Question: Why is it that even when a person knows what is good for him, he still goes and does things that harm him?

Answer: We even see this happening with small children. How many times do you have to punish a child until he starts to understand something? And even then, is this a result of the punishment, or did he simply grow up and become smarter? Maybe the punishments were not beneficial at all? This is indeed a question: What causes us to change our actions?

In reality, we do not change by being punished. Overall, there is no such thing as reward and punishment as we understand it. We never learn under the influence of fate’s misfortunes. We simply grow until we outgrow our Reshimo. Then new ones emerge in us and the surrounding environment changes, and we change under its influence as well. We only change from the confrontation of two parameters: our inner informational data (Reshimot) and the surrounding society. As they interact with one another, they determine our state.

We have to bring our Reshimot to balance with the environment. This is all we aspire to. It is the basic law of the universe: similarity, balance, equilibrium. Everything in nature automatically aspires to this. That is why as soon as an imbalance emerges inside us with the surroundings, then consciously or not (depending on a person’s development) we immediately put all our energy toward trying to bring ourselves to balance.

For example, when you enter a certain society or a certain group of people, you always adjust yourself because you desire to be similar. That is how things are built; it is the law of equivalence, the initial law that the Creator put at the head of everything. Having created a nature opposite to Him, the will to enjoy, He desires for it to gradually reach equivalence with Him, the will to bestow. That’s because growth creates a mind inside the desire, and then the creation gains awareness, sensations, and reveals the Creator, becoming equal and identical to Him.

A person differs from any inanimate creation by the emergence of a mind that consciously directs creation toward similarity to the Creator. Therefore, our entire freedom of will lies in constantly creating a surrounding environment for ourselves that will “pull us up” to the Creator. That means we have to take care of the environment so it would be a level higher than we are. In that case we will want to become similar to it, and thus we will keep advancing toward the Creator. By envisioning the group as higher, greater, and more ideal than ourselves, we advance forward.

Therefore, everything depends on creating the right environment because it will enable us to automatically pull ourselves forward. Therein lies the entire law of growth.
From the lesson in Moscow on 1/17/11, Shamati

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Question: It is written that creation has to attain the Creator independently, but what does that mean?

Answer: What is my independence and where can I find it?

I have to find out what my dependence is, who or what do I depend on, and what depends or does not depend on me. It’s possible that I am independent or not, and I have to or don’t have to agree or disagree with it. After making all the analyses of my state, I discover that I am outside of the Creator.

This is possible because the Creator is expressed as the influence of two forces upon me: positive and negative, right and left. That is why there is a state between us where they neutralize each other like the field between two magnets.

I am in the neutral zone. The right line is the force of bestowal, while the left line is the force of reception, and I am between them. I am influenced by two forces, yet at the same time I am not influenced by anything. Their neutralization is inside of me. That is to say, on one hand the Creator exists and these two forces influence me, but they influence me in such a way that I do not feel their influence on me because they neutralize each other inside of me.

So on one hand, “There is none else besides Him,” but on the other hand, “If I don’t do it for myself, who will do it for me?” This neutral state is called the middle part of Sefira Tifferet. If I find this state, then it is the basic point from which I personally determine what I prefer: the right, bestowing, or the left, receiving, direction for my development.
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From the lesson in Moscow on 1/14/11

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We are in one part of nature, the receiving part, and have to reach the other part, the bestowing part. Today this part is completely unclear to us and that is because the transition from one degree to the next is always unclear. In dialectic this is called, “the law of the double negative.”

The next degree is a different mind, different feelings, and different vision. In fact, everything is different with completely new parameters. We aren’t talking about something slightly bigger than what we have now, but a qualitatively new degree. In general, on the spiritual path every level is completely different from the previous, being totally detached from it and having a new ten Sefirot.

The order of ascent is the following: We immerse into the egoistic desire, say one inch deep, and evaluate it as the evil of our existence, wishing to correct it to good. Then we ascend one inch above it, meaning we start using it inversely in the direction of bestowal, and see a completely new world.

Then we descend once again, but this time two inches deep. At first everything is fine: We use the world, meaning the state, for ourselves. But then we gradually discover a horrible picture and once again begin transforming the evil to bestowal. Once we get rid of the evil, we ascend two inches up and once again see the world of bestowal, which is completely unlike the previous level.

The greater the immersion, the greater the ascent. Adjacent levels are divided from one another by descent and all of their content is absolutely different. We continuously reveal a new world, not knowing how to act from one state to the next. The states are completely different, even if it seems to us that “we have already been here.”

How, then, can we make the choice? How can I choose a direction and the next state?

This requires a simple action: Out of all the possible states, I choose the most complex one, the one that’s most difficult for me now, the one that’s most repulsive to my nature. That is how I act in relation to my friends against my nature, and that is how I ascend to the next state.

I must continuously choose the spiritual state that is maximally opposite to my present state. In this way, reception and bestowal grow one from the other. This is the law of the double negative. This law is the foundation for vegetative life, the growth of living cells, the path of our thoughts, and so on. Everything develops by having opposites grow from one another.
From the lesson on 1/17/11, Shamati

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Question: Why does the Light work on us so slowly? What else must we do?

