so every piece of paper used by a Kabbalist to scribble on was viewed as a great revelation from above. And even though you didn’t understand one word of it, through these lines you still tried to find the key to spirituality.

And today everything is available in writing, but people don’t want to open these books since spirituality doesn’t entice them. Such is human nature: When everything is too easy to get, it doesn’t seem attractive. But for us, these texts are as vital as air.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, Writings of Rabash

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The unique nature of spiritual work lies in the fact that a person has to get accustomed to being in opposite states. And, despite their polarity, he has to be able to live in both, discerning one from the other as a “benefit of the Light coming from darkness,” and thereby advancing.

This is very difficult for the beginner to understand. After all, in the corporeal world, we act based only on our egoistic desire to feel pleasure; there is no desire to bestow here, and so there is only one truth. And everything that opposes it we consider false.

In spirituality, it is the other way around. Since we assemble the Creator based on the created being, then both ends of the spiritual ladder are the truth. And the greater the evil inclination is, man’s ego, the higher he can ascend; once he will be wicked and another time he will be righteous. And every time these states, so distant from one another, arise in one person.

Therefore, we must view these two states correctly, both ascents and descents: We must rise above them. In other words, there is me and there is my state of being. It can be a descent or ascent but it has nothing to do with my “I” because “I” is the point where I wish to achieve adhesion with the Creator. And I must perceive all the successive states as necessary.

I “don’t pay attention to” my feelings or delve into them, but rather, I assess how effective a given state is, if I rise above it, in achieving the final goal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, Writings of Rabash

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The Book of Zohar was hidden for generations and it was prohibited to even look at. Kabbalists themselves promulgated this ban. The secret that is concealed within it is the Light that Reforms, but reaching this Light is possible only by breaking through the protective shield arranged by Rabbi Abba who re-wrote this text. When Kabbalists write books, they express the content so that it is concealed in a special garb, which we must penetrate through to reach what is inside. Their writing is a revelation, but while revealing one thing, they conceal two.

They help us with this concealment that brings us closer, by allowing us, to some small degree, to touch this secret. In fact, if there were no concealment, we would not be able to see anything at all. It is similar to an invisible man who cannot be seen until he dresses. But as soon as he puts clothes on, everybody can see him.

In other words, the concealment of Rabbi Shimon by Rabbi Abba helps us to approach this secret! But on the other hand, it leaves us room for work: If you break through this shield, you will find Rabbi Shimon. Rabbi Shimon brings revelation to us from above to below, so he must disguise himself. He wishes to pass it onto everyone but can’t since we are not ready to receive it. Hence, he cries (crying is symbolic of a small spiritual state, Katnut).

This entire enormous system regarded as Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai) is not a “person” but an upper system that is forced to reduce itself (which is regarded as “crying”) because the lower ones are unable to receive anything from it. And how must he adjust himself, make an “adapter” between himself and the lower ones, as if between a wide pipe and the eye of a needle? So, then another system is engaged, which is called Rabbi Abba, a unique soul that is capable of serving as an adapter that connects us to Rabbi Shimon.

Finally, Rashbi’s light becomes revealed through the special system of Rabbi Abba that descends to us in the form of the book called Zohar. It is titled by the name of the source from which its Light derives (Zohar means the upper radiance): the Light of Infinity or the Light emanating from the head of Arich Anpin.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The fear should be as to whether I can delight the Creator. This cannot happen before we attain mutual guarantee and before everyone worries, in other words, is fearful as to whether he worries about others. I cannot turn to the Creator before that. He may only be a goal, while my concern for others is the condition that helps me focus on that goal. But it doesn’t work without that, as it is said: “From the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.”

We have to organize our work so that it will be clear to us that these two things are connected and that one exists within the other. In order to focus on the Creator, I need the intention by which three components connect in one line: the eye, the first sight and the second sight. Only by connecting these three parts—Israel, the Torah, and the Creator—can I aim and reach the goal.

It is impossible to aim any other way. If I had one eye and one sight I could turn the gun anyway I wanted to. I can only change the axis, a direct line from me, from my eye, if I focus on the group and through it on the Creator.

So I can test the fear—whether I really worry about everyone or whether I only think about the friends, whether all my work is really in order to bestow, whether I bring myself closer to them, whether I worry about equality and connection in the group, like a father who worries about all his children and feels that he is less important than they are. They are most important for him; they are his masters. Their desires determine his actions.

This is how we should feel every member in the group. If we work this way, then the work isn’t done on the corporal plain but on the spiritual one. The Light will begin to go through us and then we will fulfill the method of Kabbalah in the world. It is because the whole world are parts of our soul. We have no choice; we must bring the Light to the world and correct these vessels. Then these vessels, these people, will come running to us on their own wanting to connect to us. They will feel that we have fulfillment for them compared to the bitter exile they are living in now.

