Question: Inner work is a matter of constant inner clarifications. Is it possible to love it?

Answer: A good worker is called an artist who enjoys his work and not for the pay. He needs the reward only for advancement, but for him it isn’t the main thing.

He carries out difficult and unpleasant actions, but he loves his work and receives delight from it, which he can discover only through hard work and efforts.

That is called art, otherwise it is just an simple act of work for reward.  What is considered is only the extent to which you enjoy the work that the Creator gives you. Therefore, we need to honor Pharaoh.

Everything depends on that, on what you identify with. It can be that I only want to feel good and nothing else concerns me. Or the opposite, it isn’t important what I feel, but I need to know the essence of the actions that I am now going through. And from that, I want to receive satisfaction.

This means that I am not stuck in the sensations from within my desire to receive, but to the idea, the goal, and the mission, which brings me satisfaction. In that, I change from one form of fulfillment to the other and I detach myself from the feeling of difficulty in the work and from the darkness and attach myself to the greatness of the goal; specifically from within the greatest darkness, I am able to see the greatest Light and the greatest satisfaction.

I change the inner essence of the action, and instead of delight, which is received within the ego, I receive delight from my connection with the Creator. Therefore, it is only from within the greatest darkness, from the Machsom (barrier) that I can’t cross, and the Masach (screen), which is between myself and the Creator, in which I am interested, can I justify it and transform myself to be like it.

It is specifically through this that I become independent in Gmar Tikkun (end of correction) by completely differentiating from the Creator and adhering to Him above all the differences. Thus two opposites connect.
[134680]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/14, The Book of Zohar

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Question: It says in The Book of Zohar that during the construction of the Tabernacle the world was given love, justice, peace and unity as a present.

Answer: The Tabernacle is a Divine patent of connection between two opposite forces that complement one another.

In our world there is only hatred, rivalry, dispute and disagreement. As they accumulate more and more, they turn into a war and then everything quiets down for a while. But peace and the tranquility are only a period of transition to the next level of hatred and competition.

Unfortunately, the Divine patent isn’t known to man, since we see that throughout our history people hate one another, no matter how hard they try to establish different frameworks of diplomacy, ethics, laws, etc., among themselves.

In the past, there were certain norms and codes of behavior that don’t exist today. No one is ashamed of anything, no one is ashamed of anyone, and competition is a natural thing.

In the past, man, not money, was in first place. The main values were a person’s cultural needs and his perspective. This is how he was brought up.

Today, however, everything is measured in terms of money. Young people don’t choose a profession according to their inclinations but because the pay is high.

We have simply ascended to the next level of opposition between two opposite forces and now we should reach a very serious and special state where we will not be able to live in hate, envy, competition, rivalry, conflicts and disputes.

Today everyone agrees that resistance is felt towards everyone else and everyone feels resistance towards certain individuals, but that doesn’t really worry anyone, “So what? That’s the way I am and that’s how I relate to others.” This is a very good state because it is here that the the truth is revealed.

This is how we live and this is our nature. The crisis is everywhere as we see part of humanity starving, while another part discards food, but people ignore this calmly, “So what if people are starving, we don’t care.” We feel no compassion but only rivalry and hatred towards everyone.

Thus we need to reach a state where this rivalry becomes unbearable because otherwise these two opposite forces will get so close to one another that there will be sparks between them that will burn us and bring us to the end of our existence.

We need to feel this threat directly, not with regard to all of humanity, but with regard to ourselves, because we don’t care about anyone but ourselves.

When this feeling reaches our internal “I,”people will realize and acknowledge the fact that there has to be a way out of here since there is a splitting point in nature that allows us to exit this state. Then, thanks to our great egoistic desire, we will begin to search and demand from inside ourselves the way to the opposite state. And we will find it because we have a method to create such a resistance between us by which we can change our work in mutual hatred  to love, justice, mutual understanding, and equality.

This is all our work. This is why we were given a head and knowledge, so that we will not advance in the dark like a mole, but along the path of the Light, seeing the goal before us.
[134533]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/06/13

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 43

Workshop

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Pinhas,” “Holiday of Shavuot,” Item 766

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 46

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 5

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Question: What should our intention be when we read The Book of Zohar?

