Writings of Rabash, “He Who Has Not Made An Effort On Shabbat Eve…”: The main efforts are made in the work against knowledge, when a person does not know for what sake he must work. This is very difficult.

Question: Why is it so difficult?

Answer: Because it completely contradicts everything that I am. In reality, this is not just very difficult, but impossible. I won’t reach success here with my own forces because I don’t have any means to make any action in my mind or feelings that is above knowledge.

I always act based on my own thoughts and desires. Can it be otherwise? What else does a person have?

Nevertheless, in order to make the right action, one must be equipped with the mind of the Creator rather than creation. That means I need His head instead of my own. But how can I achieve that?

That is why Kabbalists give us advice. When a person wants to serve someone great, the group, or the friends, he tries to turn off his mind and his feelings, accepting the mind and feeling of the neighbor instead. With the help of these exercises, we then build the same attitude to the Creator.

A small person always lacks a “mind” or understanding. He does not know how to become similar to the Upper One and does not understand Him. That is why he has to receive or accept a part of the Upper One’s mind. Working with the mind of the Upper One instead of your own is faith above reason.

Why “faith”? Couldn’t it just say, “the mind of the Upper One”? The matter is that the lower one acquires the head of the Upper One, rejecting his own mind in the quality of Hafetz Hesed, the quality of bestowal. Otherwise he cannot do this. He cannot see the action of the Upper One and become similar to Him.

The most effective means enabling one to acquire wisdom and greatness of a new level is to try and neutralize one’s mind and feeling in order to accept the mind and feeling of the neighbor, who is higher than me. Otherwise I grow only in the animate part of me, growing quantitatively rather than qualitatively.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Can the reading of The Book of Zohar help us acquire a general, universal perception? Would it not cancel out the uniqueness of each human being?

Answer: What uniqueness can there be at the moment? What human being?.. We are talking about your “beast” which we have to turn into a Human Being.

You have a “donkey” (“donkey” in Hebrew is “Hamor,” from the word “Homer” – “matter”), and there is only one spiritual spark in it. We want to help you extract this spark from the “donkey” and connect it with the rest of the sparks shimmering above the herd of “donkeys.”

Imagine seven billion “donkeys” and a twinkling spark above each of them. We want to unite these sparks together and then build from them Man similar to the Creator. Only then will they acquire a general perception of the collective soul of Adam HaRishon.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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When I came to study to Rabash, I was 33. I was a strong and successful person; I had a family, house, and successful business. I asked him, “Now I am going to invest all my life into you. I will be next to you until the very end because otherwise it is impossible to learn anything. I am ready to go for it, but how can I be sure that I am in the right place?”

Rabash replied that I had every right to ask this question. However, I have to choose what teacher I want to cling to by myself. Nobody should interfere or influence my decision. He said: “Go and check out other places!”

But after you make your decision and choose your place, you should cast away any doubt about it and not swing from side to side in the middle of the path. You cannot be under any other influence but your teacher’s.

In other words, if you become my student, you are obliged to receive only my spirit and not to listen to anybody else. After all, you are going to develop and it is forbidden for a person to listen to other opinions during his growth.
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From Lesson 2, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/31/10

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Question: What should we do with the people who study the material independently and come with established, self-imposed “axioms” with which they confuse other students?

Answer: The group should isolate itself in its Kabbalistic center like an embryo in the mother’s womb. A developing soul needs to be protected. It must be surrounded with love and care like an embryo or a baby, by building a nurturing atmosphere around it, similar to “Noah’s ark.”

While students have not yet reached spiritual revelation and don’t quite understand what they are doing and where they are going, they get tossed from side to side, from state to state because each time new systems are formed within us. And while we are constructing ourselves, we continue going through unstable states; hence, we cannot be under the influence of several factors, but only one.

Baal HaSulam writes in “A Speech in Celebration of the Conclusion of The Zohar” that if a student doesn’t cleave to the teacher, like an embryo clings to the mother, and doesn’t adhere to the upper one, then he doesn’t advance. This law rules in the spiritual world as well as the material one while we are in the preparation stage and work with our egoistic desires.

If a student doesn’t conform, nothing will help. He may be very smart and have outstanding abilities, but he won’t reach spiritual attainment. Hence, the sages said: “A thousand [disciples] enter the class, but only one comes out to the Light.” And the only reason for this is negligence, reluctance to accurately follow the spirit of the teacher, the person that passes spirituality to you.

I myself don’t need this in the least; you know how I loathe any kind of worship. But a student has to develop such an attitude. At the very beginning of the path, one has to make up his mind, according to the principle: “A person learns where his heart desires.” So how can you allow someone to enter your center, your home, and confuse you? I would never allow it.

