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When a person realizes how important the group is for his correction, he opens himself up like the hood of a car and lets his friends “do maintenance” inside. In the same manner, a patient gladly stretches himself on the surgical table with the expectation that the doctors will save his life. A person feels that he depends one hundred percent on the good will of the friends and that only with their help will he change, get corrected, and recover from a deadly ailment.

Then, the environment begins working on him. The more he sticks to the friends, the more clearly he is shown how hard it is to turn to them, how appalled he is by it. On one hand, a person understands that he simply must turn to the friends because all his life depends on it, but on the other, egoism and stubbornness don’t allow him to do so. These two qualities are called “hate,” “impure side,” and “filth.”

For example, sometimes we have to apologize to someone and can’t force ourselves to do it. In this situation, I discover two opposite forces: I must do it in order to save myself, yet I can’t. However, I later recognize that my incapacity is caused by a foreign force and, as a result, I gain strength.

This happens at every new degree. I begin to realize that the Creator has arranged everything so that I would hold His hand like a little child who clings to a grown-up. Then, with His help, I will be able to go to the Pharaoh.

This is how we advance until the very end of correction: I recognize the evil of my nature, separate from it, and see that is the Pharaoh, my rival. Then, I desire to get rid of it and ask the Upper Light to do it.
[24607]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/10, “Come to Pharaoh”

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My Good Environment – Questions of the Day

Sviva Tova (Good Environment) is the worldwide network that connects between points in the heart, and brings them a step-by-step external-corporeal connection to the inner connection of bestowal. Sviva Tova is an order of Kabbalists in our generation for the building of a new society, based on connections of love and bestowal, as the single solution for all of humanity’s problems.

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Question: Can a person who just got introduced to Kabbalah and arrives at the convention for the first time connect to it?

Answer: It doesn’t matter at what level a person is; he enters the collective field and feels that it is good. He will feel that it brings warmth, confidence, and protection. He will probably get an answer to some of life’s questions, and it will help him to solve problems within himself and at home.

The Upper Light gets revealed in the connection of people, it fills all cavities and flaws. Hence, everyone can feel that it is worthwhile to participate in unification. In the measure of one’s participation, the person will be able to connect to the Light, the wisdom of Kabbalah, and improve his life.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, contrary to religions, doesn’t claim that a person has to suffer. On the contrary, one should connect to the right environment (and he doesn’t even need to exert much effort to do so), and then he will start ascending on the beam of light.

All problems are solely from the lack of the Light in our life! And if we draw it to ourselves, we won’t feel any lack or serious problems: troubles, misfortunes, pain, and wars. Everything depends solely on the impact of the Light on our world.

It takes only a few minutes for a person to feel what a special place he has entered. Suppose he comes to the gathering, a cultural program: People sing, dance, and he may want to participate. If not, he could simply watch. He will feel warmth and lack of any personal pressure. So I don’t think that someone wouldn’t enjoy it.

People like this kind of atmosphere, even if they walked in accidentally, without seeking spirituality. After all, life usually doesn’t spoil us with such good moments, and people truly miss that.
[24155]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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On the spiritual path, there are two extremely serious obstacles or two questions raised by the Pharaoh himself:

1. “Who is this Creator that I should listen to Him?” In other words, what is so important which is hidden in the property of bestowal for me to bow to it?

In fact, this rebellion of our nature helps us because by overcoming it, we can keep exalting the importance of bestowal over reception in our eyes. The growing egoism continuously denies the importance of bestowal, and we have to keep strengthening our connection with the group so that under its influence, we start aspiring to the realization of the properties of bestowal within ourselves again.

2. "What is there for you in this work?” Egoism shows us that we are weak and incapable of achieving what we desire. “What do you have to do with it? Your goal may be beautiful, but who are you to reach it?”

When we are overtaken by these two weaknesses, it should be understood that a person can’t break free from imprisonment by himself. The only chance to do so is for the friends to come and save him. I will find strength to advance only in the group, in the connection between us. There, I reveal my nature and realize that it lacks bestowal.

