Question: When a person tries to come out of Egypt, meaning self-love, he receives blows which he can overcome only by asking the Creator for help. But besides that there is also the material, earthly egoism which receives blows at its level, such as problems with one’s family, health, income, and so on. How should we relate to these problems?

Answer: No matter what kind of problem emerges in my life, first and foremost I must see it as a disturbance that came from the Creator. Even if I am in pain, I must still rise above that disturbance through faith above reason. Despite it all, I know that I have to make calculations above the disturbance and not under its weight. I must stay in touch with its “sender,” the Creator.

As for responsible actions, in the realm of this world I have to resolve all the problems by the commonly accepted methods. When it comes to the bank, work, family, and health, I have to take care of everything just like any person in our world.

Thus, you build up a two-sided attitude to the problems:

– First of all, they come from the Creator and you are dealing only with Him. You want to have these disturbances because they give you the opportunity to rise above knowledge and stay in touch with the Creator. Then you are correctly treating the disturbances and you even begin to love and respect them. After all, no matter how much they bother you, no matter how much salt they put on your wounds, and no matter how nerve-wracking they are, this is exactly what helps you rise above them.

– Secondly, you resolve the incoming problems the way it’s customary in the material world.

Both of these dimensions must be present in your attitude. You attribute the problems to the Creator, and at the same time you want to work with them. We do not throw Pharaoh out of our lives, but we enjoy his troubles. After all, only through them can we reject him and separate from him, and thus ascend higher and higher.

Pharaoh is my most precious flesh, my core, my most sensitive point, my child, the most important and finest string inside of me.

Question: But Pharaoh resists the unity of friends. What do the material troubles have to do with it?

Answer: They also distract you from the inner work. It’s not accidental that so many Kabbalists experienced material problems. The Creator deliberately caused them to be sick and despised by the people around them. It was in order to give them a place where they could overcome.

At the end of the day, all of this is a result of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. The desire gradually becomes revealed inside of you and in conformity to it you experience various problems, both in others and in yourself.

Question: Do I have to ask for help in these cases? After all, the Creator helps us in only one respect—unification.

Answer: That’s right, and the problems obstruct you from doing this. When you are sick, it’s difficult for you to focus on love for friends. Most likely, you forget all about it. And that means you have to ask for help. There is none else besides Him. Everything comes from the Creator, but it happens through different channels.

You have to attain the goal, but your body, your “little donkey” is sick and cannot carry you. So what should you do? Leave him to die? But you need him on the path.

Why do you perceive this world separately from the spiritual work? Even small disturbances can be helpful if you work with them correctly. No matter what happens to us, it’s important to remember that this comes from a single Source, until we really come to feel that we are in spiritual exile.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, Shamati

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Question: Why is the path to love so difficult and confusing?

Answer: It’s us who are confused.

I am ruled by the egoistic desire and everything I feel and think is only inside of it, for the sake of my own benefit. So how can I make a different calculation—not for my own sake?

Imagine that you “dress” into someone else and begin making a calculation from his perspective. It was a mere 100 years ago that people began to grasp such concepts. It’s not an accident that this period was epitomized by Freud and Einstein, who not only made seminal discoveries, but also had friendly connections with each other.

After hundreds of thousands of years of development, it was a mere century ago that the greatest minds of humanity finally invented psychoanalysis—or in other words, began to analyze man internally on the material level. Only then did they begin to research human perception, “Me and the surrounding world, me and the neighbor.”

This is not simple. It took a very long period of time to approach man’s animate soul, and that’s not even close to spirituality. The entire problem is that we cannot and do not want to dress into others. Society has to ensure that every person will do this, that every person will try to do it and start discerning how he appears in the eyes of the neighbor and what the neighbor wants.

This is very difficult even though it only involves psychological exercises in the plane of our world, which don’t even relate to spirituality yet. Do you want more? Go ahead. Organize an environment that will finally begin to influence you.

The path is long precisely because no one influences you. There is no progress without social influence. Where could a person get the spiritual details of perception? Only from the environment.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, Shamati

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A crucial principle of the spiritual work is that all of it is done against our will, unlike egoistic work in our world. When I am forced to work in our world, I thoroughly weigh whether it’s worth it in the first place. Or, I like the work itself, and then it cannot be called work, but rather an adventure, a journey, when I enjoy the process itself. Alternatively, it may be some hard labor but I enjoy its result, when I get a reward, a payment for it.

I always have to see benefit from my work, which my mind and heart can grasp. Everything depends only on how much I value the anticipated reward, and according to that I am willing to exert effort.

But on the spiritual path, we work against our nature and nothing supports us. Therefore, we don’t have any motivation, the “fuel,” to take action that seems to be pointless.

And it’s obvious that we advance little by little, from “Lo Lishma” (for oneself) coming to “Lishma” (for bestowal). In the words of Rambam, for “women, children, and slaves,” meaning us, who for now are at these levels, secrets (the true purpose) are revealed gradually. They are regarded as secrets because so far, a person can’t imagine where to get the energy and motivation to work.

