Question: If I am always thinking about how to unite with friends while reading The Book of Zohar, then at a specific stage this turns into a “mantra” that repeats by itself and I do not feel the true intention inside me. Should I continue in this manner anyway?

Answer: The fact that your intention isn’t true is natural. After all, we live inside the will to enjoy; that is our nature. We do not have to lie to ourselves, thinking that we are already angels floating up in the sky.

However, from our current state I am trying to do everything in my power to attain something called the quality of bestowal, as it is written, “We shall do and we shall hear.” You should imagine this quality as much as you can. By making efforts you grow like a child who wants to learn from adults and tries with everything he’s got. That is how we always learn and grow.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, The Zohar

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My task is to transform my nature. It means that I have to change all my inclinations completely.

I won’t take anything of what I have now with me into spirituality: neither reason nor feelings, nor views, criteria, or calculations. This poses huge, almost insurmountable obstacles in front of intelligent people, and they often fail. One needs to be truly wise in order to abandon one’s own mind.

A smart person believes in his or her logic that works perfectly well in our world, and it’s difficult for him to imagine that it’s powerless on the spiritual path. “Mind, energy, and perseverance are my strong suit. Isn’t that enough?”

Actually, such a person has nothing more than keen intelligence and sensitivity, but here’s the catch: That’s not the currency that buys you a ticket into the spiritual world. There, you need faith. What is it?

Faith is a power that you receive from Above, from the Light. You don’t have it inside you; it’s above your mind and feelings, above who you currently are. An upper influence comes, and you feel like something penetrates inside, awakens in you a consideration which is opposite to everything that you are.

Then, you begin to relate to reality in an inverted way. You used to look at everything through the prism of personal profit. Now, however, you take into account not yourself, but the unity. It’s so strange that it’s indescribable, but, nevertheless, a new consideration forms in you, and you now can’t return to the old one.

Certainly, there are intermediate states, but after a person “exits Egypt,” he comes to a higher consideration, completely abandoning his previous priorities. After all, his intelligence and wealth of feelings, experiences, and reflections just cease to work.

That’s why it is said, “It’s not a wise one who learns.” Typically, success does not favor the brightest minds. Actually, they in particular need a great deal of perseverance and luck to break through into the upper world.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/10, “What is the Extent of Repentance”

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Writings of Rabash, “What is the Flood Water in the Work”: Isn’t this contrary to logic? Our inborn nature is the desire to receive pleasure. If we work at something, then we undoubtedly receive a reward for our actions.

Indeed, it is impossible to work without a reward. The Creator wants us to enjoy and be fulfilled. The goal of creation is to give abundance to His creatures, and that means we receive that abundance. Moreover, we have to think about how to receive abundance from the Creator.

The only question is: Inside which Kelim will we receive it? Inside the vessels of reception or the vessels of bestowal?

Reward remains reward. It is written, “The reward for a commandment is to know the One who commands.” We have to know Him just as Adam knew Eve, meaning to attain, understand, and feel Him. The Light of Hochma that we receive is the Light of knowledge that fills all of our Kelim.

We are built in such a way that all of our pleasure comes from knowing the Creator, from reaching unity and adhesion with Him. And that is possible only according to the law of equivalence of form, according to the Light of Hassadim, the quality of bestowal that we will develop inside us above the quality of reception, which ceaselessly appears inside us more and more strongly.

This way, we have all the conditions for building the right Kli and receiving abundance and reward inside it. We should only work with it correctly: We don’t enjoy directly, but from the fact that we attain the Creator, reveal Him, and know Him, as it is written in the Prophets, “Everyone will know Me from the smallest to the greatest.”

We have to understand that our Kelim, our current nature is just a condition from which we have to ascend to the spiritual nature. Then inside our spiritual nature, inside the desires of bestowal, we will receive all of the reward that we hope to get.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Writings of Rabash

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Writings of Rabash, “What is the Flood Water in the Work”: We have to take it upon ourselves to believe in the sages….

Suppose I am ready to believe the words of wisdom, but what does that mean? Do I understand the words of the sages? What is their message?

First of all, we do not work on bodies in the science of Kabbalah. There are no bodies, but only souls. The bodies that appear before us are images of an illusory world.

