A question I received: How can I be sure that my request is correct and that it is directed at correction?

My Answer: If a person studies together with us, his intentions are constantly corrected, one after another, and they unite. It’s as if a “viral” correction occurs between friends. We give each other the opportunity to be corrected since we are connected into one system of souls. This is the greatest correction of all possible corrections.

On his own, a person is not capable of anything, but if he has a desire and tries to unite with others, this will work as much as his ego (also called Pharaoh and the heaviness of the heart) will allow. Therefore, a person doesn’t need to perform a calculation for himself alone as to whether his efforts were successful. On his own, a person will never correct himself and he cannot even correctly evaluate his intention.

We need to learn jointly, to feel our unification before the studies, and to aspire to learn like one man with one heart in order to draw the Surrounding Light onto us.

Every lesson presents the opportunity to unify and draw the Light that Reforms, and so each lesson is like the reception of the Torah under Mount Sinai. After all, we need to receive the Torah which is the Light that Reforms. As it is written, “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a means to correct it.” Therefore, we are standing under Mount Sinai at every given moment. Receiving the Torah, the Light that Reforms, is on the condition that we become like one man with one heart.

Individual calculations aren’t applicable; success depends on everyone together, each one according to his ability, uniting in the conditions that are assigned from Above. Success depends on the united effort that comes from us below. Therefore, we need to continuously, tirelessly press on. As a result, our efforts will accumulate into one large account and, finally, revelation will occur.

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A question I received: Why is it that in the process of correction some people actively strive toward spirituality, aspire to teach and create the method of correction, whereas others have enormous earthly desires and merely take a passive part in this process by helping in some way?

My Answer: This division does exist, but it isn’t so clear cut because even the people who aspire to spirituality are divided into different levels. We know that in our world, too, there are people who simply “do” as well as others who want something greater. As a result, each person occupies a certain position that is sufficient to satisfy him and does not want any more responsibility beyond that.

There are many reasons that seem to justify why this is so, but in essence everything is determined by one’s desire. All of humanity is built as a pyramid, including the part of humanity that aspires to spirituality. Some people are willing to keep going until the end and won’t stop for anything until they attain equivalence with the Creator. They won’t settle for anything less. Every person finds his own place according to his desire, work, efforts, and inner aspiration. Everything is determined by the root of one’s soul because this is what one has to realize.

There is no soul higher than Moses; he is the spiritual leader who led the entire nation out of spiritual exile to freedom, thus performing a great correction in the souls. However, this correction only occurred within a part of the souls, whereas now we are awaiting the Messiah who will perform the general correction of the whole world. The Messiah is not a person, but the Light that will bring all of us out of spiritual exile (in Hebrew the word Mashiach originates from the word Moshech – to pull out).

Perhaps there will be a spiritual leader in the form of a person because people are able to perceive the method of correction and to see an example precisely in this form. Alternatively, it might be a group that will hold the spiritual leadership over the world and set an example of how to work together while rejecting one’s personal egoism and elevating the Creator. They will be able to explain the goal of creation to everyone, to show what the Creator demands, and to set an example of love and bestowal, a spiritual union. This will constitute the Sanhedrin, the world’s spiritual leadership.

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We can see that the science of Kabbalah expands and enters the world from the center, from the source. In our generation the source of knowledge and the method of correction is here, in the central Bnei Baruch group.

If any group in the world or any person thinks that he is able to lead himself or the group to the goal correctly, he is deluding himself due to misunderstanding the structure of the system of souls upon which our world is clothed. Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” that everything always expands from the internality to the externality, or from the Upper Level to the lower one. The same applies to the influence upon our world as well as one’s attainment: First a person ascends to the Upper Level, and from there he can see and influence the lower level.

Therefore, dissemination, influence, correction, and lessons must come only from here, the center. The role of the different groups is to take part in creating materials and disseminating them while submitting to the center in every way, similar to how all parts of an organism act in a coordinated fashion under the governance of one head shared by all. Nothing can start in the middle of the ladder, the pyramid, or some particular group similar to how the structure of the universe is strictly fixed and described.

