Question: What does it mean: ”…but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work,  thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates…?”

Answer: These are a person’s private desires; my cattle, my manservant, etc. are all levels of my desires and they are inside me. They are the only thing I am responsible for.

Question: Is the correction done from the most complicated to the easiest?

Answer: No, it is fulfilled by being integrated with all the desires on every spiritual level. You cannot correct one part more and another part less, so the work is done both with the “manservant” and the “cattle,” with all the desires and in every condition! Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, and Hod have to correspond with one another and it has to be one unit.

One enters the other and thus a week comes to an end. The following week is the next unit. You receive a new “package,” which you have to correct, a new revelation of your attributes.
[109771]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/25/13

Related Material:
Eternal Sabbath
The Light Of The Seventh Day
Saturday As The Result Of Corrections

Filed under: Body and Soul, Spirituality - No Comments →

The Torah, Exodus 20:12:”Honor thy father and thy mother:  that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee”

Question: The commandment of “honor thy father and thy mother”‘ is accepted literally by humanity, how can we explain it?

Answer: The point is that the “father” and “mother” that are mentioned in the Ten Commandments have nothing to do with our corporeal father and mother but rather belong to two special systems.

“Father” is the attribute of Hochma from which the Light of Hochma stems, the Light of life.  ”Mother” is the attribute of Bina from which all the worries stem. These Lights are opposite to each other and mutually complement one another. The Light of “Father” is white and it gives a person brains, courage, and power. The light of “Mother” gives him softness, connections, and a right attitude towards others. Revealed in this Light is love and the ability to feel others, etc.

“Honor” means to look at how “Father” and “Mother” integrate these forces correctly. The force of “Father” and the tenderness of “Mother” enter one another and you should do the exact same thing inside you, integrating these attributes.

“… so that thy days may be long upon the land,” means that such an integration has to be done with “the land”‘ which means with your ego, with your desire. You will not be able to easily exist with it.

On the whole it is all very simple. We must understand that it all refers to our nature and tells us about how we should correct it. What else can we speak about? About life in this world? It ends in any case. Here we speak about how we should rise to the next level and start to live in a totally different dimension while still here in this world.
[109768]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/25/13

Related Material:
The General Plan And Every Step Along The Way
The Vessel Of Knowledge
Turn On The Faucet To The Pipe Of Light

Filed under: Spirituality, Torah - No Comments →

From Rabash’s Article “You Stand Today, All of You”: …This is the meaning of what is written, “You stand today, all of you,” meaning everything you went through, all the states you have experienced—states of Gadlut or states of less than Gadlut, which were considered intermediate or so. You take all those details and you do not compare one degree to another because you do not care for any reward, but only for doing the Creator’s will.

…This means that then the Creator makes a covenant with him. In other words, precisely when one accepts His work without any conditions and agrees to do the holy work without any reward, which is called “unconditional surrender,” this is the time when the Creator makes a covenant with him.

…When two people see that they love each other, they make a covenant between them that their love will always stay.

At each level, a person experiences a state of confusion and powerlessness. One goes through these states when one doesn’t realize where exactly one should go and how to advance.

All of a sudden, we feel that we are not capable of making the slightest movement, nor do we understand why our vitality and spirit are gone. We read, but see nothing compared to what we saw yesterday or the day before. Sometimes, we don’t even remember what happened yesterday or the day before. We become disconnected.

In other words, we go through multiple states of closeness and distancing from spirituality. It seems to us that our union with the Creator works better at a distance so we remember good states when bad times come, thus continuing to hope that soon everything will improve and return to normal.

However, it is not so. The union is of a qualitative nature, not quantitative. Actually, it is not about our states at all. At some point, we manage to unite with the Creator not because of a good state we are in or because we want to retain our unity in our memory when we go through lowly states, but rather because our connection made Him happy and made us similar to Him. So, for us it makes no difference what states we go through: good or bad. Good states can be even more confusing for us than bad ones.

At least while we are in bad states our egoism pushes us forward and forces us to look for alternatives, thus compelling us to act. When a good state happens, it calms us down and fulfills us so that we don’t seek any other options. We are unable to change unless some unsatisfied desire wakes us up. At this point, we have to remember the union that we have created and pull this desire from the past into the present in order to carry on our advancement.

