We are completely severed from spirituality, the property of bestowal, but we have a “training simulator,” the group, which is a part of humanity that is willing to exist in mutual bestowal in order to become similar to the Light. Therefore, we have to examine ourselves solely in relationship to the group, and the more we are willing to bestow to the group, the more we get to know who we are.

This work is correct in its basis since another person (whom we hate and bestow upon only in order to receive some benefit) is a substitute for the Creator or the Light. If we understand that the only chance to approach the Light is through the action of bestowal inside the group, then this action evokes the Light that Reforms even though the group is egoistic.

This correction does not require an intention (Mitzvot Lo Tzrichot Kavana) because the very act of bestowal within the group leads to the correction according to the rule, “We shall do, and we shall hear” (Naaseh ve-Nishma). That is, from one’s actions one attains the property of Bina (Shmiya, Lishma).

As a result, we no longer evaluate everything according to “bitter vs. sweet” and instead, shift to the scale of “true vs. false” since we want to regard the friends as already corrected and great and see flaws only in ourselves. Thus, the group is the condition for correction because we can completely correct ourselves from egoism by examining ourselves in relationship to the group: What is the extent to which we are equivalent to the Light, the Creator.

The Creator intentionally broke our Kli and made us feel its parts as something alien to us so that we would learn to treat these parts as we treat Him. He planted the property of bestowal, which is opposite to our desire to receive, inside the foreign parts, and that is why we hate them. The problem is that a person is obligated to examine himself in relation to the environment that he is egoistically unable to view as important, but this is exactly what determines the magnitude of egoism inside us.

When the egoism is discerned within oneself, a person shouldn’t run away from this sensation, but rather engage in the correction through an action in the group and a request (MAN, prayer) during the studies. It turns out that working in connection with the group evokes the Light hidden inside it, the Creator, Who gives us the group as a substitute for Him in order for you to ask the Creator to correct your attitude towards the group.

Thus, we are dealing with only two concealed spiritual levels: the group, slightly disclosed and the Creator, fully concealed. While working in the group we must hide our feelings of resentment and rejection in ourselves, and then with the help of the Light contained in the group, we will discover our correction. As a result, I, the Creator, and the group will merge into one whole so that the vessel (Kli) and the Light would become one.
[22719]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/10, “In Everything We Must Discern Between Light and Kli”

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The group is my copy, my shadow, just as I am the Creator’s shadow. I receive much more from my friends than what I put into them. It doesn’t depend on them or their behavior, but only on my attitude to them. This environment is also the Creator. It is the opportunity He gave me to work with Him, having created an illusion for me as if something exists outside of me while, in fact, only the Creator exists outside of me.

That is why we must always awaken the environment until we attain the state where the environment influences me so I desire to unite with it in order to unite with the Creator through it. I cannot attain the Creator without the environment because the environment is an external means through which I will see the image of the Creator.

If I don’t desire to unite with the group, then I am not aiming at the goal, the Creator at all. After all, who is my neighbor? The force of the breaking that took place in spirituality divided me into two parts: me and my neighbor. What for? It was in order for me to discern what I lack in order to unite with the Creator.

As soon as I can bring this environment closer to me even though it seems foreign to me, the more I am able to come closer to the Creator. I was deliberately endowed with a dual perception so I would see a part of me as alien and hateful.

That is why “love your neighbor as yourself” is the main rule of the Torah. This is the only thing the Light corrects, and there is nothing to correct but this. If you don’t ask for this correction, then all your efforts are wasted. Everything else is useless cries into the wilderness.
[22633]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/10, The Zohar

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Presently the Creator is concealed from me, and I am only able to search for Him inside the group which stands between me and Him, as it is written: “From love of the created beings to love of the Creator.” If I direct myself to the group and clarify all the answers through them with respect to our connection and mutual guarantee, then I transfer my desires into the group and am able to see whether their desire is to receive or to bestow.

In return, the group provides me with a feeling of the Creator’s importance, and this feeling becomes important to me whether I want it or not. I begin to believe in the greatness of the Creator and that the greatest reward is to be near Him. The group restructures the order of my values, placing bestowal and the Creator on top and my egoistic desires at the bottom.