Answer: We are advancing in big steps. However, we can’t measure how many more steps we have to take in order to switch our perception from consuming inward to bestowal so as to draw the force that will link the “cogwheels,” our souls, together, thereby letting us feel the upper world.

Neither I nor anyone else in the world, including all the Kabbalists of the previous generations, have ever experienced the state we are undergoing today. Never before has such a large group of people striven to the end of correction based on the lack of connection between them, as well as the lack of the Creator’s revelation in them. Since there is no precedence for it, I cannot say in which form it will occur.

In truth, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, everything is identical to nature. If something isn’t revealed, you can’t know how it manifests. A real scientist will say that according to his data, it must be this way or that way, but if he makes a step forward, he steps into the unknown.

There are scientists that spend decades studying some phenomenon and are certain that they have found an explanation as to how it works. Yet, they suddenly say, “No, we were wrong“ and start all over again.

The same is true in reference to the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is a science. We have to explore the upper world ourselves and not expect an email, SMS, or something else from there. All that has been revealed up to this point, unfolded in personal, individual Kelim (vessels) of each Kabbalist.

Now, we must uncover the upper world in this enormous collective desire, in our mutual unification. And it will be done for the first time. All seven billion people might not unify, but there will still be hundreds of thousands or even millions.

In other words, the aspiration to see the spiritual world has become collective rather than individual. This has never been seen in the past. Hence, it is impossible to tell when it will occur, but we are advancing at a very fast pace.
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From the Lecture on the Unity Day 12/26/2010

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Question: What inner meaning should be attached to kindling the Chanukah candles? What do we need to explain to children?

Answer: We aspire to bestowal and love for our neighbor, and that should become for us the Light which fills us with pleasure. If we all connect like one man with one heart, we will begin sensing the spiritual world, the Creator, eternal life. This is called kindling Chanukah lights.

Chanukah is still not the end of correction, but only a stop on the path. We reach the property of Bina, bestowal for the sake of bestowal; we come out of our egoism, meaning we rise from Malchut to Bina.

For now, I am still unable to descend back from Bina and start using Malchut. I only rise above reason. This is called Chanukah. This is why we are not supposed to use this Light; we can only look at it.

Afterward, when we achieve the holiday of Purim, we take this Light and use it in our desire to receive pleasure so that “the darkness will shine like the Light.” Then, all powers of Bina descend to Malchut, and Malchut herself begins to shine.

This is the end of correction, while Chanukah (Chanu-Ko, “they stopped here”) is still a stop over, a break in the middle of the path. It is like a generation wandering in the desert and discerning the ways to rise above their ego.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2010, Writings of Rabash, Letter 43

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We need to try to build a state of an endless convention and be constantly impressed with many thousands of people gathered in one place. I have to feel the same “electric vibrations” anytime and anywhere. Distance doesn’t affect this spiritual force field. It depends on us; we can make this state of existence permanent.

This unique field of spiritual connection and direction is what is called a Kabbalistic group. In it, everyone retains the influence not only of the 7,000 friends, but of the millions of our friends around the world.

First of all, we create the group out of several thousands of our students, in which all of them are mutually connected within our integral network. If part of this group reaches the state of Arvut (mutual guarantee), it starts projecting this illumination outward, and it cannot be stopped anymore.

This is what is called the authentic circulation of Kabbalah. Everyone will have a chance to come, see, learn, and examine whether it fits him or not, and if it doesn’t fit today, then perhaps it will tomorrow.

This convention must show us an example of such a state, and it has to become permanent so we may ascend higher and higher. This is what will become the impact of the environment on a person, and it is our job to create it.

If the environment determines my entire future and the velocity of my spiritual advancement, then I must be concerned solely with how to make this environment stronger so that it would constantly inspire and pull me forward “by the ear.”

In that case, I will definitely come to the convention. After all, what else can advance me forward? I possess no other means but this one. I will come, but we must keep providing the same kind of influence all the time. Granted, there isn’t any other engine that fosters spiritual growth.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/2011, “Exile and Redemption”

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I receive the strength to reach spirituality from the environment, and it is a unique force. We arrive to the wisdom of Kabbalah with a desire for spirituality, but this desire is egoistic: to obtain both this and the future worlds.

This enormous desire pushes a person forward, but when he intends to bond with the friends, he has to annul himself and increase the importance of the friends. Thereby, he elevates his attitude to the friend at a minimal spiritual level. He annuls himself, desires to unite, and acknowledges the friend as the important one.

It is a very unpleasant, repulsive endeavor, but there is no other choice: We must unite. And if we do, I receive from the friend the importance of the goal, the strength to ascend. This strength is spiritual. After all, in order to turn to the friend, I nullified myself and raised his value. Since I related to him according to the spiritual rule, the importance of the friend, I received from him the strength to ascend despite the fact that he is just like me.

Even if I act out of hopelessness because I wish to obtain the spiritual world egoistically, I receive the true power from the friend, which raises me above myself. Acting this way with the friends, I acquire the correct approach to spirituality. Moreover, the friends may pay no attention to it nor even be unaware of what fuels me with spiritual power. I acquire it by performing an egoistic act, nullifying myself in relation to them despite the force of resentment.

It is very difficult, but if I manage to overcome myself, I receive from the friends the strength to advance further. This is the essence of our work, and this is the objective of the upcoming convention.
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From the Lecture on the Unity Day 10/31/10

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