This is how the correct fulfillment should be. Everyone should be mutually connected, which means that I worry about everyone as much as I possibly can so that they would have whatever they need. Under such conditions each one will receive the Torah, which means that in response to his actions, the Light will illuminate and work everything out: both one’s inner connections with the friends and the whole group’s connection with the outside world.

Only then will we have the Torah, the Light that Reforms, only if we are at least inclined to mutual guarantee and everyone worries about everyone else. In that case the Light operates in the group and it has the power to disseminate widely to the world.

Otherwise, “it is best to sit and do nothing,” since what can you go out to the public with? If things are not arranged correctly, you can actually bring about actions that are opposite from the Light. It is because the Light always works automatically according to the vessels and to how they are arranged, whether correctly or not. It will show you your mistakes, which means that you will begin to advance by the path of sufferings. This way can be very difficult and unpleasant, especially when such mistakes spread out in a large crowd. So our work has to be very meticulous and accurate
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/01/13, Shamati #38 “The Fear of God Is His Treasure“

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Question: How can we feel all the friends in order to aspire for more connection?

Answer: To do this, we must work together to fulfill one mission. Suppose we get into a submarine and go out to sea. It is going to be a difficult and dangerous experience in which everyone depends on everyone else. I have a very strong feeling that one person’s mistake or another’s malfunction means that we are all going to drown.

We are in a middle of big ocean, thousands of miles away from any shore, deep under the water, and suddenly one of the valves goes out of order. Now it is impossible to pump the water from the ballast tanks. Together, we try to find a solution to resurface.

In such circumstances, in this state, we have to ascend to unity.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How can it be that Rabbi Shimon would cry at deciding whether he should or shouldn’t reveal the secret concealed in The Book of Zohar? Can a Kabbalist be trusted with such an enormous secret by which he would harm us?

Answer: Rabbi Shimon wasn’t some ordinary person made of flesh and blood who hid in a cave, but is an entire system, a part of the upper world that clothes in the Creator and receives everything He has according to the equivalence of their properties from Him. At the same time, he contemplates how to manage to pass this Light to the other souls that it is yet required to give birth to and develop.

And to accomplish this, he employs one more spiritual system, Rabbi Abba, which makes it possible to pass this Light downward. With Rabbi Abba and the other 9 disciples’ assistance, each of whom represents one of the 10 Sefirot and is comprised of 10 sub-Sefirot, meaning they contain a full set of 100 Sefirot, after the concealment and reduction of the Light in this specific mechanism, the Light can be adapted to the souls of our generation.

This Light is designated specifically for our time and not for their contemporaries or for the periods of exile. This is a unique correction, just like the one that the sages of the Talmud performed on our behalf so we wouldn’t have to torment our bodies to find spirituality as had been written in those times: “Eat bread with salt, drink water, sleep on bare ground, and study the Torah—then succeed!” But after the time of Talmud, such restrictions are not necessary and it is sufficient to simply study the inner Torah (Kabbalah) without any corporeal limitations.

It became possible because Kabbalists of that time inserted a necessary addition into the spiritual system, thereby adapting it to us. And besides, it corresponds with how close we ourselves approached it thanks to the evolution of our will to receive (desire, ego). They (Rabbi Shimon and the 9 disciples) brought the Light closer to us while we have also come closer to it (by evolving in the reverse direction thereby increasing our ego), and now we have become so close to each other that the effect of the Light alone is enough for our correction. No corporeal suffering is necessary any longer.

All of this occurred thanks to the corrections made in the upper system built by the previous Kabbalists. These sages are part of the upper worlds and the innermost part of it; they are related to the souls. When they perform corrections, they add to the collective system such reformed elements that revive it. Because of them, it comes alive and starts working passing the Light down to us!
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Rabbi Shimon “cries” (tears are a symbol of a small state, Katnut), as if being unable to understand how to pass to us this enormous Light that he and his 10 disciples unveiled, in order for the souls of our time, beginning with our generation, to use it.

And then, he discovers that it can be achieved with the help of his student, Rabbi Abba. He explains that Rabbi Abba was able to reveal secrets “discretely” because he possessed a unique soul from the Surrounding Light. Hence, through him, through the Surrounding Light, we can receive all corrections.

And generally speaking, all corrections that we receive come only through The Book of Zohar, or through Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Abba, through the Surrounding Light. And the source of all Kabbalistic books is also The Zohar since all of them were written on its basis. Without The Zohar, no Kabbalist who lived after it had been written would have been able to uncover spirituality and write a book. He wouldn’t have been able to adhere to the Light; after all, The Zohar is its source.

And when Kabbalists have reached attainment through The Zohar, they finally start writing themselves, as it happened with the Kabbalists of all generations: Ari, Rambam, Rashi, Agrah, and others. But all of them had one source. Clearly, we are not talking about those who came before Rashbi, Abraham, or Moses, who are parts of the upper system.

But we have no source of revelation other than The Zohar. Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes about how grateful we should be to such a soul as Rashbi, because without him, the Light wouldn’t reach us and we would remain cut off from the entire upper system.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/10, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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