Question: We know that recognized Kabbalists rely on the written, not oral, folk Torah. How does Kabbalah view the prohibition of sodomy (Leviticus, 18:22): “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination.”

Answer: Kabbalah does not speak one word about the corporeal world and our bodies. It deals exclusively with each person reaching the equivalence of form with the Creator, whatever inclinations each one might be given by the Creator.

I, personally, do not see any difference in attaining the spiritual goal by people with any tendencies, as it is written about the Upper Light: “I will heal all flesh.” Therefore, it’s not our job to deal with the body. We only need to attract the Light, and it will heal what is necessary.
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Studying the Concealed Torah Is Preferable to the Revealed Torah

Hence the Braita warns us (Hulin 24) to not wait [for our correction by the Light of the revealed Torah] longer than five years [of studying].

Moreover, Rabbi Yosi says that only three years are quite sufficient to be granted the wisdom of the Torah….

If one does not see a good sign within that length of time [from the time when he began to seek similarity with the Creator], one should not fool himself with false hopes and deceit [while studying the revealed Torah], but know that he will never see [in his studies] a good sign [attain correction].

Hence, one must immediately find himself a good tactic by which to succeed in achieving Lishma [the property of bestowal] and to be granted the wisdom of the Torah.

…The surest [easiest] and most successful tactic is the engagement in the wisdom of Kabbalah. One should leave one’s hand entirely from engagement in the wisdom of the revealed Torah, since he has already tested his luck in it and did not succeed [in correcting himself]. And he should dedicate all his time to the wisdom of Kabbalah, where his success [in achieving the goal of creation: similarity with the Creator] is certain.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 23
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Question: If there is none else but Him, does it mean that everything roots in Him, and everything that I see around me is also Him?

Answer: Yes, it does. And everything you are saying, thinking, and feeling right now is also Him.

Question cont.: Where is my “self” then? Who am I?

Answer: You are supposed to find this out. In other words, you are not discovering the Creator but your “self.”

Question cont.: In the end, I find out that I am also Him?

Answer: No. There is a certain point of separation that is regarded as “existence from absence” (Yesh Mi Ain). And this point is the only place where the created being exists, while everything else is the Creator. To the extent that this point desires to become similar to the Creator, it gets to know itself or it gets to know the Creator, which is ultimately the same.

Question cont.: If everything I say and think originates in Him, then what is this point that discovers that there is no one but Him?

Answer: It is the point that you are working on in order to find out what constitutes your free will. At the same time, you rise above the nature that the Creator instilled in this point. He created it as a will to receive pleasure and, furthermore, gave it the intention to feel pleasure egoistically. But when you keep trying to rise above this point, it means that you discover the Creator, His nature: to bestow and receive in order to bestow.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “There is None Else Beside Him” 7/29/10

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Question: What does a person feel when he discovers for the first time that he is inside the Upper Light?

Answer: One feels warmth, some kind of comforting light, some enveloping fog that fills the world. It is the Force of love, the Force that embraces, caresses, supports, and protects you. You as if feel that you are in the womb of the mother. This is how you can recognize the Upper One: through the way the Upper spiritual Mother treats us, the embryo living in her womb.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “There is None Else Beside Him” 7/29/10

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Rabash, “What does it Mean, The Torah is Called the Middle Line in Work”: A person sees faces of people, but he should trust that the Creator stands and acts behind them.

Question: So is this how I should treat people whom I encounter during the day?

Answer: No, you should treat people as your society, time, and generation dictate so as to not look strange. In your outer behavior, you have to be like everybody else and act as is accepted in the society.

But if you are asking about the internality, if you wish to reveal the Creator, then behind every internal or external action you should see that everything comes from “there is none else beside Him.” However, this analysis is for your internal discernments and not for your open reaction.

There are two dimensions of our behavior: the material world and the inner, spiritual world. In the internal, spiritual dimension, I wish to uncover the inner force of nature, “there is none else beside Him” for it governs everything, myself included.

I will keep seeing this picture as I do until I complete my correction, until I truly see that there is no one but Him. And then, this world will ascend and enter the point called the Malchut of the World of Infinity.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “There is None Else Beside Him” 7/29/10

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Question: How can we practically use a “prayer of the many” at the convention? Which thought and what kind of attitude toward others should I hold during the course of the convention?

Answer: 7,000 people will arrive at the convention. This is an enormous force! If these people begin to connect even slightly (certainly, to the extent of their individual abilities since there are “big” and “small,” experienced and beginners, among them), if they simply want to be part of this process, this is enough. This is because in spirituality, the quality of the force is more important than its quantity. When there is one guide who knows the way, everyone else follows him, and he brings everyone to the goal.

We already have a large and experienced group that has been studying for 15 years. These people know and understand what needs to be done. And even if another several thousand new students will join, this does not matter because the spirit comes from the top of the pyramid. This is why everyone joins one direction and “many” become “one,” “like one man with one heart.” We know that this is exactly what happens based on our experience at previous conventions.

During the convention, everyone experiences different inner sensations: Sometimes you want to escape, at other times return. This testifies to the strength of the inner work, the intensity of the corrections and analyses that come to the person. Over the period of these three days one attains results that he is unable to attain over the course of a year. For this reason it is very beneficial to be at the convention.

Every day I give three lectures at the convention, besides there are gatherings of friends, seminars, cultural evenings, meals, and other events. All of these measures are directed towards the creation of one from many since we must become one whole in order to reveal the Creator. From this we understand what the condition of “love thy neighbor as thyself” means.

We will necessarily achieve something by acting in this direction. We cannot reach the infinite connection, but its 1/125th part, the smallest spiritual level, is quite attainable. And then we will feel that there is a small Light between us which gives the sensation of a spiritual life. In this sensation we exist above the body and perceive a different field, a different dimension in comparison to our physical senses.

