Ascents and descents are a sign of life. The changing of the seasons, the periodicity of the changes in human nature, the reincarnations, the global crises, the economic upsurges and declines are all an inseparable part of life.

It is impossible to advance in a constant current, since we have to develop constantly. Life is a development and this development is possible only thanks to the contractions and the expansions. This is called the secret of life.

This is actually what is happening to us now. The Creator takes our ego and doesn’t leave us anything. As a result there is a contraction, an exhalation. Thus He gives us now a chance to expand by ourselves. Then He contracts us again and we have to expand once more.

By these actions of contractions and expansions the process of “breathing” takes place—this is the pulse of life.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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First the connection with the Light is made in the head of the spiritual Partzuf, where all the calculations take place. Only later do all the decisions that were taken in the head spread in the body and become realized in practice.

In reality there is nothing but a desire. A head is the same desire to receive that in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) didn’t have a mind, didn’t have a head. It was just a desire to receive.

But later this desire decides that it wants to respond and to answer the Host, the Creator, and in order to do that, it must have a head. In fact, we don’t need anything else but a head!

We repeat the same actions that took place during the spreading of the worlds, the Partzufim, the Sefirot, and the souls from the top down. Now we have to repeat them in the opposite order, from the bottom up, this time by ourselves. So it turns out that our mind, the head constantly grows.

The head grows a little, and then I can do some more with it, it grows a little more and I can do something else. Thus I constantly grow on the spiritual ladder, and my head constantly grows like a cone, until it is equivalent to the world of Ein Sof. This means that now I have thoughts and decisions that encompass all my desires, an understanding and attainment of all the actions.

The actions themselves remain the same. I replicate everything that took place during the descent from the top down and repeat it from the bottom up. But I precede all that by self-calculation, by attainment. Therefore the ascent up the ladder is called the levels of attainment, the ladder of attainment.

Now we are at the bottom of this ladder and behind us there is all of humanity ready to ascend. The only thing we need for that is to increase our mind, the “head” and to start working with the “spiritual head.” Therefore, the knowledge that precedes all the actions is so important.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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In order to get the real and complete picture of reality, we need to disconnect somewhat from that same reality that we are used to, and as much as possible, to try to imagine the permanent state which is the desire to receive that was created by the Creator. All movements take place only within this desire, within its consciousness.

If this desire tries to understand and feel its real state, then this is called movement. It is precisely in this state that we find ourselves, but in our understanding and feelings we grasp a different, imaginary reality. This kind of exercise, a game in which we are involved in order to make an effort, like children, trying to succeed in the game, and through this to gain knowledge, feeling, understanding, intelligence and development.

If not for these games, then the child would grow up like a beast: from a small beast into a large beast. But it is specifically through the games that each time he learns, changes, and becomes a man.

And here we are, exactly in the same state. On purpose, He gave us a feeling that is far from the truth so that we would try to resemble the truth, like small children who play at being grownups. To the extent of our attempts, we begin to grasp this real situation, enter it, and feel that we are within it.

It turns out that the wisdom of Kabbalah is comprised of advice about how to attain this real state, which laws operate there, what activities occur, and what we can do in order to gradually pass from our present state to a state that is more advanced through these actions, thoughts, and desires.

All of this is called the work of the Creator, since through it, we want to resemble the Creator. The Creator is the general force, the general desire, attribute. And in order to resemble this attribute, which is called the Creator, we must create within us conditions to reveal Him. This is specifically what we do step by step with the help of the advice of the Kabbalists.

Our gradual corrections are completely contradictory and opposed to bestowal, until complete resemblance to it, which is called the spiritual ladder, where we rise from the attributes of reception to the attributes of bestowal. In these ascending levels, we learn about the spiritual acts, the understanding of the attribute of bestowal in all forms.

The correction of these egotistic attributes to attributes of bestowal is called fulfilling Mitzvot (commandments/precepts).
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/12, Writings of Rabash 

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The Light, the attribute of bestowal, gives birth to darkness, to a vessel, a desire, the attribute of receiving. Then, the Light develops it in four levels—phases, states—that come one after the other, until the desire decides to feel that it exists and finally understands what the Light, the Creator, expects from it.

