In order to attain the Creator, creation has to combine two opposite forces inside it. Otherwise it won’t feel anything besides itself, like the still, vegetative and animate objects. However, a human being is unique because he feels his neighbor.

First a person sees his neighbor as an opportunity to use him. But eventually a person develops and starts to understand that the neighbor is actually him. It only seems to us that others are against us because our ego pushes them away and makes us hate them. Yet, if we overcome this repulsion and attach others to ourselves, then we will regain the part of ourselves that we lost and will attain the Force that separates us – the Creator.

If I bring the system of souls back to its corrected state, where all the souls unite through mutual work, then I will attain the Initial Force that created the Single Soul, then broke it and left it to us to put back together. Each person is like a child that becomes big – attains the Creator’s mind – by gathering all the parts back together.

The Creator deliberately keeps the parts apart, separating them with hate and egoism. He is like an adult who has broken a complete toy and mixed up all of its parts, giving the child an opportunity to gradually develop, gain a mind and demand a correction of his qualities in order to gather it back together.

The child has to search the Soul’s future form and demand examples from the Adult. He has to force the Creator to correct the breaking together with him, as a child asks an adult to help him build a house out of blocks. Thus, by playing together with the adult, the child will understand where the game came from, why it’s necessary, why he was created the way he was, and what the Creator wants from him. He will then become like Him!

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A question I received: Does Kabbalah contain any secret wisdom that is forbidden from being revealed?

My Answer: In the wisdom of Kabbalah the word “forbidden” essentially means “impossible.”

A Kabbalist cannot present himself to the public and begin to reveal the secrets of this wisdom, pulling them out of his hat like a magician does a rabbit or a dove.

He cannot reveal anything to the people, other than the method of developing their perception. Subsequently, as a person develops his perception of the spiritual, in it he will reveal what is presently a secret to him.

A “secret” is what you do not know, see or otherwise sense at the present moment. While in the next phase it will become clear, simple and revealed.

In the science of Kabbalah every concept is studied according to the four phases of revelation, which are the four phases of development of spiritual perception (Aviut, the coarseness of the desire).

This is called entering into Pardes (the garden of knowledge): Pshat – knowledge, Remez – hint, Derush – discernment, Sod – secret. However, the process of entering occurs in the reverse order.

By correcting one’s perception of reality, one gradually ascends from secret (Sod) to discernment (Derush) to hint (Remez) to knowledge (Pshat). And there is nothing forbidden in any of it.

“Forbidden” means that the Kabbalists don’t want to confuse the person with excessive knowledge that he is not yet ready to comprehend. It is just as we raise a child by gradually expanding his diet, the games he plays, etc.

A teacher is supposed to prepare the “spiritual nourishment” in accordance with the student’s level. Therefore, the Kabbalists don’t fear revealing the forbidden; instead they fear “overdosing” the rest of us, just as an unripe fruit is harmful to one’s health.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, it harms by “expelling” the person out of this wisdom altogether. There’s even the possibility of the person being unable to discard whatever misconceptions he has acquired for the rest of his life, essentially wasting his current incarnation.

That is why we progress from the simple to the complex. Such is the path of correction.

This is why the Kabbalists’ only fear is giving the student an “unripe fruit,” for the only way for him to grow correctly and fully attain the science of Kabbalah is by proceeding along the phases suitable to his development.

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A question I received: Why is it that when I’m home alone, I can’t make myself open a Kabbalah book and I spend my time watching soap operas on TV instead? But when I come to the class and study there, I wouldn’t trade a lesson even for the best film.

My Answer: When you leave the classroom, you find yourself in the midst of material life, an unconscious state relative to the spiritual one. It’s our will to receive playing with us and making us burn our lives in order to interfere with our spiritual progress.

On the other hand, it helps you by showing how your time is wasted, and how all the pleasures you receive disappear without a trace. You then realize that only the environment can help you. If the people around you think about supporting each other, then you won’t be able to watch soap operas when you’re at home because of the importance of spirituality that they will transmit to you. You will feel that this action is a fall, as if you’re reverting to being a child and building a house out of blocks.