So, this “agreement” protects us not only from deficiencies in our liaison, but helps to make the Creator happy above all kinds of bitter and/or sweet sensations. Our union has multiple conditions that apply to each particular state.
[107685]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Applying To Work For The Creator
A Sign Of A Solid Covenant
A Covenant For Eternity

Filed under: Kabbalistic Sources, Spirituality - No Comments →

Rabash, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”: For this reason, we mustn’t underestimate the importance of the work in love of friends, for by that he will learn how to exit self-love and enter the path of love of others. And when he completes the work of love of friends, he will be able to be rewarded with love of the Creator.

We should know that there is a virtue to love of friends: one cannot deceive himself and say that he loves the friends, if in fact he doesn’t love them. Here he can examine whether he truly has love of friends or not. But with love of the Creator, one cannot examine oneself as to whether his intention is the love of the Creator, meaning that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, or his desire is to receive in order to receive.

You need to train yourself to evaluate the success of your spiritual advancement by how much you think it depends on the relationship with the environment. The environment is not just a means of our advancement towards the Creator, but precisely inside it, within our unified homogenous connection with each other, completely as equals, we will find the Creator.

If our entire attention is directed at the center of unification, we begin to understand that this environment is Shechina, Malchut of the world of Atzilut, the central point of creation, in which our advancement, spiritual birth, and growth must be realized. The entire spiritual life is perceived only in the center of the group. And depending upon how powerful the unification is that we are able to achieve, both in quantity and quality, by this we measure our ascent on the spiritual ladder and correct the whole of reality from the point of our soul.

All the work is in preparation so with the help of the Reforming Light we bring ourselves to the feeling that we fully depend on and get life only from the point of our connection with each other, which is the center of the entire universe. This is the point that we discover as “the eye of the needle,” and the common force of bestowal and love that is the Creator is revealed in it.

We become the helpers, friends of the Shechina and the Shochen; the Creator is revealed. Everything is only there. The main thing is to understand that all the accidents and troubles are caused by a lack of correct connection between us and to concentrate all our responses and efforts on strengthening our connection in this central point. When a person binds himself to the environment in this way, this connection becomes more sensitive, energetic, and unconditional; he already begins to advance correctly towards the revelation of Shechina, becoming its inseparable part.
[109285]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/13

Related Material:
Living Water From A Common Well
Where Do We Fail?
Truth Is Unchanging

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Spirituality - No Comments →

Our every action must be directed toward the final correction. Otherwise, this action is imperfect. We always seek the end and on this basis consider all the states.

In his time, Abraham sent envoys to eastern countries. The forefathers had to deal with Hagar and Ishmael (representing the right line), with Esau (representing the left line), and with Laban and other characters (symbolizing various properties). All this was necessary to introduce specific details of perception that will be manifested at the end of the generations. The wars with Amalek, with the nations who lived in the land of Israel, were not limited by that “place,”—that is, part of the desire—above which it was necessary to rise and overcome at that time. No, everything initially was aimed at the final correction. All the efforts gradually are accumulated and added to the overall total.

The forefathers realized the necessary preparations to receive the Torah, and then the preparation continued by the way of correction of the people of Israel, with the same intention, to be ready to correct the world.

There are more calculations it seems. All the stages through which Israel has gone are caused not only by the needs of its development, but also by its purpose: to become the means of correction for the world. These people received the Torah not only to correct themselves, but also to be ready to help the world later.

Baal HaSulam writes about this in his article, “The Giving of the Torah” and “The Mutual Guarantee.” Everything is interconnected and the end of action is inherent in the original plan, and that is why we must keep the course at Infinity (Ein Sof).

After all, at every rung of the spiritual ladder, at an increasingly higher resolution with higher definition, we attain the world of Infinity, a round, integral, analog system in which everything is interconnected. Be it a fetus in the mother’s womb, infant, child, adult, we always are talking about a perfect system that has all the necessary parts. It’s only that some of them are incorporated in the potential for further development, while others already have been formed.

It does not really matter what is before us, a “spiritual gene” (Reshimo) in which the world is hidden or the entire world itself. They are one and the same. It’s just that first we attain the Reshimo, and then it opens in our perception.

So, the system is always perfect. It is the same Infinity. It only is revealed depending on the one who attains it. That is why in wanting to attain spirituality, I must imagine it completely corrected. Otherwise, I do not reach it through my desire, I do not intend bestowal.

The calculation is as follows: In the corrected state, I bestow upon the Creator. For this, I must prepare the receiving vessels, that is, the “nations of the world.” For this, I must prepare myself in order to be connected with them. Thus, stretching the thread from the end to the beginning, I proceed to any action.

