A person starting to study Kabbalah does not quite understand why he becomes even more egoistic, with even greater desires for food, sex, family, career, and everything else. It is puzzling that while studying Kabbalah, he simultaneously feels drawn to watch movies, read novels, and take walks. That is, his old egoistic desires, which he had abandoned for a while when he began studying, suddenly begin to revive in him again.

This is not a step back. Greater egoism is revived so a person can rise even higher above it.

Our advancement is step-by-step, along two lines: left and right. The left line is a greater egoism, despite which we try to increase the importance of the spiritual state and the Creator, and thus rise above the ego. Therefore, we walk on two legs: left-right, left-right lines, and so we gradually move forward.

We must realize this technique as if to post it before us visually or even to write it so that in all states, we can understand which of the two states we are in and what we need to do to strengthen the right state; when you steer toward the property of bestowal, to the Creator, and the left state, when you realize the greater egoism descending on you, which the Creator specifically develops in you.

The left, egoistic part developing in us is called “Pharaoh.” The right, altruistic part, which develops in us due to our efforts in the group and in studying, is called “Creator.”

And so, Pharaoh against the Creator, the Creator against Pharaoh, and us between these two upper forces, as if positive and negative because Pharaoh is the reverse side of the Creator. This is how we move forward.

And there are no other forces in the world except for one upper force, which plays with us in this way: positively—negatively, negatively—positively.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”

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If emotions burn out and disappear, it means that you are not integrated in the group, and you are not reading Shamati. Something is happening to you, and you are disconnected.

Sometimes a person goes through such states that he is as if dead, and nothing changes. These states need to be shortened somehow, by being physically present in the group, by physically doing something, and most importantly, by physically engaging in dissemination: “If I cannot do anything else, I will go and convince other people. I cannot convince myself, but I can convince others.”

When you use your egoism to convince others that Kabbalah is good, you are thereby convincing yourself.

And one more thing: teach students, those who are ready to listen. Act. This is the best way out of all problems.

You rise depending on how much your students gain from you because by this you expand your soul, and they are connected to you. You will see how you gather around yourself, not strangers, but the parts of your soul. If they respond to you, then you will feel that they are the closest to you in the structure of the soul. And then move forward.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/19, “Questions and Answers”

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What can be done to be ready for the convention, to gain the most from it, and to give the most to it? How should everyone together and each one individually prepare for it?

During the convention, you should gather among yourselves. Do not disconnect, as if you are absent or completely dissolved, but focus on the idea that we are all moving toward a common goal. Absorb the maximum spiritual energy from this source.

Therefore we support one another, gather from time to time, and through this become even more united. By dissolving into others, we take in everything from them into ourselves.

Despite this, after absorbing the impressions of the collective convention, we gather again within our ten.
These movements “outward–inward, outward–inward” should not only strengthen us, but recreate us anew. Then your small group will leave the convention having absorbed everything from the world Kli. This is what you should aim for.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/19, “Questions and Answers”

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We must think about how to absorb the quality of bestowal and love, the quality of connection, in order to connect the general system Adam” into a single whole.

Initially, we were assembled in the system of Adam without egoism, and then it entered us. Therefore the Creator says: “I created evil, and I created light to correct it.” The creation of evil means that the entire system was shattered into tiny particles and egoism appeared between them, like water that flows into cracks in the land and divides it.

So what should I do? By correcting ourselves we do not destroy egoism, but in spite of it we create connections between us. Therefore our connections are 620 times stronger than before. After all, the system  of Adam before the shattering was very weak. It existed like a small animal or like a small child, in the state of Katnut (small state).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/19, “Questions and Answers”

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Pride and arrogance are qualities that distinguish us from the Creator.

The fact is that there is no concept of “the Creator and His quality” in the spiritual world. This is how we perceive Him, for example when in inanimate, vegetative, or animate objects we see something additional and call it “soul” or “quality.” The Creator is a quality in and of itself.