You are not to blame for spending your time in front of a TV. Your only fault is the failure to build an environment around you that will influence you so you just couldn’t waste your time without a purpose.

It doesn’t mean, however, that you have to make yourself turn off the TV. Kabbalah is against this kind of coercion. A person has to work, study, and live life just like an ordinary person. You shouldn’t try to change anything about yourself forcefully, but only by receiving the sense of spirituality’s importance from the environment.

There’s no coercion in spirituality! You can’t bind yourself by the hands and feet and consider yourself righteous. This is not correction!

You will correct yourself only when you change your desires and rise above that TV series. The Light has to correct you, rather than intimidation or threats with the fire of hell after death. The science of Kabbalah is not a religion, and it speaks only of correction. The only means to do this is by increasing the influence of the environment on you. This is the only free choice you have and a necessary condition for spiritual advancement.

Now you can go and watch TV…

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If a person isn’t joyful, then he is not in the spiritual state. In spirituality, if you want to go on to the following state, you have to complete your present state. That means you have to attain joy in the present and agree with it, as if you’re putting a seal on it. Then you will ascend to the next, higher level.

If you don’t attain joy in the present state, then you will never complete it, and you might even slide lower down. Even if you have already begun to awaken to and feel the spiritual state, if you don’t reach the sensation of joy about it, then you will be thrown back down, to a place where you did not feel any spirituality.

The sign that you have completed your current state is the feeling of emptiness in your egoistic desires, and the feeling that you want to be above them, in a state of greater bestowal. And if you are joyful, this means that you really desire bestowal – the next level. You are then ready to receive an additional desire.

It doesn’t matter what is happening to you on the path of correction – ascents or descents. You should always be happy, like a small child who tries to do something and is happy regardless of whether he succeeds at it or not. The most important thing is the efforts he makes. This is what enables him to grow.

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There is a stage in the revelation of the Upper Force when one encounters two opposites and needs to make a special discernment.

On one hand, he exists in the world with the understanding that he is that entire world. On the other hand, he is incapable of relating to this world as an integral part of himself and to connect it to himself.

It is the Upper Force, the Creator, that is preventing him from doing just that. Until one attains Him (the complete quality of bestowal), he cannot connect all the different parts of the world within himself.

An additional force is revealed, one that governs over his nature. At this point he wants to connect and change the world for the better, but is unable to do so, since he is unable to change himself!

In order to change, one needs to ascend to a higher degree. By connecting with these external parts, which he now sees as parts of himself, he can no longer remain egoistic.

It’s not the same as finding out that your long-time enemy is actually your close relative. When this happens, all that’s left is regret for the bad relationship you had prior to the discovery.

However, this kind of correction is not enough, since the hatred in him vanishes and is replaced by love. In reality this isn’t so. Instead, the hatred remains and love is built on top of it!

A person comes to this new degree with all of his prior egoism, which doesn’t vanish, and there is nothing to be done with it.

Sometimes a situation comes up when a person must have a good attitude towards someone, but cannot force himself to do so. No matter how hard he tries, he will still only feel hatred and repulsion toward another person.

So what can one do? The only option is to exert an additional effort so as to build a new relationship over the existing dislike and hatred.

This attitude is called a new intention for the sake of bestowal over the previous state of egoistic desire.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Person Is An Entire World
Laitman.com Post: Shame Brings Us Closer To The Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Spiritual World Is An Integral System (Advanced)
Laitman.com Post: Changing The World Starts With Changing Yourself
Kabbalah for the Student: “Concerning Love of Friends”
Rabash Article: “They Helped Every One His Friend”

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A question I received: Who should I ask for forgiveness on Yom Kippur, if we learn in the science of Kabbalah that there is no one outside of me?

My Answer: First of all, we have to ask our friends for forgiveness. If a person doesn’t have everyone’s forgiveness, then he won’t have anything with which to turn to the Creator. But what is forgiveness in spirituality?

Forgiveness is the revelation of my current state, which I can correct, in contrast to the desires I couldn’t even fathom being able to cope with and to ask for their correction. I have to discern my desires gradually and advance step by step.

