Question: Kabbalah states that the entire world resides within me. What then is this external Creator’s force that descends upon me?

Answer: I don’t know what external force it is. I only know that all of a sudden something occurs in me, and a new property unfolds within. How then does it differ from thoughts and desires that used to appear in me before? Were they also new to me?

However, it’s absolutely clear to me that this property emerging in me right now, which is regarded as the force of bestowal, is something totally new and different from all of my nature. It is completely opposite, reversed relative to it, and it unfolds in such a unique form that it is cardinally different from all of my previous experience.

In order to connect to it, I have to rise above my ego, by having exerted enormous effort. I must cut myself off from my egoism, tear away from it, and constantly battle with myself so that I don’t fall into egoistic calculations.

Only under condition that I cut myself off from my egoistic calculation do I start attaining the force which is now pulling me toward itself, which acts within me by inviting me to join it instead of remaining in my egoism. This is the force of bestowal.

This power that is unfolding within me radically differs from all my previous strengths, thoughts, aspirations, and all of my nature. I feel this since it mandates me to cut myself away from all that I was before!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “The Freedom”

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Tu Bishvat, “The New Year of the Trees,” symbolizes the fruit of the spiritual work, growth. On the first stage of our spiritual path we turn the egoistic intention Lo Lishma into an altruistic intention Lishma, bestowal for the sake of bestowal. Once a person acquires the property of Bina, he becomes a “tree of the field.”

Then a person moves to the stage of receiving for the sake of bestowal, and the barren tree of the field starts bearing fruit. This is a result of a person’s work, of his degree. Now, he uses his “tree” to grow fruit, fill the souls, and he relates to them as the source of bestowal, like the Creator. This way the person becomes equal to the Creator and completes the correction.

We Kabbalists see the completion of man’s entire work in Tu Bishvat. Overall, all holidays have dual roles: They embody a certain part of our path, and at the same time they contain a certain element in them that symbolizes its completion.

Passover, the celebration of the exit from Egypt, signifies what we already see, how we abandon egoism, and why. After all, it is impossible to leave it without knowing the purpose. Shavuot, the holiday of the giving of the Torah, is also more than the acquisition of the means of correction: We know why we receive it. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is the beginning of all the changes, and the final goal is already planted in the initial plan. The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, once again reminds us why we go through the chain of corrections. The same applies to Chanukah and Purim.

All these customs of our world symbolize the stages, milestones on the path of our spiritual correction. That is where they come from.

They do not seem to be special. On Tu Bishvat we eat fruit and sweets—what a weak hint! Purim also looks more like a children’s holiday. But in reality, these are the most important holidays, and their outcomes are the most convincing. This is because they refer to the results, the fruit of our efforts.

Purim represents the final correction, the end of the path. Then both forces, the positive and the negative, support one another and participate in attaining the final goal. Tu Bishvat also symbolizes the ripening of the fruit, and the difference between them is in the level of perception. The field tree is the vegetative level, while Purim is higher degrees.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “Because Man Is the Tree of the Field”

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Question: There are only several days left until the convention in Berlin. We already want to feel it now; we want to feel that the entire world Kli is in one state. How can we do this?

Answer: First of all, we need to realize how we can keep increasing the connection between us and make our dissemination around the world more intense. Our spiritual state depends specifically on this.

Our next spiritual degree depends on how much we will be able to expand around the world since the Light will correct and lift us accordingly. This is because we do not exist for us, for our ascent; we exist so Kabbalah will spread.

In “Messiah’s Horn,” Baal HaSulam writes that the dissemination of Kabbalah around the worlds is called a horn or the Messiah’s call. Messiah is a property that pulls man out of egoism (the world “Messiah” or “Mashiach” in Hebrew comes from the word “Moshech,” to pull). So this is what we need to do. If we assist the world a little more so it will come closer to the correction of its egoism, we will be lifted as much as the world needs. But if the world does not need it, we will not be lifted.

What did the ARI say on his deathbed? Chaim Vital, the ARI’s main student to whom he gave the ways of this wisdom, was not there at that moment. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his letter: “Isaac Cohen, one of the ARI’s students…came in at the moment of his passing and cried because their hope to see the world full of good, wisdom, and the Light of the Creator, which they had during their teacher’s life, was leaving.

And the ARI said to him: ‘If there was just one absolutely righteous man among you, I would not have been taken from this world prematurely….’ And the student cried: ‘So we do not have any hope?’ And the ARI answered: ‘I will come to you and teach you if you will merit it.’ And the student objected: ‘How will you come to teach us if you are leaving this world?’ And the ARI answered: ‘What do you understand in hidden secrets and the ways of my return to you!’ After these words he immediately passed away to live in the future world….”

Baal HaSulam has said the same. He died because his students were insufficient for him to continue the study with them. There are no other calculations here. When a person is needed, he is kept with this mission, and when he is not needed, he is taken. There is other work for him to do.

This is why we need to understand that we need to strive to circulate Kabbalah with all our might, and then we will be lifted. One absolutely and precisely depends upon the other! It is not that just one of us will not be able to ascend (this is out of the question!); the entire group will not rise in their unity if it will not properly participate in the dissemination of Kabbalah in the world.

Let us hope that this year we will change everything that depends upon us, and then we will really merit entrance into the upper world.
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From the Lesson 1 in Moscow 1/14/2011, “Introduction of the Book of Zohar”

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

What Is a Prayer?

However, the prayer must be a whole prayer, that is, from the bottom of the heart. It means that one knows one hundred percent that there is no one in the world who can help him but the Creator Himself.