Answer: When we study different sources, we discuss our desires, problems, successes, and failures. Now we begin to read The Book of Zohar in order to discover all our deficiencies: those that we feel and those that we don’t feel, the conscious and the unconscious, the exposed and the forgotten. We want to correct all that.

What is correction? We don’t really understand others and are quite confused. Where is the correction supposed to come from? We don’t know and it is concealed from us. Therefore it is called merit.

We simply ask for correction and that’s it! When this happens we will see what it means. But we can already ask, like a baby whose mother understands when he cries and gives him what he wants or needs; although he cannot express his request by even one word, she understands what he needs by his voice.

It is the same with animals. On the whole, on every level, the lower level doesn’t know and cannot understand the upper level. The request of the lower isn’t realistic and is of course, incorrect with regard to the upper. But the difference between the levels compensates for this flaw and corrects it.

So it makes no difference if our request isn’t clear and isn’t expressed correctly. It is still accepted. There will always be a gap between the upper and the lower who cannot ask for what the upper has. If we had the desires of the upper, we would already be in His place.

I have my own desires and I only need to ask in order to receive. The request of the lower from the upper is compatible with the abilities of the lower, and the response of the upper is compatible with the abilities of the upper. The difference between them is called merit.

It is impossible to feel the influence of the merit directly. A person performs many actions: he works in the group, in dissemination, in the kitchen, prepares the room for the lesson, and it is clear to him that he invests his own powers here. But when he simply sits and listens to what is read, it seems that nothing happens.

Here we need faith in the sages, according to which there is no stronger source of Light than The Book of Zohar. We don’t see and don’t feel it, but it’s real. We simply have to keep on reading it, even half an hour a day, and it works. Let the Light operate in you.

We only see the outcomes in our desires, but we don’t know how the Light works. It is like electricity that we don’t actually know, but if we connect different appliances to it: an engine, a lamp, or a measuring device, we will see that electricity is flowing in the network. But it is invisible in and of itself, and we discover it only by its actions. Therefore, it is called the force that operates in the created being who is managed by this force.
[134746]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/02/14, The Book of Zohar

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 17

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 43 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” 

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 17

Workshop

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 42

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 4

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 16

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Emor” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 40

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah”

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before”

Workshop

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Emor,” “Counting the Omer“

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 39

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah”

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Preparation for the Lesson

Shamati #3 “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Emor” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 37

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah”

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Question: Do we speed up time when we read The Book of Zohar with the right intention?

Answer: We accelerate time the more quickly we clarify the Reshimot (spiritual genes): each one his particular Reshimot and the collective Reshimot together. Within all of us there are particular Reshimot with whose help the collective Reshimot gets its life. With the Reshimot of the group there is a completely different life in comparison to each particular Reshimo that there is in each one of us.

The Reshimot of the group is called the people of Israel, and the particular Reshimot adapt to the shared condition of each one separately. Our advancement essentially depends upon realizing our collective Reshimot. This is like a ship in which some of the people are going to sleep now, and another part begin their watch.

All of them are in all kinds of different states, but the main thing is that the ship sails ahead because those people who must run it are on duty carrying out their work. The same thing also happens in a group: There are those who must rest, there are those who are even a bit idle, because everyone has their own state. But it’s important that those who are awake now and realizing the Reshimot do it responsibly .

But we need to understand that each one has something to do to realize his part in the work. The collective Reshimot is very important, it’s more important than anything, for the Creator doesn’t take account of each one separately, only with the entire ship, with the complete measure which is called a Minyan.

Less than this is not considered at all. If there is no Minyan, this is a sign of not having attained connection with the others, of not having worked enough. All of the work on the ship is to be in connection all the time, which becomes stronger and stronger, and by this the ship goes forward more and more into the depths of the sea. Some go to sleep and some work, but those who are on duty must be responsible, on guard, and concerned for the entire ship. And the collective Reshimot, which is the center of the group, in the heart of the ship, this is what is accepted, and the higher supervision works on us accordingly.
[134398]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/14, The Zohar

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