Forgiveness (Slihot) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) mean the revelation of our broken vessel (Kli) or soul. We check it and compare it with the state of the full correction – Purim. This is why we call the opposite, uncorrected state that we reveal, Ki-Purim – Like Puirm).

Therefore, Yom Kippur symbolizes a time when a person truly asks to be forgiven for all his “sins.” But he doesn’t want this because it is written somewhere, but rather because he reveals how opposite he is to the final state, which he is able to envision. This state is the unity of all the souls for the sake of equivalence with the Creator, the force and desire to love and bestow.

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Preparation to the Lesson
The group “charges” me with the importance of bestowal, and at the same time, let me see how far away I am from this quality. As a result, I am able to demand correction.
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Part 1, on Writings of Rabash
“Darkness” is the breaking of the connection between us. When we really desire to unite, we light up the darkness.
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Part 2, on“Preface to the Sulam Commentary”
Being able to enjoy something that isn’t bestowal is just an illusion we have. In reality, pleasure and bestowal are the same thing.
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Part 3, on Baal HaSulam’s article, “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before”
You have to nourish your egoism, pretending that what you’re doing is good for it. After all, we will need egoism in order to undergo correction.
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When reading a Kabbalistic text, it’s important to understand that it is only talking about spiritual processes that take place inside a person, rather than about different characters and external actions. Everything that is described in a Kabbalistic text is inside a person.

For instance, the entire Torah talks only about how a person discerns different desires and qualities within: which ones belong to bestowal and which – to reception, which are fit for correction and which are unfit for it; and how a person experiences an inner world through these qualities, which is the only world that actually exists. A person then discovers that he perceives our world inside him as well, and there is never anything on the outside.

The way to enter the new world is by expanding your perception of your internal desires and qualities and by taking care to use all of them for the sake of bestowal. This is how one realizes oneself to the fullest.

A person contains all the characters of the Torah – the whole world to the fullest is within him. Kabbalah explains how a person can arrange the entire sum of all his desires within, and thereby reveal a new world.

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The spiritual world is not in a different dimension or up in the clouds. It is something you find inside your attitude to other people, when you see that your neglect toward them becomes replaced by attentiveness toward them and a feeling that they are important. This happens because you wish to reach spirituality, and you start to see that they are your partners on this path.

You then begin to worry about them and to take care of them just as you would with anyone who is important to you. At first you do this egoistically, but you gradually start to feel that you want to give to them.

That is when the Light begins to work, making you feel that there are qualities inside you that you have to correct. You wish to treat others with love, and you also feel that only the Light can carry out this correction. If you really want this to happen, then the Light will come and correct you.

However, this Light works only inside the connection between people, turning hatred into love and correcting the breaking which once turned love into hatred. Inside this new attitude to others, you begin to reveal the spiritual world that was lost during the breaking. You realize that your connection with others is a connection of souls, of your inner desires, and inside it, you reveal the Creator.

All of this occurs precisely inside this net of desires that bind all of you. They create a vessel (Kli), in which your spiritual life becomes revealed. Meanwhile, the material life turns out to be but a dream, like an imagined world.

Deep inside the connection among people, you reveal the quality of bestowal, and you realize that it is the only thing that exists in the world. Everything else was a fantasy, a concealment of the spiritual world, which was necessary in order for you to reveal it.

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A question I received: If everything we see in the world is merely a reflection of our inner state, does this mean that in order to see the world as corrected, we have to correct ourselves inside?

My Answer: All correction occurs within us. We do not have to correct the world. Unless you correct yourself, the world will not change for the better.

This fact will soon be revealed to us to the full extent. No matter how many good or bad things we do in the outside world – that is, within the bounds of only this world – our actions don’t affect anything, such as the ecology, for example. It’s just that one phenomenon becomes revealed instead of another. For instance, if we stop burning gasoline and switch to ecologically clean fuel, this will obviously entail certain changes in the atmosphere. But instead of the old problems, new problems will appear.

This happens because you have not corrected yourself through that. All of the balance in nature depends only on man’s correction. Therefore, the lack of balance on the human level, the lack of connection between people, is the single cause of all our problems.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

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