Conversely, if in my every action I do not intend the correction of the world in order to bring it to the Creator, if I forget that He is revealed and enjoys precisely in the desire of the world, if I do not pervade my actions fully with bestowal, then I do nothing. Then I am like a plug that obstructs the path for everyone and represent the forces of impurity.

With every step, we must create this mental picture, this calculation, constantly adding to it and expanding it. At first, I calculate to benefit myself, then my family, then my city, then my country, and, in the end, all of humanity. As Baal HaSulam writes, today we are all one family. So, could I isolate myself from the world? In that case, I am not going toward bestowal.

So, every time, to the extent of my strength, I need to imagine the entire chain to the end. That is enough to become similar to the Light and draw it for correction.
[109099]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/4/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
What Precedes Our Intentions
Do Not Catch The Snake By The Head
Excuse Me, What Does Humanity Have to Do with This?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, My Similarity to the Creator, Spirituality - No Comments →

Rabash, “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend-2″: After he has bonded with a group of people who wish to achieve the degree of love of the Creator, and he wishes to take from them the strength to work in order to bestow and be moved by their words about the necessity for obtaining the love of the Creator, he must regard each friend in the group as greater than himself. It was written in the book, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah, p 143), that one is not impressed by the society or takes their appreciation of something, unless he regards the society as greater than himself. This is the reason why each one must feel that he is the smallest of them all, since one who is great cannot receive from one who is smaller than himself, much less be impressed by his words. Rather, it is only the smaller one who is impressed through appreciating the greater one.

This is the major law and rule to opening the spiritual world. If we follow all the instructions that Rabash gives us, then there will be no obstacles along our way. We have to be ready to take these steps since the world needs it. The Creator not only gives us a chance to establish the spiritual group by ourselves and to bring Him contentment, but He also gives us a much greater mission.

He lets us understand that the only way to bring Him contentment is by correcting His world. Therefore, He brings this world to the verge of collapse so that we can prepare the world for the revelation of the Creator, and thus bring Him contentment.

So when we work in order to become more united, we must remember that eventually we have to draw the whole world into the group and thus bring about the complete revelation of the Creator to the created beings. As Baal HaSulam says, these are the “days of the Messiah,” the end of correction.

So we have to keep the laws of connections, self-annulment, and self-concession very seriously to mutually support and strengthen one another in order to attain the spirit of life and confidence, and to be filled with hope by the fact that everyone is impressed by others. In order to do that, everyone has to see the others as great, and being impressed by them, should give them the power to work on our connection and unity.

We have to ask for the force from above to connect us and we will make a covenant between us, mutual guarantee, mutual support, and the impression and being mutually incorporated in one another until we finally reach the collective power, the small spiritual force with which we turn to the great big world. Then we will see that when we have a collective spiritual power, even the slightest one, the world will be practically spread before us; it will be ready to receive from us, since the Light will pour through us unto the whole world. We will succeed wherever we go.
[108330]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/13

Related Material:
Circulation Is Our Guarantee
For The Sake Of The World And To Please The Creator
Turning To The Creator To Get Light For The Friend

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Love, Mutual Guarantee, Spirituality, World - No Comments →

Question: Baal HaSulam explains that if parents treat their son with absolute love, the son will inevitably begin to hate them instead of returning their love since he won’t worry that the parents will stop loving him. What about the Creator: Will we also begin to hate Him when we discover His absolute love for us?

Answer: We have to reach absolute love towards the Creator in our spiritual work, meaning regardless of whether we receive pleasure or punishment from the Creator. Our spiritual growth is based on developing love while feeling a growing feeling of repulsion until it reaches absolute hate, meaning feeling that the Creator hates us more and more while we develop a growing absolute love towards Him, in order to work in faith above reason.

Thus we can understand why the Creator has created in us desire in which we feel pleasure or pain. But we have to rise above that in a new feeling of bestowal, and then our attitude towards the Creator becomes totally independent of His love since we establish our attitude above the feeling of hate, according to the principle “love will cover all sins.”
[108268]

Related Material:
Love The Lord Your God With All Your Heart
Loving The Tough Father
How Can You Resist Love?

