Someone is constantly working with our consciousness in the corporeal world: all mass media, films, television, and newspapers. We receive examples of life in school, at home, from our environment, friends, and the entire world. We are constantly under this influence without even realizing how much we depend on it and follow these instilled values.

It turns out that in our corporeal world I only carry out someone else’s desires. But in the spiritual world I am left with an absolutely unfilled emptiness, and I don’t know what to do with it: Where to go, or what’s going on? And this is very difficult.

But on the other hand, we need to understand that in our world we don’t perform any independent actions and never realize our own desires; we never choose how to dress, what to eat, what to think, our profession, or partner in life. I receive all the tastes from the environment and work according to this program. When fashion changes in the surrounding world, I immediately change my direction and start chasing it.

We have already gotten accustomed to living like this, and this is why we feel confused when we are suddenly given freedom: We no longer know what to do with it. This is exactly what happens with our spiritual development. We are given complete freedom in it. What do we do with it, and where to get the examples?

But if you were given examples, you wouldn’t develop yourself as a free person who possesses freedom of choice. You wouldn’t find or reveal your soul. A person stands puzzled without knowing how to continue.

This is why Kabbalists advise us to learn from nature, from the environment. Nature, its general, upper force, is the Creator. We need to learn from Him, and we need to reveal Him. He needs to become our environment, and we need to draw examples from Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The society is the only place where I can realize the act of bestowal. My attitude toward spirituality, toward the Creator, is tested by my attitude toward the society. This is the only way I can evaluate my state with regard to spirituality: Do I want to serve the others or to use them for my own benefit?

The Creator cares about the society since it is precisely the place where He can reveal Himself. It is Malchut of the world of Infinity, Shechina, His favorite child, and this is where He dwells and hides. Everything depends only on the well-being of the environment! The environment, the connection between everybody where each is aspiring to reveal the Creator, is the ultimate goal, the place where the Creator can be revealed to the created beings.

You give the Creator an opportunity to become revealed! This place and the Light that becomes revealed in it, meaning the Creator, have the same value and are inseparable from each other. Hence, as one advances, he realizes that the society in its internal essence is actually the Creator who dwells there (Boreh means "come and see"). We do not reveal anything but the corrected society which is, in fact, called the Creator.

Now we separate the two, but in the final, perfect state it’s impossible to divide anything. The Light and desire merge into one, and it’s impossible to say which is the first and which is the last. For us, all of creation starts from the fact that there is One, a point immersed in the Light. Relative to us, nothing exists before this state.

Kabbalists state that this adhesion, the Light, the force of bestowal, is nevertheless primary relative to the creature, the force of reception. But we are not able to perceive it since we act in terms of "time," meaning cause and result.

However, until we reveal a constant and eternal state, both cause and consequence exist only relative to the changes within us. But in a perfect state, there is no cause or consequence; there are no changes.

Indeed, if there is cause and effect, it means that inner corrections in the creature are still under way, that it hasn’t yet revealed the true state. In the true state, there are no changes already, and it means that there is no difference between the Creator and Creation.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why do energetic women copy the male forceful approach? Where does this come from?

Answer: Out of having no other way to go, women are forced to solve the problems of life in order to provide themselves with what men do not give them. That is why they are forced to go through the education system and work hard while at the same time taking care of the home and raising children without a husband. As a result, today they are rising higher and higher on the career ladder, occupying newer and newer positions.

All of it is happening because men are running away from responsibility, from the part they have to take upon themselves. Women are accepting modernity’s challenge, but men are not.

Overall, the modern environment conditions us to be free, telling us, “Live however you want, no one can say anything to you.” People do not feel responsibility toward society, their country, their people, or the world. Do anything that comes into your head as long as you don’t kill, steal, or other such things.

However, this is opposite to what Baal HaSulam explains to us: According to the spiritual root, each of us is indebted to society. The calculation is not only with what a person takes, but also how much he fails to give. Each person has to work and contribute his share to society. Each person has to take on the burden of a family, raise children, and so on.