I am in a desire that manifests as different forms: still, vegetative, animate, and human. “The sages” are the corrected souls that are in the broken system of Adam HaRishon. They can help me and give me support; they can be my mentors and instructors for my broken soul.

Accordingly, that is how we should accept their advice. For example, The Book of Zohar tells us about ten sages of Rabbi Shimon’s group, as well as the prophet Eliyahu, Moses, Aaron, King David, King Solomon, and so on. We shouldn’t perceive them as people living in our world, but as corrected desires or souls. They are in a broken system, which is gradually starting to be restored back to life. These souls are already corrected, partially or in full, and they participate in the correction of the entire system.

In The Book of Zohar I read things like, “Rabbi Shimon said…Rabbi Abba said….” For me they aren’t people who attain the upper world and tell me about it, but rather, these are names of levels of attainment. Through these words I study the ladder of the spiritual degrees: on one degree reality appears this way and another degree that way. It seems as if Kabbalists are telling me about this, but for me they are actually forces or vessels of perception.

For me every sage represents a spiritual notion, might, force, or quality. I don’t look at the names of historical protagonists, but names of spiritual phenomena and levels. That is the “faith in the sages”: I want to attain the same bestowal as the one that’s present on the degrees that I read about. “Faith” is bestowal.

At the lesson a person has to tune into this and aspire to understand how this will influence him. No matter what the book narrates about, I want to penetrate inside the spiritual essence of every word. This means that I believe the words of the sages.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Writings of Rabash

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We want to reach free choice in order to attain the Creator. Right now we are unwillingly carrying out nature’s orders. Reshimot awaken in us and we realize them as if they are our own desires because we do not feel the One who obligates us to do this. However, the goal of creation is for us to attain the Force that obligates us, as well as its goal and program in relation to us. We should take from it all the forces and parameters for our growth in order to independently desire, understand, and realize the phases of development.

That is why their realization is actualized above the current parameters. The parameters come from the Creator, manifesting in the will to enjoy, or in the corrupted Reshimot. It is written about it, “I created the evil inclination.” On our part, we have to arm ourselves with the force of correction and all the necessary means so that on every phase, when revealing yet another parameter, we will find the way to correct it and make it similar to the Creator.

By virtue of this work we will attain the Creator and acquire independence.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You say that we have to develop our sensitivity. Can you explain why this is necessary and how to do it?

Answer: The path of spiritual attainment lies in raising our sensitivity. Habit becomes second nature. We develop such qualities and abilities in us that we did not use previously and did not even understand the possibilities were present in us to feel phenomena that we did not perceive until now. They are present in nature around us because the upper world is here. But where is it? It exists at a different frequency, in a different quality that does not exist inside me, which is why I do not recognize it.

Therefore, everything depends on how much we will increase our sensitivity to the quality of bestowal. According to that, instead of perceiving the net of absorbing inside me that operates between the creatures on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, I will perceive the net of bestowal operating between the souls on the human or “speaking” level. This is what we have to attain. Therefore, everything depends on our sensitivity.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, The Zohar

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Just reading The Zohar brings many results; it evokes various phenomena and changes in a person. A person does not understand what he reads, but he tries to understand it, driven by his nature, even though from the point of view of Kabbalah this is not necessary at all. He may read it with the right intention or one that is not so correct.

In any case, the book works on him, influencing him so he advances. He cannot avoid feeling the changes inside. He should only keep returning to this book as often as possible, read it every chance he gets, and stay connected to it in some way.

Then he will see that this book is built in such a way that it creates for him a picture of reality parallel to his current reality, and he starts to slightly shift between them. Instead of the superficial story he imagines something beyond this reality. That is how The Zohar works inside a person, creating new qualities of perception inside him.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, The Zohar

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Question: Is it worthwhile to preach “material” altruism to the world as the first stage of correction?

Answer: In the circulation of the wisdom of Kabbalah, we cannot join efforts with “altruists.” In the best case scenario, charitable organizations give out to the poor what they have managed to get from some others: for instance, flour from one factory, textiles from another, shoes from yet another one. Obviously, it’s nice, although very few are doing this. Most of the time, it doesn’t go farther than talking.