It is as impossible as for me to start flying! It is above my nature! And hence, we undergo such a lengthy way of development, going from state to state and gradually acquiring some understanding, a sensation that comes to us by way of the Light that Reforms.

It doesn’t occur naturally, in a rational way; on the contrary, the more effort I put in, the further I go from the purpose—that’s how I evaluate it in my perceptions! And only in certain rare moments do I occasionally discover that it only seemed in my egoistic perception as though I was walking backwards, while from the point of view of the bestowing desires I was actually advancing. This is how we move forth.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/2011, Shamati No. 86

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Question: How does the way we treat the words written in TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) differ from how we relate to your explanation of the text?

Answer: It is difficult to explain why the Creator made it so that we need someone to connect us with the upper reality in our world. It is similar to a mother and father we have in this world, who connect us with life. Indeed, it weren’t for the mother, I wouldn’t be born in the first place and wouldn’t exist until I grew up.

The same goes for the spiritual birth: I need someone who will give birth to me, tend to me till I mature in spirituality! It manifests in the birth of material bodies in our world and also in the birth of the souls, all of which is the derivative of the laws acting in the spiritual world where there is a certain order of spiritual Partzufim, and Aba Ve-Ima (the upper Father and Mother) give birth to ZON and tend to the souls.

But so far, I haven’t linked my broken soul into ZON of the world of Atzilut and cannot cause Aba ve-Ima to work on me; so I need a guide to spirituality! And he, right now, also looks as some material person to me since I cannot see the spiritual world.

The same pertains to the friends: I cannot perceive their spiritual desires and I think I am surrounded by some physical bodies. But later on, I will see that it isn’t so. The teacher and the friends are a spiritual mechanism, spiritual forces with whom I work.

That is how I should treat the teacher and the friends, with an understanding that they are part of the Creator given to me in order to help me connect with Him. In the degree that I value the teacher and the group and lower myself before them, to the same extent I will reach contact with the Creator. I don’t have any other opportunity to connect with Him and no chance to tap into Him in any other way.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Writings of Rabash, “The First Innovation”: All the innovations begin only after a person comes out of self-love. Therefore, the Torah cannot be taught to idolaters. When a person is in Egypt, he cannot be Jewish because he is enslaved to Pharaoh, the Egyptian king. And as long as he is a slave to Pharaoh, he cannot be a slave to the Creator.

It is written concerning this, “The sons of Israel are for Me,” they are My slaves and not slaves of slaves. When a person serves himself, he cannot be the Creator’s slave because it is impossible to serve two kings at the same time. Only after a person comes out of Egypt, meaning egoism, can he be the Creator’s servant. And then he can receive the Torah. It follows that the first innovation is the exit from Egypt.

A person who is inside of his egoistic desire is called a “non-Jew.” A person who rises above his egoistic desire, meaning who comes out of Egypt, is called a “Jew” (Yehudi) because he attains unity (Ihud) with the Light, the Creator.

It is possible to study the Torah, meaning the ways of bestowal, only by ascending, by coming out of Egypt. That is why it is written that the Torah cannot be taught to idolaters, where “cannot” means “it is impossible.” That’s because as long as you remain in the egoistic desire, you do not understand anything about spirituality and you don’t have the smallest chance of reaching it. In your desires and thoughts you cannot grab hold of the end of any thread that extends from the spiritual world.

You need auxiliary means, and only by correctly using them will you attain what you desire. Therefore, all the innovations and spiritual changes are possible only after coming out of Egypt, meaning egoism. Until then, it is impossible to understand anything. Until then, we are in total darkness and can only advance with our eyes closed according to the Kabbalists’ advice.

This is all that remains for us—to understand how opposite our world is to the spiritual world. In order to climb out of the darkness to the Light, it won’t help us to turn 180 degrees around. That’s because our darkness is the darkness of Egypt, which does not have a direction toward the Light. Only gradually, by means of making the right actions do we reach the right desire. Even though it is also egoistic, yet by virtue of the Light’s influence we can then come out of Egypt into the altruistic intention of Lishma.

This is talking about states that are absolutely divided from one another. A person who is in the lower world, meaning in the egoistic state, in the intention “for the sake of reception” is unable to understand the plans and actions of those who are moved by bestowal. One does not have any contact with the other. They are completely different programs that do not intersect with one another in any way.

In relation to the spiritual world, our world does not exist. It is expressed only in a person’s imagination as a preliminary, imaginary reality that is necessary for entering the spiritual reality, which is the only one that exists. Everything we see and imagine here is similar to the visions of a person who lies unconscious.

Therefore, all the innovations, attainments, and true calculations begin with the exit from Egypt.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If the key is to draw the Light upon ourselves, why do we so thoroughly discuss the structure of the worlds described in TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) during the lesson?

Answer: It’s not our goal to talk about the structure of the worlds in detail; we simply try to grasp some details in order to tap into what Kabbalists tell us about. But when we study TES, as any other source, we first of all must think of the soul since it is there where all these elements I am reading about reside and where all the phenomena occur.