The Light wants to connect with it in order to reach full adhesion, called the world of Infinity, but the desire to enjoy cannot bear this state because it feels its oppositeness from the Light, its total inability to merge with the Light. After the created being develops and comes to know the attributes of the Light, then, through this oppositeness, he comes to know himself and sees that it is absolutely opposite to the Light in its attributes. The Creator wants adhesion and love, and such a relationship with the Creator is called the world of Infinity.

It is like a rich man who invites his poor friend to his home, gives him all his wealth, and asks, “What more do you want?” The poor man replies, “I want to earn all this wealth by myself,” but the rich man cannot give him that.

Then, the Creator helps the created being fulfill his desire, become independent, and repay the Creator with a similar attitude on his part through his own freewill. Therefore, he brings the created being down from the first state, from the world of Infinity, to the lowest state in our world so that he will be in a state where everything depends on him.

Now, the created being has a chance to correct that state and bring it to perfection through returning to the first state by himself, to the world of Infinity, to the adhesion created by the Creator. Thus, the created being becomes perfect and attains full adhesion with the Creator.

The Creator wants to ease the created being’s work and divides the influence of the Light on the vessel into separate phases called “22 letters” so that the created being would be able to perform this work with regard to the Light. The created being begins his work from the bottom, as if in the opposite direction, in bestowal upon the Creator and building the intention of “in order to bestow,” but it is divided into those phases, the 22 letters of the work. The created being builds his ten Sefirot of the Returning Light, his attitude toward the Creator, based on everything that the created being learns from the ten Sefirot of the Direct Light.

The Creator created the created being as “something from nothing,” but the created being must start not even from this state, but from below that level, and then rise from the worlds, the Klipot (shells), that are opposite to the Creator. The Creator works in the range of zero to plus infinity, while the created being must start from minus and advance toward the plus. Each time, he discovers and corrects a greater minus as he adapts his vessel to the Light in the transition from minus infinity to plus infinity.

It turns out that everything that the created being receives from the Creator—strength, desires, vessels (“the letters of the work”), all the levels of the ladder that have already been created in advance and are not part of the created being’s account—all this becomes part of his personal account now. At the moment, all this is considered the action of the created being, not just something that is ready-made by the Creator.

After all, he is the one who attains the wisdom of how to perform all these actions and how to use his material correctly. He discovers by himself that the force of receiving is active in him, not the force of bestowal, and becomes equivalent in form with the Creator in all His actions. In order to do that, the created being must start from the shattering so that he can attain all the “letters of the work” by himself in the opposite attributes.

This is called “speech,” “breath,” the actions that the desire to enjoy performs with the Masach (screen) and the Returning Light. As a result, the Creator seemingly shatters, and the righteous rebuild and correct. Thus, thanks to the force of speech, the created being attains an equivalence of form with the Creator and a “mouth to mouth” connection.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/7/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We live in a single reality even though we give it the name “different worlds”, thinking that they exist separately from one another, in different places, as if there are places that are called: “this world,” “the world to come,” the worlds of Assyia, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, the Garden of Eden, or Hell. It seems to us that the system of the worlds is structured like our universe with many galaxies in different places, distant or close to one another

The spiritual space is called “place,” but a place is a desire to receive pleasure. It changes according to the acquired properties: closer or further from bestowal. However, a desire is the same desire that changes and as a result calls its states the worlds, different places. It is like a person who goes from state to a state can say that he moves from one place to another.

From the very beginning we are given the state that is called “this world.” In this state, in this reality, we have to connect with others who also want to change this reality, meaning to advance their perception. As soon as we change our desires we will feel as though we are moving into different places: directly flying from one space to another inside of our desires, sensations.

Besides this, in reality there are no other changes. Only with the help of the group and the Reforming Light—the Wisdom of Kabbalah, the method of correction—can we correct our perception and sensations without leaving the place where we exist. It means that in the very same desires that will be corrected, we will feel differently, as if in a different world.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/12

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Question: In The Study of the Ten Sefirot it says that a person who corrects himself begins to “illuminate,” what is this action?

Answer: A person begins to “illuminate” when his vessels begin to bestow. This illumination is already a self-movement that only a human being can perform. No other creature on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature can illuminate, since it doesn’t connect with the Creator in any way; it doesn’t perform independent actions of bestowal like the Light.

The simple Light fills all of creation and thus illuminates. A “human being,” however, is a person who spurs himself towards the Light, and the Light illuminates because it has more intensity than the natural intensity it has when it arrives. A person becomes an amplifier for the Light: He illuminates by himself thanks to the Light that fills him.