However, what is important to understand here is that we are not improving the world by any of this. In fact, egoism that is destroying it doesn’t get corrected by such actions. By satisfying desires of an egoist, you are ruining him. His needs should be met on the condition that he acquires a profession and does something by using his hands or the brain.

A person has to work to produce something in exchange for the sustenance you supply him with. Otherwise, you are breeding parasites, and billions of people don’t wish to work but expect that you will feed them.

And later, they come out into the streets, complaining that you are reducing their welfare. And they are not the ones to blame since it is you who raised them that way; you developed such an attitude in them.

European leadership itself raised the protesters who are rioting against welfare reduction today. They were told clearly: “Do nothing, and we will pay you for it.” In other words, you yourself made a mistake and now you have to pay for it. Indeed, who will refuse charity that has become a norm?

Man shouldn’t be trained to receive things gratuitously. In doing so, we don’t take his egoistic nature into consideration.

The same goes for children. They have to be aware that you always give them something in exchange for what you receive from them. You constantly teach a child to treat life correctly and train him to work with his egoism. Nothing is gained without an effort.

Surely, children need a special approach, but it has to be based on the same laws. You give them a candy not because they are cute but after they have finished solving a math problem or doing an exercise. Otherwise, you are corrupting a child since now he is going to expect to get everything in life for free. As a result, he is going to grow up a miserable individual who doesn’t know how to live.

Payment is always necessary, among adults and among children. Besides, a person has to know who he is paying, with what, and what is expected of him. Only then will he build a correct attitude to the others surrounding him: He not only receives something from outside, but also gives something in return. Thereby, gradually, a person begins to interact with the entire creation correctly. Then, a completely new philosophy emerges and forms in him.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/10, “Peace in the World”

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Success in achieving the goal doesn’t depend on any special abilities of a person. We are yet to be surprised to discover that nothing of what currently exists in each of us gets to cross into spirituality.

One enters the spiritual world through a thin filter that doesn’t let you carry anything you now possess through it. It all remains inside your egoistic desire, your corporeal mind; all assets of the past disappear and nothing is preserved.

Success is determined solely by the effort exerted to offset all difficulties, problems, and disappointments. If, despite it all, a person still advances and doesn’t back away, only then does he enter the spiritual world’ and this is the only thing he gets to keep. This determination is what gives him the right to come in. There is nothing else.

When we exit Egypt bringing Egyptian vessels (Kelim) with us, they must be absolutely empty: our bare desires filled with nothing. This means that we throw away all egoistic assets accumulated in Egypt and don’t want to take anything from it with us. We bring only the most basic bread (Matza) and empty vessels (desires) or it will be impossible to leave Egypt.

Therefore, there is only one suggestion: In spite of all the problems and burdens, disappointments, and lack of strength, to still push yourselves ahead. This works only when a person truly values his time and tries to fill it with as much as possible, to simply compress each moment.

It is very important how much he writes down during the lesson and how much he circulates during the day, that is, what he is filling his time with.
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From the Talk During the Meal 12/24/10

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What does it mean “to dissolve among the nations of the world?” Your egoistic desires tear apart your aspiration toward spirituality and break into your inner desire, “Isra-El.” All of them are your own desires, GE (the desire to bestow) and AHP (the desire to receive), which are intermixed to such an extent that it is impossible to separate them.

The bestowing desire (Israel) “soaks up” the egoistic intention (nations of the world) and learns how to bestow for its own sake, its own profit. And it succeeds in doing so much better than other nations! Intellect and emotions (all those exclusive properties of GE that are granted to Israel for attaining the spiritual world) are used to pursue egoistic success in this world.

Jews are proud of their achievements on this material level, but what are they proud of? We were given a tiny portion of spiritual potential, one minuscule spark to help us rise to spirituality. We keep investing it in minor material values which lead us to double uselessness, to “reverse success.” That is, we draw the whole world into worthless progress until everybody understands that they are facing a dead end.

Who did that? It was done by the “sparks of bestowal,” GE, that were received at the time of Babylon. They were used for reception, not their true purpose: to raise AHP (the desire to receive), the nations of the world, upward.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, “Exile and Redemption”

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