Baal HaSulam writes in Item 57 of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” that if a thousand blind people are led by one person who can see, then they will all be able to follow him; but if there is no leader, they will all perish. Similarly, we observe a special mission on the part of humanity called “Isra-El” (meaning “straight to the Creator”) because the Light of Correction passes through it to all of humanity. Baal HaSulam describes this strict and unchangeable hierarchy in the above article.

Therefore, every person within this system must be connected to the Upper Level as well as the lower level. Above us are our Teachers, the sources, the forefathers, and the Kabbalists of previous generations from whom we learn and by whose teachings we live. Beneath us are our students, all those who come to us wishing to connect to us. This hierarchy must be maintained because we are all able to receive only from the Upper One (see Baal HaSulam’s article, “Faith in the Teacher”).

However, if one person or group decides to act independently, they would be preferring the externality to the internality. They will thus replace the upper with the lower, in which case it would be necessary to immediately correct them or remove them from the common system. From studying the structure of the worlds we see that there is no “democracy,” but a strict subservience to the Upper Level, to the Upper One’s (the Creator’s) example.

Through the connection among the groups and their structure, we are currently implementing the construction of a system that will expand to the whole world, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Last Generation.” Then our world will become similar to the Upper World. So where is every person’s freedom? It lies in choosing the right connection with the environment and submitting to it in order to attain similarity to the Creator. This is attained only if one is connected to the Upper One, receives from Him, and carries out the same actions along the same chain of degrees. Thus, every person’s freedom of will lies in preferring the internality over the externality in spite of one’s personal egoistic disturbances or those occurring to the group.

As Baal HaSulam writes in Item 60 of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” every person’s action corrects or ruins the entire system. Obviously, this is a dictatorship; however, it comes from Above, from the Creator, and all of us must carry it out by submitting to the Upper One and becoming similar to Him. In addition, we attract the lower one according to a fixed hierarchy. Absolute equality emerges only in the final, corrected state where everyone becomes equal through mutual bestowal.

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There are many people living in our world who have no idea how it operates. They are unaware of the structure of social and governmental systems, the laws of nature, the orbiting of planets, and the various connections that exist between people. People can live a very simple life, knowing only what is needed to get along day by day and never burning with desire to know more about how the world functions. In contrast, in our world, some people are more interested and curious to know more, and they research the systems that operate on the world.

The same is true about spiritual existence. Not all people who acquire spiritual perception endeavor to delve deeply into it. They are naturally limited by the root of their soul, which does not demand any more than its level. In other words, it performs its function at its intended place and nothing more is required.

The root of the soul demands more of others who are meant to research the spiritual world. These are Kabbalists. Similar to scientists who examine our world, Kabbalists investigate the entire system of the spiritual world in detail. Kabbalists are meant to come to complete spiritual attainment and perception. This is according to the root of their soul, which compels Kabbalists to include everyone within them and to scrutinize all the details in the spiritual world through synthesis and analysis in order to correct their souls. It is to the extent that one’s soul demands correction that the general reality is perceived by that person.

And it is the degree to which one corrects himself by which he is judged. If one’s correction is 100%, then he is equivalent to the great Kabbalists and is equal to them in all ways. In spirituality, there is no division of people by important and unimportant. It matters that one has done all that was required of him.

Spirituality is a world of bestowal. The approach is a bit different than what we’re used to; a person enters spirituality, looks back, and realizes that he hasn’t done anything! There is nothing left of what a person once fought for or the actions he had performed. Hence, one becomes surrounded only by pure bestowal.

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A question I received: In our material lives we are in a dead-end situation where it’s impossible to attain pleasure. But what does the science of Kabbalah promise us?

My Answer: When I sit and study The Book of Zohar, it is called Lo Lishma – an egoistic action. I deceive myself because I plan on fulfilling my egoism through this action, but in return I receive the quality of bestowal.

Why does this action end up bringing us success, unlike any other? It’s because by making these actions, I desire to do everything I can to attain bestowal. I look for signs of bestowal along the path, consciously deceiving myself, and I use the Light that brings me correction and draws me closer to itself.

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A question I received: After the Zohar 2010 Convention, I received a desire to help people. How do I check whether I am doing the most that I can in this regard?

My Answer: The ultimate help is when a person spends all the hours of his existence trying to think about correcting himself and the world.