In our world, any force of nature is underpinned by another nature: mechanical, electrical, and so on. But in the spiritual world, this is not the case. There a quality exists independently.

The Creator is simply the quality of bestowal, the quality of emanating outward to others. If this quality senses that there is something to fill for the benefit of another, it acts.

Our nature is the opposite; we try to receive something for ourselves. We cannot imagine a state where we give to someone purely for their benefit. We do not possess this ability; we are not created that way.

Even when we love someone and seemingly want to do something for them, it is actually because it brings us pleasure. We cannot act otherwise; we are simply created this way.

Therefore, pride, arrogance, and egoism are our nature, and there is nothing we can do about it. Consciously or subconsciously, we are always governed by them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/19, “Questions and Answers”

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Question: Everyone studying Kabbalah knows about the importance of the group and unity. But sometimes there is a desire to step away from the group, to take the sources, and figure things out on your own.

Does it make sense to give in to this desire, or is it better to resist it? Or perhaps this need should be fulfilled—to study some section alone that particularly interests you?

Answer: You must see yourself as a representative of the group and never detach from it. You connect with others to bring this connection back into your group. When you engage with them, you are ready to dissolve yourself within them, but your inner “self” remains, which is the group’s DNA, its essence. And so it is with each of you.

We do not part ways with our egoistic “self”; it remains within us, and we work on it. The same applies to the group; it remains within me, and I work on it. Only in this way can we combine all the attributes given to us by the Creator and thereby reach the goal.

Do not dissolve entirely, do not forget yourself, and do not forget the group. I exist to bring everyone together. If I exist as a representative of the group, then I gather the entire world Kli together with my group into a single whole. But if my “self” disappears, then what will happen? Nothing.

I repeat once again: Kabbalah does not destroy egoism; it does not destroy my “self,” and it does not destroy the “self” of the group. On the contrary, it builds the attribute of bestowal, the attribute of the Creator, above it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/19, “Questions and Answers”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Love of God and the Love of Man”

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Question: How can one achieve joy and perfection without suffering?

Answer: Only through constant prayer.

Question: How do we combine prayer out of hopelessness, i.e., shout about salvation, and at the same time be in joy and perfection?

Answer: Try to do it. There is no rule here except your desire and prayer. As a result, they will find such a combination that the Creator will hear and allow you to adhere to Him.

Question: How can we do this exactly from the strength of the connection in ten?

Answer: What is the problem? Unite with each other and at the same time ask the Creator.

Question: Should we raise this point at the workshop, talk about it, everyone engage in it, and from this, we will come to a unified state?

Answer: Yes.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/24, Writings of Rabash “Delight Them with a Complete Building – 2”

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Question: You have said that a person’s reaction to something that is happening has two components: a natural, animalistic state and spirituality, which depends on the connection with the group. How do we develop the spiritual component?

Answer: The animalistic component, meaning the left line, develops within us automatically. In no way can we awaken it ourselves. As for the right line, we awaken it through our attempts to become similar to it in our connection within the ten and in connection from the ten to the Creator. We cannot address the Creator directly, only through the ten.

In our case, a ten can consist of five and even two friends. When a person works with his egoism, even one friend in front of him is enough for him. But in general, in Kabbalah, we call it a ten because precisely in the ten Sefirot one can obtain the property of the whole Partzuf. Otherwise, it is impossible to address the Creator.

In reality, a plea to the Creator has to be above egoism and we have to clearly understand what it means. As a matter of fact, we exist in connection with other friends—men with men and women with women—and we sense egoism between us.

We have to rise above the ego in order to aspire to the Creator. However, it takes a long time before a person recognizes this necessity and starts realizing it correctly.

However, this is the most real spiritual work. This is the way we are obligated to come to connection with the Creator precisely from our world. This is like our transmitter, emitter. When we become connected through our egoistic properties and rise above them, then this vibration of the ascent above egoism is what goes to the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”

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