Then, I experience distress between the two poles: On one side, there is the importance of bestowal and on the other, my pettiness. And I acquire both these factors thanks to the environment.

Now everything is organized correctly: I am low, the goal is exalted and profound, and I have the means to reach it. At this point, there comes a feeling of certainty that we call the Arvut (mutual guarantee). After all, I know that through the group, I will receive all the necessary strength.

How do I know this? In fact, the correct environment is a structure created by the Creator and infused with His attribute. Therefore, if we draw closer to each other through the bonds of love, then bestowal begins to rule among us.

It turns out that in reality, I am not using the power of the group, but the property of bestowal that is hidden in our interconnection. It doesn’t belong to any one individually for it is the force of the Creator, which becomes revealed between us. This particular force is the one that does all the work.

Hence, the Pharaoh’s heart lies in the hands of the Creator. The Pharaoh is the force of reception created by the Creator for us to build the form of bestowal exactly above it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/20, “He Who Strengthens His Heart”

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A person needs an external factor in order to be able to look at himself from aside. If he is included in the group, then it plays the role of that factor in a positive manner, carrying a person forward and supporting him. However, if a person has a weak connection with the group, he will need many inner troubles to push him to exit to the outside because when egoism suffers, it desires to escape from itself.

One way or another, the discernment has to be done from outside. The surest way to do it is to organize an environment that will always let me inside, that will help me and raise me so I am able to get back to the correct analysis in the fastest and easiest way.

One should not sink into the sensations and thoughts of one’s egoism, but always look at it from above, from the Light’s perspective. Egoism works very simply. Just like toy cars that run on batteries, it moves around among obstacles and when bumping into one, it changes the direction. I am always looking for the place with fewer negatives and more positives. My actions are entirely subject to a dual system where there is only “zero” and “one.”

However, if a higher thought comes to me about the reason and the goal, it means I have been awakened from Above, from the following level which no longer belongs to the desire for pleasure. That is how I receive an explanation in my own language, telling me that there is something better out there, something of a different quality or a higher class.

Nevertheless, I am being spoken to in words I understand, “You will feel better there.” And I reply, “I will feel better? Then I want it!” It’s the same as how we behave with little children, coming down to their level of understanding. There is no other way to go until we acquire the higher mind of the new level, the logic of our spiritual parents. And the group helps us to do this.

Sometimes a child absolutely refuses to go somewhere. But suddenly he sees other kids happily going in that direction. Then he also runs after them because if they are going there, that means there is something good there. Nature has made this approach inherent in us from the breaking of the Kelim, from our connection to each other. Even if we don’t listen to our mom (the Upper Level), we do listen to our friends in the group.

However, this isn’t just a group because the Upper Force resides inside it, being the mind and feeling of the parents’ level. I don’t just join a bunch of kids in the neighborhood, but I annul myself before the group and then, inside that self-rejection, I find the Creator.
[24782]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, “Show Me Your Honor”

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Rabash, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”: And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and cried out to the Creator.

First of all, we need to strive to correct the collective Kli, and then everything else will fall into place. Every day the Shechina once again becomes a virgin, and once again we need to turn her into a vessel. It is written in the Tractate Sanhedrin: “A woman enters a union only with the one who has made a vessel.”

Every day we rise again deprived of a connection to bestowal, the group, Shechina, the Creator. This is a natural and proper way: We keep discovering vessels, and this is why every new day begins with a blank sheet of paper. We need to continue by raising faith above reason, never expecting that the property of bestowal will become important for us on its own. Of course it loses its value, and it is a good thing.

I need to be prepared and rejoice in it, rejoice in the fact that I have not forgotten that I have the strength. After all, this is a sign of the influence of the group, which immediately gives me the ability to react to my state in a proper manner.

Reception is important to me, but I realize that I should value bestowal instead, which means that I must go above reason in order to increase the importance of bestowal. So I look for the force to rise above the egoistic calculations in the external means, not inside of me.