After all, a breaking first occurred in the worlds and then in the common soul, and now the broken souls exist in a broken world. Correction is possible only by the method of Kabbalah, which helps us draw the Upper Light, which alters our intention from an egoistic one to a giving one. The same force, the same Light, which created the whole universe, needs to affect us and correct everything.

Therefore, we can help others only by disseminating the science of Kabbalah until we reach complete redemption. However, while the world still needs correction, we need to try to bring the correction to the world. During the Convention we received a great force from our mutual unification because, together, we attained greater understanding and sensation.

And now we need to perform immense actions for the sake of the general correction of ourselves and the world. We received advancement precisely for this purpose and no other. None of us would have received what we received (an opportunity to participate in this gathering, an understanding of something, or feelings) if we were unable to affect the world through our correction.

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The Ari was the first Kabbalist whose soul revealed reality in a form that was directed at correction. However, this was merely a revelation of the method, rather than the implementation of connecting souls and the realization of the unity of souls. In other words, the Ari revealed the entire method of correction, in potential, but the implementation and realization of the method needed to occur in due time. People needed to be ready to receive it and many years were required to reach this readiness.

If our main group has already achieved a state where we are ready to accept The Zohar, then the rest of the world will also embrace it because they will simply absorb the entire preparation that we have already gone through.

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A question I received: What kind of book is Beit Shaar Ha-Kavanot which we started studying today? What is the correct attitude I should have while studying it?

My Answer: Everything is already expressed in its title, “Beit Shaar Ha-Kavanot” (The Gatehouse of Intentions), which implies the foundation, the basis of intentions. While studying this book, you should have the same intention directed to the development of the soul as you do with other Kabbalistic books.

Everything a person reads affects the corporeal mind and heart in a certain way, and it depends on the style of the content at every level of PARDES (hint, parable, secret). In other words, one book has greater influence on feelings, another on the mind, while a third book is completely unclear.

Nevertheless, a person must aspire to extract just one thing from this book: the force of bestowal. It is the “Light that Returns to the Source.” At the same time, we should try to understand this book and connect with it as much as possible. However, this should be secondary to maintaining the proper intention of drawing the maximum power of Bestowal from it. Our primary aspiration should be directed to correction, rather than knowledge. Otherwise “one outsmarts his actions.”

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We’re aspiring to attain the spiritual world, but we need to attain the whole of it. By attaining just a small part of it, we’re unable to understand where we are and what’s happening to us. It’s difficult to discern anything until we attain the whole. We don’t understand the real picture. A person needs to study, build the intentions, and find the relationships between phenomena in order to grasp a perception of the whole. In other words, one needs to attain the entire Light (NaRaNHaY) of the existing level.

Therefore, it only harms a person if he is engaged in activities that don’t draw the Light that Reforms. After all, the egoistic desires are constantly growing in every person. If they don’t receive correction, they become more powerful. As a result, we exist in the material world which becomes more and more corrupt. We’re the ones who are making it this way because the world is a copy or a reflection of our inner state.

If we don’t disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah, we won’t know the purpose of our existence, our goal, predestination, and why we’ve been given the method for correction. We won’t know the path we are on, and the reason it’s so difficult. We won’t know the causes and effects of what’s happening in reality.

This is why everything depends on the dissemination of Kabbalah, and how much we use it according to its purpose. This is especially relevant in today’s generation. It compels us to action because today the breaking is becoming apparent at a global level.

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It is necessary to understand that two opposite forces, the right and the left, are forces of nature. Everything comes from the Creator, is split into two, and controls us.

Until you try to become similar to Him in the middle line, to build His image in you, you will not come to a good state. Therefore, one needs to constantly try to become similar to the Creator according to one’s degree and all the desires and qualities that are revealed to him. You must build a middle line out of everything that you receive from Him, from these two “reins,” the two lines, the two “angels.” Then you will be sure that you are truly achieving the best possible state for yourself, for Him, and for the two of you.

Otherwise you cannot save yourself from any misfortunes. If you don’t prepare yourself ahead of time in the middle line in the next degree, then punishments await you. However, in essence, these are not punishments; they are revelations of the same qualities (Kelim), which you did not correct. You were given an opportunity and all the means to correct these qualities, and they were revealed to you, but you failed to do this. For this reason you sense the lack of correction in the form of suffering.

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