Then I begin to work to increase the greatness of bestowal, and this feeling continues to grow until it turns into a full-fledged mutual guarantee and we all become as one. If we achieve the sensation of “one man” in even the smallest measure, then we cross the barrier (Machsom) which separates us from the Upper World. And then, according to the law of equivalence of form, we begin to feel the Creator, the quality which defines the entire universe.

The group is my only means of defining spiritual definitions such as light and dark or day and night. After all, I come to the group utterly confused, without a clear understanding of what I want from this life, what is important, what determines advancement, and what the Creator wants from me. I scatter in all directions without even realizing where I’m going.

I have no clear direction whatsoever, and only the group can help me find my way. Books alone are unable to do that for me; they may even confuse me by giving me the impression that I have advanced spiritually by accumulating knowledge and that by grasping the information in a literal sense, I will attain spirituality. I was given the group as a model of the spiritual world temporarily, in place of the Creator, and the more I realize that my advancement takes place within the group, the quicker I will advance.
[22308]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, “What is Day and Night in Work?”

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Question: What motivates me to keep the covenant I made with the Creator?

Answer: Nothing does! Suppose I fell in love with a girl. A month later I don’t want her anymore. What should I do? People tell me, “You have to stay with her for life.” But why should I? It would be a lie, not the desire of my heart. If I hate her now, how will I be able to live all my life with her? How, then, do we commit to marriage? We realize that we won’t be able to live with the same feeling of infatuation forever and it will be a lie.

Marriage has an Upper Root: the union of the Creator and the created being, founded on attainment of the Higher Goal, not corporeal love. Love is defined as mutual support and assistance toward achieving this goal.

If I understand this principle, I can rise above my desire to receive pleasure and walk my path of life by way of bestowal. I don’t sign a promise saying that I will love bestowal all my life; this is impossible and therefore we can’t even talk about that. Rather, I sign the promise saying that I will always treat the Creator as Great, and I wish to attain Him by way of making a covenant with Him. That is why it is written: “Husband and wife, and the Creator between them.” Otherwise, there won’t be a marriage.

It is the Host who matters to me, not His table full of delicious treats that stands between us. The “treats” serve as the first contact between us, until I am able to build a higher connection with the Host in order to attain that higher connection. In other words, the covenant we make with the Host does not happen at the level of love between us, or because He provides “treats” for me, as in the case with a young man and a young woman who marry because of the animate love between them. On the contrary, we value each other because the connection between us allows us to reach the Upper Root, the exalted spiritual goal.

Now, a question arises: How can one remain focused on this exalted goal? That is why we need the group. It is the place where you have a guarantee, and it can give you the force of faith which will always serve as your “fuel.” You can’t achieve this on your own. Even the Creator won’t hold you up if you don’t make the effort.
[21431]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/17/10, “A Transgression Does Not Put Out A Mitzva”

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Question: If “there is none else beside Him” and everything is done only by Him, then why am I considered to be a sinner?

Answer: When the evil becomes revealed to me for the first time, this is not yet considered to be my sin. However, if after having discovered an evil desire within, I still plan on using it, now this goes on my account. When this happens for the second time, it is considered to be a sin. It is like repeatedly tasting the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. However, it is only when this happens for the third time that I am considered to be a real sinner. The second time is only the revelation that I exist in evil.

Let’s say, I committed a crime, but this was my very first time. Even courts take this into consideration as extenuating circumstances. I am given a light punishment as a warning to help me never do anything like this again. In other words, I am given the force of correction.

However, when, regardless of the correction that I am given in accordance with the transgression, I still repeat the crime because the criminal desire that awakens in me is even greater than the punishment or fear of a crime, this means that I have really sinned.

When I transgress for the first time, the magnitude of my evil is revealed to me. For now, this is not called a sin. The second time, I reveal how big of a crime against the Creator it is, and I am given a punishment for it that is slightly greater than the sin.

