Don’t blame the Creator if your spiritual progress is very slow and unnoticeable! We must first and foremost reveal the desire inside ourselves. Without it we will not be able to feel a change in our states.

If I don’t feel the spiritual world yet, it means I still don’t want it! It is here, right next to me, but I don’t want to see it and that is why I don’t reveal it. There are no presents from Above. How I reveal the spiritual world depends only on me and my desire. As soon as my desire grows and reaches the level of the next, higher spiritual world, I immediately reveal it. But if I don’t feel a need for it, then I can’t reveal it.

Everything is up to a person. Our only task is to influence each other in order to discern our desire correctly. We may be yelling and burning with desire, but it’s a desire for the wrong thing, both in quantity and quality.

What we need is a clearly discerned desire where the most important thing is the quality of the desire: What exactly do I want, rather than how much I want it. In spirituality the quantity is not important, only the quality is. We call the quality of a spiritual desire, “force.“ The force of a desire in spirituality is defined by how sharp and precise it is and what exactly it is aimed at. This requires constant worry to make sure that your desire has the right direction.

If you ask people how they imagine spirituality and what they desire, you will get a different answer from every person. This can only be discerned by working in the group and using help from the Light which we all attract together during the study because we understand that for now we don’t have the right desire for bestowal and faith. Therefore, we want the Light to come and explain it to us, to show us examples and create a desire in us! This is called a necessity without a necessity, the prayer before the prayer.

However, once a person is brought to the group, from then on everything is up to him.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/10, “You Should Always Discern Between Torah and Work”

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Quality is much more important than quantity. There is an infinite variety of plants in the world, but the significance of one flower is equal to all the still matter in the whole universe. One animal is equal to all the plants in the world. And one person is equal to all the rest of nature. This is how different the levels are; they are separated by an abyss.

If we were to gather all the stones in the whole universe, it would be impossible to make even one flower grow out of them, because a flower contains life. It develops, which is a quality that the still level of matter lacks. A person’s development is entirely unique and cannot be understood through a simple analysis. It would seem that every person has a very small force, whereas in reality, that force actually has great quality.

Therefore, an event such as The Zohar Convention 2010 where we unite produces a very powerful force. All the stars in the universe are practically worthless compared to the value of human thought. Today scientists are revealing that our thoughts influence physical processes, such as the behavior of elementary particles in the Large Hadron Collider.

In reality, our thoughts control all the stars, as well as everything on the vegetative and animate levels of nature. All of this is the result of man’s attitude, thoughts, and desires. This is why it is written that all parts of nature are inside man, and there is nothing for us to correct besides our thoughts. This is how we correct the whole world.

Light comes into this world through a system called “man,” because this system is higher than all the rest, and the Light expands from above downward. To the extent this system is united or disunited, meaning corrected or not, that is the extent to which the Light reaches all the other parts of nature (still, vegetative, and animate), and it determines how we see the world.

Therefore, it is written that all of nature is inside a person and it ascends or descends along with him. If I ascend, I attain a greater connection with others and thereby correct the common soul. Through me, a greater Light comes to all of nature, and thus nature also connects and reaches greater harmony.

I am the center of all of nature. I am surrounded by the still, vegetative, and animate levels, but I am the one who determines their correction. When I complete my correction, these levels will disappear and become part of me, because they really are parts of me and my own reflection.

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A question I received: There are different materials in nature: metal, wood, stone, and others, and they are all completely passive. As I see it, they are all inanimate. However, desire is something more active. Why then do you call them desires?

My Answer: A pencil is made of wood, and wood desires to maintain its form or structure – the connection between the atoms. If you try to do something to it, you will see that it does not wish to give in to your changes; it tries to maintain its form and resists. You need to put in lots of effort in order to break it, meaning, to break its desire to stand guard over itself and to self-preserve.

This material is a force. By measuring certain parameters of this material, you measure its force of resistance to external influences. You will need to apply additional force in order to change its qualities and state. This is called desire or matter.

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A question I received: When reading Baal HaSulam’s books, you can feel real a cry for spiritual ascent, but we don’t have this cry. Why is that?

My Answer: He cries for it because he knows and sees the real situation. When a mother knows that her child is sick, she cries within, but the child may not feel any pain yet and keep on playing in his crib. He has a fever but has no idea that it may be caused by pneumonia or a virus. The mother knows, but the child doesn’t.

Looking at us, Baal HaSulam cries indeed, but we aren’t terribly concerned. We’re kind of like a person that’s falling off a ten-story building but remains calm. “How’s it going?” Someone asks him as he passes the eight floor. “So far so good,” he answers.

And he’s right – so far so good. Therefore, we must regard the words of Baal HaSulam as seriously as we would a doctor’s opinion; however, not so they would scare us, but to prompt us to correct ourselves. Correction is the only remedy to our illness. And even though the remedy is not simple, it will not only restore our health, it will also help us attain perfection.

The science of Kabbalah is not intended to improve our situation in this world; on the contrary, we will never have peace here. The situations ahead will only get more dangerous until we understand that we must make the necessary corrections. We have entered a new age, one where all of mankind will ascend to a higher level. But there is a force prepared for us called “Mashiach,” which pulls (Moshech) us from the egoistic desire into the desire for bestowal. We must utilize this force.

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The Creator is an all-encompassing law of the universe. By demanding correction, we are not addressing someone, but we are preparing our desire for change from an egoistic desire to receive, to an altruistic desire to bestow.

