Connecting The Group’s Desires To Me In Order To Ascend To The Next Level

Kabbalists write that between me and the reality concealed from me, the next world, there is a boundary called Machsom (barrier), and if I cross it, I will begin to feel that reality, that world of souls, my existence without a body, in addition to the reality I currently feel. But I do not know how to do that - what are the good and bad qualities in me, what qualities I should change and what kind of connection I should build between them in order to cross the Machsom. Furthermore, I cannot rise above the Machsom and adhere to that, because in order to have that ability, I need to change the qualities I have not yet changed within myself. Therefore, in order to help me with that, the Elyon (Upper One) descends to my level and shows me His qualities, like an adult who descends to the child's level to play with the child. But because I am still immersed in my ego, when the Elyon reveals His quality - the quality of bestowal and love - to me, it is felt toward my ego as darkness. Nonetheless, this darkness allows me to verify against Him what qualities I need to change in order to receive the darkness, and I thus start scrutinizing the Elyon's qualities and reach Him in spite of it. How do I do that? By arranging the group and the study which give me the strength to overcome the darkness and receive it as Light, which help me become prepared for Him. Therefore everything that depends on the Tachton (Lower One), everything that depends on us, is to arrange an environment that will help us mimic the example shown to us by the Elyon.

--Taken from the Preparation to the Lesson

How Can A Person Arrange The Correct Environment For Spiritual Progress?

A person who wants to ascend above his level received only a spark which awakens him to that. But this spark alone is insufficient in order to rise to the Elyon's level. For that, a person must add a true desire to himself. After all, he possesses only a spark and not a desire. But how can this spark be turned into a desire? In order to do that, you have numerous people beside you who are like you, and they too have sparks which awaken them to spirituality. This is the group, your environment. If you connect all these sparks, all these desires to you, you will have enough strength to ascend upwards. How can we do that? I must annul myself before them, connect to them. And when I connect them to me, when I receive their points in the heart, I have sufficient strength to become equal to the Elyon. But how is it possible to become equal to the Elyon? For that, the Elyon descends to me and provides me with an example.

--Taken from the Preparation to the Lesson

What Does It Mean, Giving Up My Desire And Connecting The Friends’ Desires To Me?

How can I connect to them without relinquishing myself? I need to give up my ego, I need to see the help that I need in them, I need to see that they possess qualities I lack in order to rise to the Elyon. Therefore, I need to subjugate myself before them. What for? Because by subjugating my pride, my control, in order to receive from them, to be impressed by them, I already work on myself, I already cancel my ego. By considering them as being great and myself small compared to them, I already begin to work with them as if they were the Elyon toward me. By wanting to receive elevation from them, the recognition of the Elyon's importance, I work with them very much like with the Elyon.

Moreover, when I connect the sparks within the friends to myself, they become a desire that matches my next level, my first spiritual level which is beyond the Machsom. So now I have an example from the Elyon, but with what matter do I rise to the next level? With my friends' totality of sparks. This is what becomes the vessel where I receive the Upper level. And it is always like that in spirituality. There is no other vessel in which I will be able to reveal the Light but the totality of souls that we are capable of clustering, connecting together. Therefore it is written that "Love thy neighbor as thyself is the great law in the Torah" - through love we connect to the whole, to a great vessel where we reveal the Torah, the Light.

--Taken from the Preparation to the Lesson