If I now reveal this kind of desire in me for the third time, and the desire is even bigger than before, then this difference is called "the evil inclination" because it is in it that I go against the Creator. This is the force of the Pharaoh within me. Now, this is a real sin. It is there where I need to repent and ask for forgiveness. Now I am undoubtedly a sinner.

The first time is merely the creation of a vessel (the desire). The second time is the evaluation of my sin. While the third time is the true crime, it is only as the result of this crime that the appeal for correction appears.

However, the most important part is that all of this is only possible through the Surrounding Light which comes in the form of a “group” or the connection within which the Creator exists. This means that “Israel (one who strives toward the Creator), Torah (the Light of correction), and the Creator are one."

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, “Preparation for the Reception of Torah”

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It is essential to understand that everything we read in The Zohar takes place within our connection. Our connection produces (gives birth to) “space,” a new dimension where the Creator will be revealed. In fact, this space in itself doesn’t exist. But if every one of us, with his point in the heart, yearns for connection with the others, our collective efforts construct this space, the network between us, for the revelation of the property of bestowal: the Creator.

This space can be regarded as the group. People constantly ask: “Where is spirituality: upward, downward, or somewhere on the side?” It is said in a prayer: “Where is the place of His Greatness?” It is no-where; it doesn’t have a place. You have to build this place from your relationship with the others. Together, you are constructing spiritual space and in it, you find the Creator.

Moreover, the Creator Himself is regarded as “the place” because we feel Him in the “place” that we create for Him. The Creator exists beyond any space. You yourselves have to build it: one collective and corrected desire similar to the Creator in the property of bestowal where the Creator will be revealed.

He can be revealed only in this way, in the equivalence of form, meaning in the place suitable for Him which is the very same property of bestowal. None else is possible. This place is the Temple, the House of the Creator, the desire of Malchut that has acquired the properties of Bina. This is why it is named Beit HaMikdash, the Sanctified House. Malchut is the house and sanctity is Bina’s property of bestowal.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/10, The Zohar

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Klipat Noga is a state of “half good/half evil,” and it’s a very fragile and stressful state. It is as though a person is standing on the edge between performing a grave crime or, on the contrary, a very good deed should he receive help. However, he swings back and forth unable to lean one way or the other. It’s as though he is split in two without the strength to perform a final choice, not knowing on which side of the scale to place a final, determining grain.

On one hand, he is unable to reject his ego which is the enormous desire to enjoy and his entire egoistic “possession.” On the other, he understands that if he does not free himself from it now with help from Above, he won’t be able to pass to the other side and enter the spiritual world. In this manner, he stands on the threshold not knowing on which side to step. He is like a knight at a crossroads. This is a state where one needs to make a choice.

Here, only the group, only the Upper Light can help a person finally make up his mind and pass himself over to the hands of the Upper One, transitioning to bestowal through faith above reason. The prayer here is not about help since this would mean that a person has already made a decision. The prayer is about the state in which he is unable to choose. This state is the beginning of the year or the beginning of a new change.

On one hand, we feel that we are wicked, and on the other, we lack the strength to reject all these egoistic qualities and states. We are unable to imagine how it is possible to live without them or how to make a step in order to rise above it. Only the Upper Light that comes to us during this state helps us make a choice and elevates us to faith above reason (bestowal over reception). It is then that the New Year begins for us, and this is called “a good record in the Book of Life.”

The Upper Light, the Creator, puts His signature in the book of life for us and guarantees to a person that from now on that person will proceed by the good path. Before this, one should do all that is in his power to bring himself to this choice. The direct translation of a “New Year (Rosh Hashanah)” is a “beginning of changes” or a “head of changes.” They need to occur often for us and always be for the better: toward the Creator who is “good and does good.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/10, “Letter 67”

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All our corporeal properties are related to the animate level of existence, but we have to build a human within ourselves, which means to become “similar to the Creator” (Adam) and exist in bestowal. Bestowal, however, can be realized only in the group, in love of friends, in order to attain the Creator. Through our relationships, we create a desire similar to the Creator: the place where the Creator is revealed.