All of this is attained through the connection between us, the prayer of the many. The “prayer of the many” means that I ask for the ability to bestow to many people in order to only feel the Creator in this ability.

Question: During which part of the convention can we expect this sensation?

Answer: This depends on the preparation for the convention. If we prepare properly, if we know the materials and the lecture topics, learn the songs, take part in writing the questions, and answer them, then nothing will prevent us from experiencing the mutual connection and the Upper Force that unites us towards the end of the first day.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Prayer of the Many” 10/11/10

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Rabash, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”: And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and cried out to the Creator.

First of all, we need to strive to correct the collective Kli, and then everything else will fall into place. Every day the Shechina once again becomes a virgin, and once again we need to turn her into a vessel. It is written in the Tractate Sanhedrin: “A woman enters a union only with the one who has made a vessel.”

Every day we rise again deprived of a connection to bestowal, the group, Shechina, the Creator. This is a natural and proper way: We keep discovering vessels, and this is why every new day begins with a blank sheet of paper. We need to continue by raising faith above reason, never expecting that the property of bestowal will become important for us on its own. Of course it loses its value, and it is a good thing.

I need to be prepared and rejoice in it, rejoice in the fact that I have not forgotten that I have the strength. After all, this is a sign of the influence of the group, which immediately gives me the ability to react to my state in a proper manner.

Reception is important to me, but I realize that I should value bestowal instead, which means that I must go above reason in order to increase the importance of bestowal. So I look for the force to rise above the egoistic calculations in the external means, not inside of me.

One must not wait until egoism realizes the importance of bestowal since it will never happen. Every day and every moment a person can resume the prayer turned towards the “wall” or Shechina, the group, and advance this way. If he were to test himself and evaluate his state according to the constant search for the true direction instead of his sensations within the egoistic desire, then his joy would be purposeful and would help him advance quickly.

Everything depends on how fast a person awakens for the proper prayer every coming moment. And this is determined only by how he has built his environment.

If the group gives him strength every time he falls, he adequately sees what is happening. The egoistic desire is boiling within him, but the Surrounding Lights that come through the group are influencing him from the outside.

Due to this, man always sees the importance of the goal and raises the proper prayer.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/10, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”

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The Book of Zohar states, “Everything will be clarified in thought.” The Creator is an all-enveloping thought. He controls our desires with His thought and we need thought in order to use our desires. Unlike the Creator, our desire is primary and our thoughts are the result of the desire.

The plan of creation is similar to a field that fills all of reality and is one thought. Interestingly, many astronauts and astrophysicists who spend a long time studying extraterrestrial reality and who research cosmic space and objects start to feel that the cosmos is an expression of some kind of thought. And that is, in fact, so.

This thought creates creation, controls it, and brings it to the desired goal. We are the expression and result of this thought, which forces us to act. Our freedom of will lies in our ability to gradually rise to the level of this thought, to reveal the plan of creation, to start moving together with it in one direction, and to carry out all the actions not by being forced, but willingly and consciously.

Then we will attain the plan of creation even before it is actualized. We will think together with the Creator instead of receiving desires from Him and realizing them only afterwards. That is, we will go from being a passive part of creation to being an active part.
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From the lesson on 10/21/10, “The Power of Thought”

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People write to me that in anticipation of the Convention they are seized by worry and permeated by inner vibrations, some pleasant and some unpleasant. I would like to give everyone a piece of advice: Don’t let your feelings roam free, but rather act rationally and thoughtfully.

First of all we have to understand what is required of us in order to establish a connection. Later, once we establish the connection, we will feel how the Upper Light shines upon us. For now we should thoroughly prepare all the conditions for the upcoming Convention, do it rationally, precisely, and according to plan, without excessive emotions and panic.

Worry is a wonderful thing. We will let it out at the right time and in the right place once we get down to business. However, now, at the preparation phase, we have to follow our reason, rather than our feelings, in everything we do. Everything has to be balanced.

When we sign an agreement of mutual guarantee, we do it with sound reason, being clear on everything that is happening. We have to understand and accept several principles that make up the mutual guarantee. There aren’t many of them, and our task is to become aware of them, to affirm them, and then to carry them out. That is when we will let ourselves be emotional.

We have been placed before a specific state from Above and on our end we have to accept and be aware of this state, and then actualize it accordingly.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/10, Writings of Rabash

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The Zohar, Chapter “Tazria (When A Woman Delivers)“: All the worlds, both the Upper and the lower, are inside man. Everything that was created in the world was created for man.

We perceive everything inside us and don’t feel anything outside. We don’t know where we are. We are inside some kind of movie that is played inside us like a film strip, and that is how we perceive the world.

We cannot come out of this movie and feel anything “outside it.” We cannot understand what the true reality is like and how it appears from outside, from the side, objectively.

Baal HaSulam explains in the “Preface to the Book of Zohar” that we perceive reality inside of us. There is a projector in the back side of our brain that projects to the “outside” everything that I perceive inside. That is why I “see” as if there is something outside of me.

Then I take those objects into my hands, eat and drink them, do things to them, and move around among them. I live among images that I created inside of me, but they seem to exist outside.

That is why our world is called invented or imaginary. I am the one who gives it form. If I change, then the picture of reality that I perceive and see around me will also change. Moreover, this reality is alive. It is not drawn on a piece of paper or in my imagination, since this machine called “me” creates this living reality in front of me on its own.

If I can view my inner film not through an egoistic projector “inside of me,” but through an altruistic projector “for others, away from myself,” then I will see what is happening now on the outside, inside. I will see everything inside of me, in the true reality (desire).
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From the lesson on 10/20/10, “Perception of Reality”

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