Filed under: Inner Work, Love, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

Rabash, “Concerning Above Reason”: It turns out that a person has qualities that his parents bequeathed to their children, and he has qualities that he acquired from the society, which are a new possession. And this comes to him only through bonding with the society and the envy that he feels toward the friends when he sees that they have better qualities than his own. It motivates him to acquire their good qualities, which he doesn’t have and of which he is jealous.

Thus, through the society, he gains new qualities that he adopts by seeing that they are at a higher degree than his, and he is envious of them. This is the reason why now he can be greater than when he didn’t have a society, since he acquires new powers through the society.”

A person is born a small animal, and what he grows up to be depends on the upbringing. If we are talking about an ordinary, earthly upbringing, then a person develops due to society. He envies others and longs for pleasure, money, power, fame, and knowledge, and that is why he learns from society how he can achieve these goals, that is, success in this world. If he has prerequisites for spiritual development, he finds himself in the environment that can instill in him new properties —spiritual.

In the material society, a person develops naturally, by instinctively adopting the values ​​of society and seeking to learn from it how to reach worldly success. But spiritual upbringing is different because it requires a person to cancel himself, that is, it gives him the freedom of choice: to adopt its spiritual values from the environment or not.

Only to the extent of his self-nullification will a person be able to see the society as higher than himself. He will have to apply much effort to look at society from the bottom up, and then he will be able to receive from the society its values, the importance and greatness of the goal, and thus advance spiritually.

Spiritual success depends not only on the environment, but also on how a person uses it, that is, how much he annuls himself and appreciates society, whether he agrees to suffer, seeing others higher than himself. Envy forces a person to feel humiliated, but he needs to understand that it is for his own benefit to see the others as great. If he is capable of such an attitude, then he will advance. In the end, a person has to enjoy that he can stand against his egoism and trample over it in order to attain spiritual values and get closer to the spiritual goal.

That is why advancement in the material society is completely opposite to spiritual advancement. And success in the material world does not guarantee that a person will be able to succeed in spirituality because it is determined by the free choice of the person himself.
[108940]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/13

Related Material:
A School For Unique People
Envy Each Other More
Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Kabbalistic Sources, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: What is it exactly that makes the group strong? What attributes should we work on?

Answer:  We shouldn’t value the power of the group by the number of people in it; that is a wrong estimation since there is a difference between the number of different people and their inner preparation. So, it is impossible to judge everyone according to the same parameters.

In Russia, for example, it is easy to organize a group of more than a hundred people while, in the US, it is difficult to gather even ten people. We cannot compare success by the size of the group. What’s important is the quality, which is hard to identify.

All of Eastern Europe, and especially Russia, is where Kabbalists were very active in the last generations. The most important Kabbalist in the history of the wisdom of Kabbalah after the Ari was Baal Shem Tov, who had many followers and students all over Belarus and the Ukraine who simply “plowed the ground” there so that their ideas were in the air. As a result, there were a great number of Kabbalists there from Poland, Galicia, and further to the east.

Consequently, the people who live there, and especially the Russian people, have a special sense, a special inclination for Kabbalah. That’s how the influence of the surrounding Light is revealed. Therefore, it is impossible to compare this region with Western Europe where just as many Jews and intelligent, educated people live and still the great inclination for spirituality has not been revealed. This is called “ancestral merit.”
[108790]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Empty Philosophy Or Practical Science?
Is History Repeating Itself?
A New Level Of Unity

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

All the changes are made by the Light that Reforms, but the desire to change comes from the environment. The Creator keeps the covenant between us, but we obligate Him to do so, as it says: “My sons have defeated me.”

We have to establish the right environment below that will become “Knesset Israel, the assembly of Israel, yearning for the Creator,” an assembly is a Minyan, a group of ten.

If each of us totally annuls himself before the others we obligate the upper Light to be revealed among us. It’s revealed the moment we establish a systematic contact, when we connect this way to one electrical circuit as if by wires that resemble His nature.

This happens according to the laws of spiritual induction, the equalization of frequencies and the equalization of attributes. It isn’t you who changes and it isn’t you that changes anything, but it is you who performs the actions that will bring about the change in you. This is how it happens on every step: you have to perform the actions and the Creator makes the changes. If your actions are not successful yet, it means that you haven’t succeeded in reaching an adaptation to the Light in your connections with others. You haven’t reached the right frequency range yet.
[108086]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, The Zohar

Related Material:
A Whole Group Of Ten
A Light That Is Brought Closer By The Group’s Telescope
What Do They Expect From A Messiah?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Kabbalah Study, Spirituality, The Tens - No Comments →