However, in our society it is not considered a transgression if a person does not contribute his share. A transgression is if he took more than what is accepted. In this situation we will continue to suffer until humanity finds itself “at the brink of death,” so to say. And maybe that will help.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/11 on Women

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At first we evolve by absorbing desires of all the others, by envying their aspiration, effort, and work. But gradually, under the influence of the collective work, our desires change, and we start feeling that unity, caring for others, and absorbing their desires is a very special state.

It is the Light that evokes these changes in us since on our own, we cannot change. We think that we keep doing the same thing, pass through the same states, and nothing really changes day by day. But desires evolve in four stages, and being influenced by the Light, they begin to change.

The final destination, the state which already exists in the plan of creation, is “inscribed” in the Light. Therefore, the Light, which expands from the very first, root stage and affects our desire from there, instills in it all the changes that are already placed in the desire created by this Light. Hence, don’t despair! Just remember it.

Afterward, having gained experience, everyone starts to feel that he or she is in the field of constant influence. Even when it seems that nothing is changing, this field still evokes processes and transformations in our desires in four stages of HaVaYaH.

Thus, we first come to a Kabbalistic group as consumers, wishing to employ it for our egoistic goals: make decisions, rule, and satisfy our ambitions. And this stage of development should be utilized to give people an opportunity to advance to a certain point, as long as it doesn’t harm the society. After all, we start with egoism, and from egoism (Lo Lishma, not for Her name) we come to bestowal (Lishma, for Her name).

And then, a person undergoes the next stage and starts to understand that unification itself has a unique value and is much more exalted than simply using the others. In truth, if he thinks about the well-being of all others, it will advance him much closer to the Creator. Thus the Light works on us, causing such transformations in us.

As a result, a person starts working with the society solely in order to delight the Creator. After all, it is the only opportunity we possess to perform any act of bestowal. We have nothing to give to the Creator, but we can take advantage of His love to the created beings and bestow to them, thereby actualizing His love.

If a person asks for grace, meaning bestowal, and desires to be able to bestow to the others, in doing so, he or she gives the Creator a chance to bestow to them.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Does the modern-day equality of the sexes harm the relationships between men and women?

Answer: The “equality” that we establish according to our egoistic reasoning is not really equality, but a distortion of the laws of nature. In nature, the male and female inclinations are not identical, but on the contrary, they are different, opposite, and distant from one another by all possible inner and outer qualities of personality, life activity, physiology, and everything else. By drawing an equal sign between them, we crush nature and create a giant fissure that will not benefit anyone in the end.

I don’t have to explain what going against the laws of nature means. Instead of learning from nature and giving each gender the form appropriate to it, we are trying to do whatever comes into our heads at such a high level that this will bring us many more troubles. In the end, no one will be happy about this “equality.”

By nature I have to be a man with specific qualities and carry out a specific function. I have a niche that I have to take. That is the place of my appeasement, correction, fulfillment, and perfection. Therefore, I cannot indulge the egoism that rules over me and act however it wants me to by the orders of egoistic forces. There’s no doubt that all of this seriously harms things.

Let us hope that we will somehow go through the corruption to correction. However, there are many troubles waiting for us on this path.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/11 on Women

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Question: Why do you often refuse to answer questions on the actual text of The Zohar?

Answer: What’s the point of answering? A person who attains it receives the answer on his own. But a person who does not attain it has to work on attaining it.

An answer to a question that is perceived by our earthy mind leaves us on the level of this material world, calming us down with false understanding. But this is not a real answer and does not help us. After all, in that case a person does not try to acquire a connection with the Torah, with the Light that corrects him, but wishes to attain wisdom, and that is opposite to our path.

Of course, we have to know the material a little bit in order to be slightly connected to it at least externally, like small children who come in touch with something in our world without understanding it yet. However, we shouldn’t receive answers that extinguish our desire to attain. After all, we are reading the text for the sake of attainment. When we attain it, then we will receive the answer. And that will be the true answer.