We still cannot determine who is right and wrong, everything is relative. And if you wish to advance spiritually, don’t trust anyone; you must choose the source you want to drink from on your own. Everyone must unilaterally select a teacher who will answer his questions and meet his expectations, and who is qualified to guide him or her on the path of spiritual growth.
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From Lesson 2, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/31/10

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Our entire work is to gradually acquire the force of bestowal and attain the force of the upper wisdom (Hochma) in it. In other words, we need to acquire the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) clothed in the Light of Hassadim (Mercy).

Sometimes we don’t succeed, and then the force of Hassadim which we were supposed to obtain from “peaceful waters” turns into flood waters. We drown in them, and then a renewal occurs, and the surfacing Reshimot (spiritual records) help us to continue on our path.

This happens in every state: A person may go by way of faith above reason and succeed, but if he is neglectful and doesn’t arrange his environment to support him, he falls into violation, a transgression (sin), and sinks into a broken Reshimo rather than walking above it. And later, in a second attempt, he realizes it correctly.

This is the way we progress. The Torah says: “There is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). He has experienced the sin, the evil inclination created by the Creator, which unfolds anew in each new stage. On the other hand, if he realized his Reshimot as a righteous person, ascending by way of faith above reason to Yesod over Malchut, then he acted correctly.

The successful realization of Reshimot clearly depends on whether or not a person has prepared all the necessary conditions: the environment, the studies, and all the other means that are the foundation for success.

Success itself lies in faith above reason, upon when a person in the group can realize Reshimot in relation to the group, so that eventually he can do the same in relation to the Creator. The “Creator” is a phenomenon that occurs on a deeper level and is attained in the vessels (Kelim) of the group.

A person always has an opportunity to collect all the components and arrange the necessary tools to “build an ark,” “install a tabernacle,” and, in general, be prepared for anything that happens. He acts in full awareness of what is occurring while continuing to examine himself, and he is finally able to reach the Creator through the group.

He transforms his 613 desires from reception to bestowal, adding “the seven counsels of the sages” to them, thereby multiplying the Reshimot, the details of perception in him, by 620 times. This is how a person builds the whole Kli.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, “What is the Flood Water in the Work”

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

The Essence of the Work in Torah and Mitzvot

All the Mitzvot that are written in the Torah or the accepted ones, which the Patriarchs established, although they are mostly actions [of a person in this world] or words [that need to be uttered] [thereby fulfilling the commandments], they [commandments, that is, advices] are all to correct the heart [one’s desires], “for the Lord searches [wants us to correct] all hearts, and understands all the [egoistic] inclinations of the thoughts [intentions].”
– Rav Abraham Eben Ezra, Yesod Morah, p. 8b
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Question: I want to escape “from Egypt,” from my ego. How can I stay in this fear of not falling back into my egoistic desires once again? How can I build an ever stronger screen each time, capable of withstanding the immense pleasure of bestowal so that it does not turn to receiving once again?

Answer: Invest in the Light as much as possible. This means to invest in the connection with others since the Light is revealed in the connection between souls.

Once, we were in a completely different state. We were together in a system of a single soul where all of our souls were completely connected with each other, and the Light of Infinity filled them without any limits. This state was called the “world of Infinity,” one desire called “one soul” completely filled by the Light.

Afterward, this desire broke apart and scattered into small fragments like a plate that smashed into bits, and there was no connection at all between them. That is why all of the fulfillment which used to be in this “plate,” all of this Light, disappeared. If you glue this “plate” back together, you begin to feel the fulfillment in it.

The whole problem lies in the fact that there is no vessel (Kli) in which you can reveal the fulfillment. The Light is around the “plate,” but it cannot be revealed because there is no connection between its pieces, and they cannot hold the Light.

Therefore, all of our work lies in connection. I must be ready to unite with others, and then I will feel the Light which is revealed inside our unity.

How can I reach unity? Just the thought of it immediately strips me of any desire. Suppose it seems to me that I want to unite with others. Then, I begin to realize that my desire is completely not toward this. First of all, I have to reveal how broken apart I currently am, how far from unity with others. I do not want it, and I even hate it.

In this whole process, until the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun), we reveal how opposite we are to unity, how much we hate it, and how we are ready for anything but this. Even if we are already in the spiritual world, over the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), at each degree there are states (Klipot, shells) when you hate the Creator, unity, and the Light.

That is why the revelation of evil is a necessary and essential state at each stage. When I reveal the evil, it means that I join into it. I cannot see it from the side; I must completely submerge into it. I must feel it inside me, including Pharaoh, and Moshe (Moses), and the fight between them.

That is why our work consists only of attracting the Light that Reforms.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “Perfection in Life”

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If we looked at ourselves from the outside, from beyond our world, we would see that the “life” in it isn’t really life. We are completely detached from the true understanding of life. Spiritually, we are dead, and our reality is an illusion in an unconscious condition, a short lived spark that sustains this entire world.