Yet, how does one know that, that there is no one to help him but the Creator Himself? One can acquire that awareness precisely if he has exerted all the powers at his disposal and it did not help him. Thus, one must do every possible thing in the world to attain “for the Creator.” Then one can pray from the bottom of one’s heart, and then the Creator hears his prayer.
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article #5 “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below”
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Question: What does it mean to thank the Creator?

Answer: After all the efforts that are required from me in dissemination, studies, and the group, I reach despair and then I start perceiving my egoistic desire separately from myself. It’s the same as how a sick person feels the place of the illness and its source—the painful area inside him, which he discerns and wants to isolate.

Then he begins working to come out of Egypt, to isolate his egoistic desire. A person tries to separate from it, but cannot do it. That is how the first and second Egyptian plagues go by.

After that a person starts to feel that all of these changes in relation to his evil inclination are evoked by the Creator. As the Torah tells us, the Creator informs Moses that He has given more strength to Pharaoh in order to ascend and project Himself above him.

A person starts to see and understand that the Creator does all of the work inside him. He leads him up, out of the egoistic calculation, and then lowers him, and then a person falls back. Then the Creator brings him out once again and later a person falls again. That is how time after time, a person acquires the knowledge and sensation of the fact that unless the Creator performs these actions upon him, he will always remain in Egypt by himself, inside his egoistic desire.

These impressions accumulate, becoming clearer and stronger, until a person cries out, ready for anything—even pitch darkness for his egoism —anything to run away from it. This is the “Egyptian darkness,” the night of the exodus from Egypt. There is no darkness in a person greater than this one, but if he knows that he is following the Creator, then he prefers this darkness. Of course, he does not prefer it in the desire for pleasure, but because the Creator is walking ahead of him.

And the way to attain this is through meticulous work.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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This new book is about Baal HaSulam, the greatest Kabbalist of all times. Baal HaSulam climbed all 125 degrees of the spiritual ladder. He felt an ultimate connection with the force governing the universe. He lived in the 20th century and foretold all the events that followed. He had a passionate desire to spare humanity from misfortunes and suffering. This is the reason why he revealed The Book of Zohar to everyone.

The author of the book is my student, film director and scriptwriter Semion Vinokur. The book is currently being translated into English.
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Question: Who or what gives me an example of the next level?

Answer: The example of the next level is given to you by darkness. That’s because the next level first becomes revealed as darkness. However, I have to try to discern the Light in it, which is something great and special. It only seems like darkness to my ego, but if I had a desire to bestow, then I would see the Light and the entire system of souls that are filled by infinite Light.

Therefore, darkness is the example of the future degree, until I turn this darkness to Light.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, The Zohar

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Once a person gains experience, he sees that he is unable to do anything by himself. All of his notions of good and evil are built on personal benefit, and therefore the ascents and descents that he experienced were actually unreal. He evaluated his good attitude to spirituality, the inner ascent, as “day,” while his negative attitude to spirituality seemed like “night.” But that is incorrect.

“Night” is a state where a person makes discernments, firmly knowing that they are egoistic and that he is unable to ascend above his egoism. And if he is able, then it is only thanks to the Light that grows slightly stronger and gives him these moments. The Creator helps a person to “peek” out of himself to the outside, and only then does he merge with bestowal. This is “day” for him.

I have to be ready for the constant “therapy” of the Creator, who takes my evil that hides beneath the grain of good and transforms it to bestowal, revealing new goodness to me. It is impossible to convey these things. They come only as a result of inner work. Until then, Rabash writes that “You cannot greet a friend” because your “friend” is not good yet. First you have to attain peace (Shalom) or perfection (Shlemut) with the Creator, and then you will reach conciliation with your “enemies,” meaning you will return to your egoistic desires above which you have ascended. You will take them and complete your work with them.

At first a person greets his “friend,” meaning his desire, acquiring bestowal for the sake of bestowal. Then he also greets him with reception for the sake of bestowal, meaning that he returns to his desires and works with them. That is how he attains the final correction.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Is joy a criterion of advancement?

Answer: When I merge with the Creator and place myself under His influence, I feel that I make Him happy.

Question cont’d: But don’t we come from despair? Should I be happy myself or just know that He is happy?

Answer: Sometimes a person feels despair, but this does not bring about progress. I cannot come closer to the Creator in this state. It’s best to do everything possible to avoid immersing in despair. It is written, “A fool sits with his hands folded and eats himself up.” It is Klipa to think that we advance out of despair.

When I grievingly revel in my evil hoping to advance, the Klipa obstructs the truth from me. I do not see the Light, the Creator, the world full of corrections, joy, and fulfillment. I am in the evil like a worm in a radish and there is no way for me to move forward from here.

We never advance out of evil. Imagine a child immersed in evil. How will he grow? He will be barely able to, or won’t grow at all.

We grow only out of joy, fulfillment, and good influence. Therefore, we have to put all our energy to coming out of despair and running forward, away from it. An extra moment spent in despair is already bad. You’re better off going to take a nap; anything but to get used to being in despair.

Question cont’d: What does it mean to greet the Creator first and then to greet people?

Answer: This means that first of all you have to make contact in your thoughts with the goal of your life, the reason you were created, and why are you doing, thinking, and deciding this? And of course, it’s in order to reveal the Creator inside of you. This means that you have greeted Him. After that you already turn the person inside of you and greet him in order to bring him to the Creator’s level.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: The request to correct my repulsion from the friends seems very mechanical to me. Don’t I have to attain a need for correction?

Answer: If you wait for a need for correction, you will never attain it. It’s not the necessity that precedes our work, but the work that precedes the necessity. Then the necessity emerges.

If I work according to necessity, then I am an animal. If I work above the desire, then I am human.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, The Zohar

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