Therefore, there’s practically nothing to ask about the actual text of The Zohar, about the names, titles, forces, and angels. What’s the point of it? Who understands it? Who will give you an answer as long as you haven’t revealed it inside you?

Therefore, our entire study is only for the sake of revealing Kelim, vessels, or desires in which everything we study will be revealed.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/11, The Zohar

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The Creator is playing a game with us by hiding and revealing Himself, and hiding again—all in order to awaken us. At first, it is just material sensations when we feel either good or bad, until all these changes help us grow up.

In the meantime, our desire to receive pleasure grows not only quantitatively but also qualitatively, and undergoes four levels of development: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. In the end, it becomes aware of itself and understands the reasons why it feels good or bad, where these changes come from and why.

At this point we learn to discern not only good and bad states but also truth and lie, the reason and purpose of the occurring changes, Who sends them, and how to connect this all together, meaning to actualize it in a perfect form. So we advance in our development.

Kabbalah helps us understand the causes and reasons of the states we are being made to experience, and then we start arranging a different picture for ourselves. It isn’t the Creator who changes, hides, and shows up to play with us, but rather these transformations occur in us, in our desire to enjoy, against the eternal invariability of the upper Light, the Creator, who remains at absolute rest and informs: “I did not change my HaVaYaH.”

All modifications occur in the created being, in the one who receives. It is the created being that undergoes various internal states, good and bad, and that’s why it thinks that the Beloved abandons it and keeps revealing or concealing Himself.

At that point, we start seeing everything in a more authentic light and begin to understand that we stand against the constant, eternal, and perfect upper force. All the changes occur solely in us, and they are what we should be asking mercy for so we may use them correctly. First of all, we must learn not to depend on these changes and then to use them to bestow, as the upper force does.

Thus, we arrive at the state described as: “I am for my Beloved, and my Beloved is for me” when the Creator’s concealment is viewed as a blessing, as coming close to and merging with Him. It all depends only on us, on our perception of reality.

We no longer rely on luck, but rather start seeing cause and effect, the logic behind changes. First, we learn that all these transformations occur in us, and everything depends on our getting corrected. Later on, we realize that these corrections are needed not just to feel good, but to come to the truth.

And it all concludes with the state when the created being stands against the eternal and perfect, immutable Creator and evokes a greater sensibility in itself, in order to approach the Creator’s eternal and complete form of bestowal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What should be done about the fact that men are afraid of strong women and run away from responsibility and initiative?

Answer: We have brought this on ourselves. Not one woman wants to be strong. Not one woman wants to be an expert in order to earn well and raise children by herself. By nature a woman aspires to the household. She wants children and for everything to exist according to nature. But if the men do not fulfill the responsibilities incumbent upon them, then out of having no other solution, women in our days are forced to act with their own forces. And I take off my hat to them for that.

As a result we see that women are more independent and they adapt better in our world. Besides, they have natural endurance that exceeds men’s. They have might and forces of the spirit because, at the end of the day, they are closer to nature.

On the other hand, a man simply floats up in the clouds. He is like a big child who found a profession in computers or technology and plays around with his toys just like he did in childhood. He finds pleasure in doing that. After all, modern society respects these games, such as the stock market, work, or hanging out with the buddies after work, and that’s how life goes by. And if a man needs support, he comes back to his mom.

Unfortunately, the further we go, the more widespread and socially acceptable this phenomenon becomes, in fact becoming a norm and a fashionable trend.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/11 on Women

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Writings of Rabash, Article 535 “On Partnership”: The husband works and brings home money, while the wife takes the money and her work lies in going to buy the food and preparing it, making sure that the meal will be tasty. Then they are both happy and satisfied. If the wife cooks tasty food, then the husband has an appetite and then he has the strength to go to work and bring home money.

