The Relationship between the Disclosure of Material and Its Transmission

219.01Question: How is the ability to disclose the materials we are studying connected to the ability to pass it on?

Answer: The ability to disclose the material comes to a Kabbalist when he has students who are willing to receive from him.

If there are no such students… There have been times when Kabbalists lived without passing on their knowledge to anyone. That is very difficult.

Question: We are currently in a stage of preparation for a convention and are working toward revealing some new quality or degree within us, such as Lishma. Is this connected to what we convey to others or only to our internal work?

Answer: Certainly these things are necessarily related because the wisdom of Kabbalah comes from the word “transmission.” When people from the beginning of creation to its end have passed on to each other everything that they can reveal in a given period of history, then it happens.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”

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Hanukkah—The Closest Spiritual Station

230All Jewish holidays, joyful and sorrowful days, point to the spiritual process carried out by a special group called Israel. In the past, this group already experienced some states in potential and now it must implement them in practice.

We are approaching this realization, and therefore we must study what should be done on each holiday or special day, as it is said: “The deeds of the fathers will become a sign for the sons.”

Some holidays were originally established by an awakening from above and others were established by people by an awakening from below. Hanukkah is a special holiday that is not mentioned in the Torah. It comes entirely from the awakening from below, from the degree of Bina, from creatures who desire to achieve bestowal, a small state, GE, a stop on the way (Hanu-Ko) before continuing.

After acquiring the bestowing desires of GE, we move on to the goal of creation, to the desires of AHAP. This holiday is called spiritual because it refers to the bestowing desires of GE, to the stage of Bina, unlike Purim where desires to receive are used; and therefore, the customs are polar opposite.

Purim refers to the end of correction and is therefore called a corporeal holiday, because the spiritual descends to the material world, corrects, and fills the desires of the AHP.

Hanukkah is closer to us than Purim and therefore more understandable. We can imagine what it is like to be in bestowal, above our desire, in opposition to it and acting above it. Therefore, it is worth studying the customs of Hanukkah in order to try to get closer to the spiritual stage closest to us.

All spiritual levels are based on this condition because any of them begin with GE, with a small state, which is the main one, and a large state is just an addition, which appears and disappears.

Hanukkah is a very special holiday, and let’s hope that during the holiday week, we will be able to achieve this state, figure it out, and realize it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/18,  Hanukkah

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Work at the Congress

942Question: What can serve as additional glue for our group on the eve of such a unique event as the congress?

Answer: What can be the glue for a group on the eve of such a momentous event as a congress? This is a problem.

Let us say this is your group; you know each other well and you want to enter and leave the congress many times stronger. How can I use it for this? Do you want to stay at the congress as a separate group or, conversely, to mix views with everyone? What is the best way?

On the one hand, it is desirable to dissolve into everyone. That is, you go there, you go here, and so on. Not even to meet with my friends from studies of Kabbalah during the entire congress, “I want to absorb everything from everyone through the pores of my body, inhale completely everything that is in everyone, to dissolve into them.”

Or maybe it is better if I do this in my group, when we go on the attack in a ten to get everything from the others and give everything we can to them.

Frankly speaking, I do not know what to answer, and I do not hide it, because in Kabbalah it is impossible. You must understand my doubts. And although I have enough of them too, I still need to combine one with the other.

We always have an inner light and an ambient light, a connection of striking (Zivug de Haka’a), two opposites in the middle line. How can they be connected? I do not know. But the principle is the same as two incongruous, completely inconsistent concepts, attitudes, actions, thoughts, or desires, and they must come together. How is it done?

The best thing would be if after each lesson, after visiting another ten, you gathered together for at least 15 minutes or half an hour, exchanged impressions, and discussed what you learned from communicating with others among yourselves. To do this you do not have to wait for the end of the congress, but continue to connect with each other along the way.

I do not know if there will be time for this at the congress, but I think we should try. This would be the right combination of general dissolution with the personal assembly. Do not leave everything for after the congress, but it is here that such instant combinations are carried out: outside-inside, outside-inside.

I would recommend this to all tens. In principle, based on what I understand in Kabbalah, this is the most optimal approach: combine one with the other and always strive for the middle line.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/19, “Questions and Answers”

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The King of Sodom—Intention “For Oneself”

200.02The spirit and the soul mean the intention in the matter. This is why the King of Sodom said, “Give me the soul,” meaning the intention of a person, why he engages in Torah and Mitzvot, this will be for him (Rabash, Assorted Notes, 374, “He Touched the Hollow of His Thigh”).

Question: The King of Sodom says: “What is yours is yours, what is mine is mine.” Why does he need a true intention? Why does he ask for it?

Answer: He wants to make a person like himself. At each stage, a person reveals the “King of Sodom” in himself, but this state will not become apparent until a certain measure has accumulated in him.

Question: How should we relate to the negative characters in the Torah, such as the King of Sodom? Should we discuss it in the ten?

Answer: Why not? You can discuss it and find out how much you are still in the egoistic line or no longer in it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/24, Writings of Rabash “He Touched the Hollow of His Thigh”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 12/27/24

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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Selected Highlights

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 12/26/24

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Attain All the Movements in Spiritual Work

275But Kabbalists have attainment and attain a matter in full (Baal HaSulam, “The Meaning of Conception and Birth“).

It means that Kabbalists do not attain a part, a fragment, a force, or a certain individual movement, but attain all movements together.

Question: What does it mean to attain the whole in our work?

Answer: The point is that, in the end, we advance toward the goal by the force of the Creator, and therefore, we need to relate to every state as a whole.

For example, in order to realize a state of disconnection from the Creator as a whole, it is necessary that we scrutinize what we are missing and what the Creator needs to complete within us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Meaning of Conception and Birth”

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Under The Influence of The Upper Light

234How can we step out from under the influence of our ego and come under the influence of the upper light? We need to perform actions that attract the upper light, which lifts us above our egoism.

What does it mean to “lift us above our egoism,” considering we ourselves are the embodiment of egoism? The fact is, the upper light affects us and gradually separates us into two parts. One part begins to think about the meaning of existence and about how to rise above the futility of life.

These thoughts increasingly capture humanity, but primarily through suffering. To the extent that we reflect on this, we begin to search.

Ultimately, if our desires, even unconsciously, are increasingly shaped under the influence of the upper light, we discover the source, the wisdom of Kabbalah. Through it, we can begin to consciously work with the upper light.

We find a set of instructions that allow us, in a completely rational way, to attract the upper light, direct ourselves toward it and direct it toward us in a reciprocal manner: I turn to it, and it turns to me. This creates a two-way connection.

To enable this process, we are placed in a group. Baal HaSulam writes in his articles that every person is necessarily given this opportunity.
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From Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19

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Between Two Lines

232.05A 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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How Can You Awaken Yourself?

938.04If 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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