As soon as we desire this, it will change! This will happen due to the Creator, the general law of the universe, immediately influencing our desire. The Creator is a spiritual field of bestowal and love in which we shift as the desire in us changes.  The Creator, however, is at a specific point in this field, relative to us. Initially we are opposite to it, and because of this, we are situated in the most external circle of this field, which is called “this world.”

To the extent that we desire to move closer to the center, towards the Creator’s qualities of love and bestowal, we cause this field to influence us, and it is able to move us. We can see that the Creator does not act on a whim, and we have no reason to wait for special treatment from Him.

My respect for the law of gravity will not change its effect on my body. In the same manner, if we follow the spiritual laws, we enter the spiritual world, and if not, we remain outside.

There is no protection, and it is useless to play up to and fawn over the Creator. The Creator is a force which reads my innermost desires rather than listening to my words. I advance to the extent that I correspond to this force.

The science of Kabbalah examines the laws of the spiritual world. It is spiritual physics, not lyrics. We exist in Nature; the Creator is Nature, and His laws are the laws of Nature.

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There is nothing but forces in the spiritual world. But the connection between them is determined by your perception (world-year-soul in a ready-made reality). And the Creator is also a detail of your perception. He is something outside of you. That is to say, from within your inner reality, you deduce something that provides and sustains it, and you call this part, “the Creator.” It is you who distinguishes and “depicts” Him inside your qualities.

The same thing is true regarding the rest of the picture (world-year-soul). When you are in the spiritual world, you reveal the spiritual matrix of forces, “world-year-soul and a ready-made reality.” You then reveal a different order of forces that influence one another. They contain an inner part (the soul) and an outer part (the world). And you understand some of the forces, seeing them as cause and consequence; this is the year. They contain an Upper Thought and a force that leads the process; this is the ready-made reality.

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A question I received: Each of our material life events is followed by emotions and feelings. Sometimes the same feelings can follow rather different events. Does it matter what the event is, which causes us to have feelings, regarding the root and branch connection? Does each material life event have only one root, or can one root come into action as branch through different events depending on the person?

My Answer: Every object, time, event or act has its own spiritual root. An Upper Force that descends to our world cannot produce more than one action. Each object or act has its own force, or its own angel.

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A question I received: Please show me practically, using examples from history, how do Reshimot change?

My Answer: The periodical change of our attitude to life is dictated by the changing “genes” in us (Reshimot, which comes from the word Roshem - “recording” in Hebrew). The stages of egoism’s changes are recorded inside each of us from the beginning, when the common soul divided into many souls.

Reshimot are revealed in us in an increasing, consecutive order: 0-1-2-3-4. Therefore, at the beginning stages of their realization in us, the Reshimot brought forth a small egoism in us; and in those lives we were “naïve” – slaves and masters. Then, as more advanced Reshimot surfaced in us, when we were born in the next epochs, we desired to be freer, to be workers, such as vassals or serfs. Women were married off without their permission, and this was considered “correct.” They loved their husbands because their small egoism did not get in the way. This was the accepted norm.

And after that, as more advanced Reshimot were expressed in us, we desired to be “free” workers for hire, employers but not masters. We desired freedom and equality (including for women), and so on.

Reshimot elicit desires in us, and the desires provoke the mind to achieve what we desire. Today we can see nations in whom different Reshimot were expressed in the same epoch, and therefore we don’t live in one cultural zone, but in different cultures and formations. However, globalization is bringing about a quick realization of Reshimot in every person and in everyone together.

In regard to choice:

• marriage (voluntary – through love, or forced – stealing the bride, paying a ransom, marrying by the father’s order, and so on),

• power (coercive – although later accepted and loved, like in Russia until today; by election; or inherited),

• place of residence (being attached to the place, having a residence permit, a passport system, free movement),

• and according to other signs, one can tell which Reshimot were realized in a nation or a civilization.

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In the news (from The Guardian): “Scientists open doors with the power of the mind” A mock-up of a home controlled by the power of thought has been successfully piloted by a hospital in Italy, promising new levels of independence for the severely disabled. Scientists showed that people could open doors or operate lights, a telephone, a small robot and even a robotic hand by wearing a strip of electrodes on their head to pick up brainwaves that signal “interest” and send them to a computer that interprets them as desired actions. Within three years such a system would be of practical benefit to the severely disabled.

My Comment: The power of thought is the greatest force in creation. It is only in our world that we don’t see how our thoughts affect everything that happens to us. Studying Kabbalah enables you to start discerning the net of forces that permeates our world, the matrix upon which our world lies and by which it is governed, and how we unconsciously influence these forces with our thoughts.

When you reveal this picture, you start interacting with Nature correctly. This is why it is so important to study the Kabbalistic sources.

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In the News (from Higher Education Center): New research examines how group processes alter the impact of alcohol on a judgment task requiring vigilance. Alcohol significantly impaired the performance of individuals, but not groups. Group members make fewer errors than individuals in the alcohol condition… The evidence highlights that group process can compensate for the cognitively impairing effects of alcohol on individuals.

My Comment: It turns out that “splitting it three ways” is not just a way to save money, but also necessary for spiritual unification!

In the News (from RT): As the economic crisis bites, Russians have started to prioritize spending, saving money on food and daily necessities. According to a survey by the Nielsen research company, about 95 percent of Russians have noted an increase in prices this year. 73 percent declared that they have begun saving on groceries and products of daily consumption while 10 percent said they no longer buy sweets and cakes and 8 percent said the have excluded meat and vodka from their shopping basket.

My Comment: If people correct themselves, then the world will be filled with abundance. Right now, even though there is more than enough of everything in the world, our corrupted connections create the crisis, and hence we are unable to exchange the products of our work correctly.

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