Hence, all the personal qualities and capacities that are embodied by our corporeal form don’t have any relation to spirituality. In regard to spirituality, I work solely with the point in the heart and should disregard the rest of my “earthly” properties. I cannot succeed in my quest for the Creator through them for they are secondary, and I strive to work “above them,” always preferring bestowal to reception, “faith above reason.”

The essence is the point in the heart. I must connect it with the others, with the friends. So, now I have to make the correct decision and determine that I want to reach success not in the material world, but in the unity of the points in the heart. It is the place where the Creator will be revealed as soon as it becomes similar to the Creator in the very least.

I have to constantly ponder this question. Only this determines how successful my spiritual advancement is.

Hence, this point is regarded as the Beginning of Change (Rosh Hashanah). It is the decision which should always signify a new beginning.

As a matter of fact, the line of trajectory we are moving by consists of multiple points. A spiritual path is a sequence of dots, and each of them has a “nip,” a “gap” in motion between the previous and the following points. Thus they create a single spiritual trajectory line.

In order to continue moving along with the others, in the same direction, in each point of the trajectory, I have to be totally opposite to the previous and the future states of existence. Only then can we adhere to this line of trajectory.

Therefore, in each point, at each moment of my life, I must make up my mind for the Beginning of Change within me.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/10, “Rosh Hashanah”

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The Upper One exposes to us its lower part, Malchut, as a black void, promising nothing good. The “Upper World” (the spiritual world) is presented to us so unattractive on purpose. Meanwhile, in “this world” that we feel in the Keter of the lower one, we find at least some pleasure.

I exist in such state that even this world doesn’t attract me, and the state of the Upper One seems to be even worse. Actually, I am not even filled in my egoistic, receiving desires, but the Upper One loads some more on me by suggesting: “You wanted to be in bestowal!” I don’t have anything, and yet the Upper One is telling me: “Come on, share what you have with the others!”

Hence, I can accept what the Upper One suggests solely without thinking, without any conditions, and not through my own efforts. I can do it only by the force of the Light, without making any plans and having hopes to fill my egoism and receive some benefit in “this world.”

Most important for a person is to reach the state of bestowal. And then, he will have everything, but only after he rejects it! He will receive fulfillment (satisfaction), yet not through reception, but through bestowal.

This is how we should view the month of Elul before the beginning of the New Year, the start of one’s spiritual journey. ELUL, as an acronym, means “I am for my Beloved, and my Beloved is for me.” The Upper One hands down these hopeless conditions to me so that with their help I may break free from my egoistic state. In fact, if He promised me something good, I would never be able to tear away from my egoism, as I am chained to it by pleasure.

It is written: “The Creator places man’s hand on a good fate” by submerging his life into darkness and void but, on the other hand, reveals to man a tiny beam of Light to show the way out of the dark. This beam of Light is not an egoistic, material gain. The Creator provides me with the help on my spiritual path: He brings me to a Kabbalistic group, where I can exercise my free will and choose the correct environment.

The Light “illuminates” a bit, meaning that it gives me a sensation that bestowal in particular is the Light. It makes me feel that the Light is ascent above my egoism when it doesn’t matter whether it’s filled or empty since what counts is Whom I’m connected with.

The Creator lets me know the following: You suffer in the corporeal state, so don’t seek material fulfillment. Rather, being in this state, look upward: Think about what other life may exist, in other values, in bestowal, in another dimension (of happiness).

This means that a beam of Light is shining onto me through the cracks in the wall that separates me from the Upper World, the world of peace (rest from my egoism and worry about filling it) and perfection (aspiration to bestowal and love).

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, Shamati #42

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Malchut wants to become similar to Bina and achieves this through Zeir Anpin (ZA). ZA is a model for her. Her being able to become similar to ZA indicates her ability to be similar to Bina.

The same applies to us. If I want to become like the Creator, I have to enter the group, become its integral part, participate together with everyone, influence everyone, and receive their influence in return. In such a mixing, in the connection between us, I acquire a new form of unification with others. Then the form that clothes me resembles the Creator.

In other words, if I clothe the group onto myself as if it were a garment, I, thus, am similar to the Creator.

From the 2rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/7/10, The Zohar

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