A person truly lives when he receives the Light and holds it above himself, not allowing this enjoyment to expire and, at the same time, not letting it enter his will to receive directly. The Light and desire don’t cancel each other out; moreover, they don’t lose the connection either. They are like a candle, oil, and flame, bonded by the wick.

The oil is our matter, the will to receive; the wick is the screen (Masach); and the candle’s flame is the Light. I hold the flame above me and draw a line between the flame and the desire so that I don’t push the Light away completely, but rather keep it in order to bestow.

I constantly calculate how much oil and desire to add in order to make the flame burn in the optimal manner. Then, my candle doesn’t die out.

If we succeed in this, we experience life, eternal and complete. An opportunity to do so is laid before us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “Perfection in Life”

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Desire gives taste to fulfillment. Every sip of water is agonizingly sweet when I am dying of thirst. The fulfillment may be only partial, but the desire is great, and the discrepancy between them creates a sensation of life.

Hence, life can be measured not by desire or the pleasure as such, but by the struggle between them. The higher the tension or the interval between them, the more life and energy I possess.

The trouble begins when my vessel is empty or when it’s filled, either way. The key is to bring the empty vessel to being filled and catch the moment of their contact.

How do I hold on to this moment? After all, even the greatest pleasures from food, sex, and recognition, having reached their peak, diminish and die. I live from instant to instant. My life barely twinkles, breaking away from the void and sinking back into it.

As the song says, “Only an instant separates the past and the future,” an instant between the Light that flashed before my eyes and the dark void that is about to consume it. Before the current pleasure expires, I must seek the next one already so that I don’t lose the feeling of being alive.

However, desires constantly grow, and desperation overtakes the world. The promise of future pleasures is no longer there, “transient” rewards do not dissipate the pressuring darkness, and life becomes pointless.

Our life diminishes because we cannot hold on to the brief experience of pleasure. This needs to be learned. That is, we have to learn to live above our egoism, to work against it. Then, a person undergoes ten “Egyptian plagues,” leaves his desires below, and steps out to “Mount Sinai,” the Light that can give him a screen.

Spiritual attainment is built in a special vessel (Kli) that allows you to hold yourself above desire, in bestowal. Having arranged a Kli of bestowal, a person acquires an opportunity to constantly be in contact with pleasure, and, at the same time, to not put the desire out since it isn’t the desire which is being filled, but the intention for bestowal that rises above it.

A person obtains perfection when he bestows, when he steps out of himself and lives in the pleasure that he returns to the others. His life, eternal life, lies not in his personal desire, but in the Reflected Light that fills their desires and delights the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “Perfection in Life”

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What constitutes the work of our organization? On one hand, we do inner work aimed at self-transformation performed by everyone in his heart (desire). This work is hidden from outsiders and the world, and although we talk about it a lot, it is done in the heart, invisible in matter or physical acts. The rest of our work refers to producing materials and media to circulate the wisdom of Kabbalah since we are an educational organization that mentors children and adults.

To accomplish this, we take materials from our daily lessons where we study articles written by Baal HaSulam and Rabash. What we produce becomes the basis of what is going to be used in the future as well. In fact, besides it, there is nothing else in the world that would relate to authentic spiritual work: the Creator’s revelation.

No one in our generation is working on creating a practical method of the transformation of man and the world except us. If we don’t structure this method correctly, according to its inner content and the form of communication, then we will not complete the task placed on us, our responsibility before humanity. We shouldn’t be scared away by these exalted words. Rather, this is how we must feel about our designation.

However, we can’t wait until after the lesson to draw messages from the daily lessons and send them to the world. It will not happen unless we thoroughly work on each lesson, writing notes down, analyzing them, and classifying them by topics, the degrees of exaltedness and perception. The evaluation criteria may vary, but the key is to organize the material and release it into the world.

At any rate, nothing will replace a book. It may have a different form, but it will still have text. We won’t escape that. If a person wishes to immerse himself in the content having heard the lecture on the television (or internet), then he must see letters before his eyes. After all, letters are spiritual forms to be read by the mind and soul.

Therefore, we should take working on creating texts very seriously and view it as top priority. A lesson must be written down, followed up by highlighting the key definitions, their classifications, and by using various types of text analyses. It is essential to have a well-written text to which people can refer. The more they can work with it, the more intensive their advancement will be.

We should be grateful that we have this kind of work, that we are concerned with things above this world and are not absorbed by the issues of animate existence. We disseminate knowledge about the Creator in the world, and it is good if we experience difficulties from time to time and feel uneasy and confused. Evidently, He wants us to be concerned.
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From the Talk about Renewal of the Morning Lessons 12/17/10

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