Analogously, if the feet go out into the street and the hands buy food and give nutritional substances to the brain, then the brain has the energy to think.

This is how nature itself has arranged things, although in our times many things happen differently. In the end we have to become similar to nature. No matter how much we try to run away from it, we will have to come back. Obviously, we won’t be returning to primitive life in the caves, and besides, today there wouldn’t be enough caves to go around.

The essence of the matter is that every gender has to be provided with the appropriate field of activity for which it is intended, both in the spiritual sense and in its material projection. Everything comes from the spiritual world, and therefore, we have to study its laws in order to then turn to the material world according to them. In spirituality there are two Partzufim: male and female. The female part is the carrier of the desire, the “home,” and the “vessel” that has to be ordered the right way. But doing that requires the force that the male part brings.

Where should this force reside? What does it have to incarnate into? How should it be expressed? The answer is: in the female quality. The revelation of the male quality in the female one is the home, the children, and everything connected to the family.
Therefore, if we divide the male and female functions even in every individual, and if we skillfully arrange all the things in their right places, then we gain time and speed of development, reducing troubles and aspiring to the goal by the good path.

It’s worthwhile for us to learn from nature. After all, we can’t escape it. We are just small parts of the great whole. If we will know this and keep it in mind without trying to jump over our heads, if we act precisely according to nature, then we will reach the perfect state.

In this regard we have to understand that our incorrect functioning is a result of egoism. We are deliberately confused in order to have the opportunity to search for the right form of our activity in life without putting on airs as if we have risen above nature. Otherwise we are in nature’s power and in addition are also proud of being slaves to egoism.

Our work is, first and foremost, to make an analysis: Who are we and what are we, where are we located, where are we going, what controls and motivates us, and what do we have to reach? Once we discern all of these foundations, we can then establish the right order of controlling ourselves, both from above and from our own end. Then we will reach similarity to the upper image. We have to use precisely that image to learn how to build our lives here, below.

The matter here is not the fashion or the customs of the times. Nature has its own laws and it really is worthwhile for us to follow them.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/11 on Women

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“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Explanation of the Division of the Fourteen Commandments into Ten Utterances”:  Fourth utterance: “And God said, ‘Let the waters be gathered.’” The third commandment is to know that there is a great God who rules over the whole world, and to unify him daily with a proper unification, the unification of “Hear O Israel,” called “the upper unification.” This is extension of VAK of the three previous utterances into ZA, VAK de Gadlut, Vav de HaVaYaH.

Everything exists in an unchanging state, and all the changes occur only in man’s perception. By correcting his properties, a person attains degree after degree, and “utterances,” “commandments,” or “days of the beginning of creation” change for him. All of it was divided and now changes in his eyes since a person himself, his inner desire, gets reformed.

Desire within us undergoes transformations. They occur gradually, layer after layer, passing through all levels of their Aviut (thickness, coarseness): Shoresh (root), Aleph (1), Bet (2), Gimel (3), and Dalet (4) at each degree.

As we correct our desire, we begin to reveal the Lights, the sources: where this influence comes from, what correction it performs in my soul, what Light becomes revealed, where it originates from, with Whom I connect, Who the Upper One whom I reveal is.

This is a gradual correction of the soul performed by a person. Parallel to it, The Zohar describes what desires (Kelim) enter correction, what Lights become revealed out of a full set of ten utterances, 14 commandments, or seven days of the beginning of creation, meaning seven degrees of Zeir Anpin (ZA), until Nukva and ZA reach a state of the two great lights, the full correction (Gmar Tikkun). Ultimately, we are talking about the stages of our advancement.

The Torah describes the entire process of our correction. In the beginning of the chapter “Beresheet” (Genesis), all these utterances are presented as a summary of everything that subsequently occurs in the entire Torah. And then, from this chapter, as from the initial point of the letter “Yod,” all other parts toward a full HaVaYaH evolve, until the entire narrative of the Torah ends with the word “Israel.”
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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