One must not wait until egoism realizes the importance of bestowal since it will never happen. Every day and every moment a person can resume the prayer turned towards the “wall” or Shechina, the group, and advance this way. If he were to test himself and evaluate his state according to the constant search for the true direction instead of his sensations within the egoistic desire, then his joy would be purposeful and would help him advance quickly.

Everything depends on how fast a person awakens for the proper prayer every coming moment. And this is determined only by how he has built his environment.

If the group gives him strength every time he falls, he adequately sees what is happening. The egoistic desire is boiling within him, but the Surrounding Lights that come through the group are influencing him from the outside.

Due to this, man always sees the importance of the goal and raises the proper prayer.
[23427]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/10, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”

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Question: I don’t understand: What is the freedom that we must attain?

Answer: Our freedom amounts to attaining the desire for bestowal that will fill us with infinite enjoyment. The goal is to achieve the most comfortable state of existence, although it requires us to first change and correct ourselves.

The Creator, Who is Good that does good, wished to create a being in order to bestow pleasure to it. And He will give this pleasure to us! Yet, like a little child, I dream only about one thing: that my parents would give me a bicycle for a present. For me, it is the greatest dream, but my parents fear that I will ride on a dangerous highway between the cars. Instead of buying me a bicycle, they wish to teach me to play the violin. Do you see the difference?

Similarly, the Creator wants us to “play the violin,” but we want a “bicycle” for our egoism to ride. Yet, when we make our desire as His, change ourselves and realize that to play the violin is the greatest joy, then we attain all the pleasure prepared for us by Him. After all, the Creator placed enjoyment in the “violin,” not in the “bicycle,” and I will have to change my desire for I have no choice. However, as a result, I will attain pleasure as conceived in the plan of creation.

My reward in this world is to gradually build for myself the necessary environment. I seek and discern which environment is needed to advance me to the example that the Creator gave me, and by doing so, I construct myself. From all the opportunities given to me, I build myself a “wrapper” that I can dress in.

A person creates for himself a new world, his next spiritual degree. He doesn’t simply give himself into the hands of the Upper One, permitting Him to do anything He desires. Rather, he has to know precisely what kind of person he wants to become, by way of which forces and influences. He creates himself and his entire world anew.

It is the kind of freedom that makes you the Creator. You start to understand all of nature’s components and to assemble them like a new puzzle game every time according to your opinion and advancement to the form of the Creator. You are constructing this world. This free choice grants you new desires and instruments of perception. By building it, you get to understand and know the Creator, His Upper force, the program of creation, and its laws that everybody follows. Hence, you can control it all.

It turns out that you are in place of the Creator and are governing everything. By inviting this force to govern you, you accept it, and with its help, you rule the world. It will be you, and your free will is the foundation for it. You are not the one who is governed anymore, but the governor. To do this, we just need to find out what our freedom is.
[23699]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Freedom”

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Question: Do we need the screen that would enable us to rid ourselves of all the pleasures prepared by the Creator?

Answer: No. The purpose of creation is to reach the good and enjoy. However, we need to delight in the unlimited pleasures that do not exist in our world. We remain “animals” in this thin layer of reality, but our task is to rise to the human level, where the infinite pleasure originates. And then, after having opened the bestowing Kli, we will enjoy without boundaries.

Suffering is not man’s purpose. We need to understand that we experience suffering in our world only because it pushes us toward the real pleasure. Rabash gives an example of a father who arranges the firing of his son from a factory so he would not stay there for the rest of his life and would move on.

When we encounter unpleasant things, we do not feel that we are being educated in this way like little children. But there is no other path. You cannot always be enticed with sweets because they will become your only goal. Yet without the sweets, you become wiser, you begin to evaluate the situation, and learn to manage it.

Thanks to the environment and the method of correction you begin to always understand what is happening to you, you agree with the “education program,” and go through all of its steps with your own will.
[23278]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/12/10, “The Matter of Mercy”

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