There is an addition to the Light created by the person! It is because he has overcome his desire to receive by turning all his desire to receive into fuel, into a combustible material. When the Light comes, this material begins to burn like a candle! So it says that a person illuminates.

He is called “a man of the Light.” Can he radiate the Light? He has prepared his desire to receive in such a way that it is equivalent to the Light. Now when the Light goes through his desire it is illuminated by it like a fluorescent lamp that is filled with a special gas or with phosphorus that begins to shine under the influence of the Light.

When the Light comes, the desire is impressed and begins to illuminate from inside. This is what happens to a person who identifies with the Light. It is because he doesn’t swallow the Light inside him egoistically, but wants to carry on its action. You should know that in order for you desire to begin to illuminate, you have to restrict it and to place it under the Masach (screen) so that you will not want to swallow the Light for itself, but rather will want to connect with the actions of the Light in bestowal and to draw this Light for everyone else. Then you will illuminate and be called “a man of Light”!

How intensely you illuminate is determined by your spiritual level.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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On the part of the created beings, meaning all of us, there is only one action that we can perform: to aspire to unity. More or less, we understand the system in which we all exist and realize why we strive to act so.

We don’t unite for the sake of gaining or creating anything, nor do we build a team of people who will accomplish some earthly tasks as we are used to in this world. We unite to attract upon ourselves the upper Light that will truly unite us and manifest itself inside this interconnection.

The fact that we devote that much time to the exploration of various forms of behavior in the group can only be explained by our confusion. In fact, all that is required of us is a single action and nothing else.

The Light will also make a single action that will match our efforts. However, we have to make the utmost exertion. I should always imagine that I am at a certain level and want to rise to the next one. I need to apply effort that corresponds to the difference (∆) between the two levels.

This ladder is discrete. And that’s why my efforts are not enough. I need to be inspired and forced; I need to be obliged, teased, and pushed towards it.

With the help of our environment, we have a tremendous opportunity to generate negative forces that will push us ahead, “prick” us a little, cause some minor pain, and create troubles. On the other hand, they should trigger us and pull us forward by producing a good feeling in us and ascertaining that something huge and wonderful is awaiting us ahead.

These moves should be built on pain and jealousy, on the qualities that are inherent in our nature. I want to elicit these forces to work on me so that they shape me correctly and make negative forces join together behind me and push me forward by stimulating me from behind. A stimulus is a sharp stick with which donkeys are urged to go forward. Accordingly, I want those stimuli to urge my “donkey.”

Besides, I want to be pulled forward. I need my surroundings to permanently remind me of the beautiful goals that are set in front of me, about what can be reached in this life and in this world if we manage to rise above it into the sensation of the infinity of the next level.

So, I want to be pushed and pulled at the same time. If I am in the environment and can awaken myself in relation to it as described above and if the environment is also ready to act similarly in response, meaning that the environment is acting this way relative to me, relative to all others—everybody together relative to each and everyone, then we will be able to elicit sufficient internal tension that will be equal to the delta (∆), to the over-fall between two levels.

Let’s mark our current level a zero (0); the next level will be marked as one (1). Our current state is a preparation period to level one. It’s the hardest and the most unpleasant phase since we all are as blind kittens that feel or know nothing. We have to blindly follow what’s written in the books. We don’t even have to understand what’s written in them. This is how we advance since the correction really starts from zero.

The Light impacts us constantly, and as soon as we hit the threshold level, it starts changing us: It alters our ego into its opposite, into bestowal. Due to the power of bestowal, instead of being repulsed from each other, we begin contacting and uniting with each other, thus creating a system of interconnection.

As soon as we manage to create this kind of system at the very first level of our interconnection, the Light emerges within it and fills the space which was always present among us. The only difference is that previously we used to reject others, and now within this new space we try to make contact with others beyond our egos, and the space is being filled with the Light. This is what we call revelation of the Creator.
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From Lesson 1, Kharkov Congress, 8/17/2012

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Question: Do we receive the forces that advance us through our exertion, and then through them, rise above the ego?

Answer: It is through our exertion that we allow the Creator to affect us. It is only according to the measure of our correct efforts—and it’s even more correct to say attempts and not efforts—that through them we invite on ourselves the influence of the Creator. It is only by that.

Furthermore, the Creator is the field of bestowal. Just as there exists a field of gravity, a field of reception, there also exists a field of bestowal. It fills everything by itself and is permanent; its tension and intensity is identical in each point.

This means that the Creator relates to everyone, both small and great, in a completely identical way with love, with the attribute of bestowal. However, each one according to the measure of his efforts, yearnings, and exertions, invites upon himself greater impact from this field.

Question: Do the forces that throw us from the goal determine in which place and in which attribute we need to be located within this general system?

Answer: No one throws you. Besides that, this field is constant and permanent. It is revealed to us more and more in its increasing strength, its intensity, its illumination, its emanation, and its bestowal.

To the extent that its influence on us grows, we begin to feel worse and worse about ourselves since we exist in attributes that are opposite to it. The field affects even more a person who makes efforts and really becomes closer in similarity to the attribute of bestowal. He feels even worse with himself than do others.

Here the strength of the group is required in order to hold on and understand that it is the Creator who bestows on him in a special way, rejects him in a special way, so that in the end, he will attain the maximum desire through which he can be born, which means to come into initial contact with the field. At the time of the first contact with the field, it will, in any case, continue to operate and affect him. In any event, it will continue to reject him, but it already will be on the next level.

There, the rejections are of a different nature. They are more qualitative. It is not that the forces grow, but that the field operates in a wiser way, in a more meticulous way in order to invite and awaken in you a more qualitative development, the realization of this entire system, the same way as in school you go from grade to grade.

Question: Is the demand for the Creator like huge greed, hunger, or thirst?

Answer: The demand for the Creator is a necessity.

Question: The great need is not clear, for what?

Answer: No, that doesn’t exist: “It’s not clear why.” Gradually becoming closer to the Creator, you begin to understand what the attribute of bestowal is, and you begin to desire it. Otherwise, what do you need?

Advancement is progressive. It must be realized before you are born. You need to reach the point of your birth through two states:

• I am not able to do anything by myself;
• Only the Creator can help me attain the attribute of bestowal.

You must know, more or less, what you want: how much you want that world before you are born in it.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/17/12, Lesson 3

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Humanity can be divided into circles that have a common center.

The internal circle, the source, is made of Abraham’s students who left ancient Babel and whom many other people from other nations and from different parts of the world joined. Today, after four exiles, on the verge of the fourth redemption, a circle of “those who left the current Babel” is formed of all of humanity. Such people want to fulfill the same goal and together according to their yearning they are called “Israel,” which means straight to the Creator.

Besides that, there is another part that belongs to the category of “Israel,” which is those in whom the same Reshimot (reminiscences), the same “signs” that were left from the past when they were in spiritual ascent, are rooted. The three lines are hidden in their basis; they have experienced ascents and descents going through a series of reincarnations, and they have to correct themselves in our world since they belong to the students of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So there are three types of people who belong the group of “Israel” these days:

• Inside is Bnei Baruch (BB).
• Around them, there are our friends from the nations of the world, from all over the world.
• On the outside, there are those who are called Jews, who are divided into two parts: religious and nonreligious.

They all have to fulfill the correction whether they want to or not. Some of them are being awakened today; these are our friends, the world Kli (in red). But on the whole, everyone is obliged to do so.

On the outside the whole world, all of humanity, or the nations of the world surround us.

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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/21/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Nation”

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Question: How can we imagine our first shared spiritual degree correctly?

Answer: This is when you are fully united with each other and the full property of bestowal is manifested between you. That’s all! You have united with everyone and feel that you are at the next degree, the upper world.

You see the entire history of humanity, its foundation, the root cause, and its future higher state in which we ascended together. We exist there on all 125 degrees, and you simply reveal them. When you enter the spiritual world, you reveal 1/125^th of the perfect state.

The upper force is revealed inside of it, and you begin to feel to a certain degree, its properties, the laws of exchange between souls, laws of behavior, where it all leads, and all the mechanics. This is a huge attainment of upper wisdom. It is called the science of Kabbalah. This is what fills us, the so-called “Light of wisdom” (Ohr Hochma), which gives us the maximum fulfillment.

It is natural that you feel yourself already existing in the body since the body exists next to you in order for you to correct yourself through it. But your entire existence is already associated with that level of information, the fulfillment that you have just revealed. You are in it. This is your “I.”
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From Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/17/12, Lesson 1

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