Kabbalists who revealed within themselves the property of bestowal discern what actions they can perform within it, and they write about it. Besides this, there is nothing else. Either we are in some imaginary reality of this world, which doesn’t really exist and dissolves later on, and live in it as in a dream, or we reach the authentic reality of bestowal, the reality of the Creator.

After all, there is “none else besides Him,” and if something actually exists, it’s only there. And TES describes in what form this authentic reality is being revealed to us within our desires.

As a Kabbalist, I can describe to what extent I enter this reality and discover that it does indeed operate in me, how well I connect and begin to identify myself with it. And other Kabbalists do the same. In other words, we all write about the same unification with the eternal upper Light and what we find in it from our black point of creation, the “point of absence.”

When I come in contact with the Light and achieve equivalence with it, I feel how within me various phenomena start occurring, dressing into me from Above downward (the Light of Hochma) or breadth-wise (the Light of Hassadim). These phenomena produce various sensations in me, and I describe them,as I have obtained the opportunity to express them in words and sounds.

But all the impressions we have derive from the encounter of this black point with the Light, where the former becomes similar to the latter. And this is the essence of the wisdom of Kabblah: to find the Light within the black point of creation.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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When we read TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), we discuss and clarify meanings that are closer to us, in order to prepare ourselves to understand it. But then we have to read the original, authentic text written by great Kabbalists who channel the upper Light to us.

I don’t possess such upper Light as Rabash and Baal HaSulam do, but I can help you connect to it. In order to teach a child, one doesn’t have to be a professor but just someone who can come down to the child’s level.

Therefore, next to the pupil there is a teacher, the most important person who can help him right now. But besides, there are authentic sources which are very precious to us from which the Light comes down to us. It is impossible to get by without one or the other.

On your own, without such a special person as the teacher, you would never be able to attune yourself to the spiritual source of Rabash or Baal HaSulam. And so it was throughout all generations. We don’t speak about such unique souls as Adam HaRishon and Abraham who discovered the spiritual world on their own. Sometimes, there are moments in life when something gets revealed to a person from Above, for some special predestination of the soul.

But if we speak of Kabbalah as the passing of spiritual knowledge through the chain of Kabbalists from generation to generation (“Kabbalah” means “receiving”), then we always imply a teacher and a disciple. Above everything else, the teacher aims you at the goal; he helps you to get around and gives you direction in life. And its realization is definitely your responsibility—with the help of the great Kabbalists who wrote these holy authentic sources for us.

On one hand, there is a teacher who supports and guides you, and that is why you ought to be loyal to him so that he may “hold you in his arms” like a baby. On the other, you walk along his side in order to connect to the authentic sources.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: In one of the articles in Dargot HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Rabash writes that it is forbidden to teach gentiles, meaning egoists, the Torah. What then are we doing here?

Answer: "Forbidden" in Kabbalah means impossible. It would be similar to saying that egoists mustn’t get the upper Light. Try to break this law and we’ll see what happens.

We are talking about the laws of nature, and nature doesn’t ban anything. But if you go against it, you will be punished. “Prohibition” means inability. If Kabbalists write “no,” it means you are unable to do it.

Egoists can’t learn the Torah, or in other words, they can’t study the Torah because an egoist cannot do so in principle. He has no means for it, no tools. After all, he is a gentile and worships his own ego that won’t allow him to establish a connection with the Lights.

The Torah, or the wisdom of Kabbalah, is the method that connects the vessels and the Lights. But if you don’t have the former, you can’t find the latter. And therefore, you can’t learn the Torah since “Torah” is the passages of the Light that expands into desires according to the law of equivalence of form.

Question cont.: So what are we doing during the lessons?

Answer: We are moving toward it. We employ the Torah as the Light that Reforms; we use it as if from a distance.

At a higher spiritual degree, there are the Lights and vessels, and I am cut away from them. But I wish to be at this rung and in the degree of my motivation, I draw from it a small illumination that is preparing me for an ascent.

Thus, I use the Torah as the Surrounding Light but not the Light in the full sense of this word. I am not studying the Torah as such yet. The real study is the expansion of the Lights in the reformed vessels (desires), the interaction between the Light and the desire by way of the screen. That is what the Torah is.

My spiritual “I” is the receiving desire which is reformed by the intention to bestow and able to receive the Light. Wishing to achieve this, we read Kabbalistic books, yearn with all our might, and work in the group in order to somehow express our desire aimed at bestowal.

But a response arrives only in the form of the Surrounding Light. I don’t even know what it is, but time after time, I feel changes within me: a little more understanding, a bit more sensation. It isn’t the Torah yet. The real Torah is something concrete: desire, the screen, and connection between them, which leads to the revelation of the Creator, or the Light in the vessel.

But still, even now we are using the force of the Torah. This is described as: “I created the evil inclination and I created the Torah as a spice since the Light in it Reforms.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, The Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why is it written that “this world is created for none else except Israel” rather than for the nations of the world, although their correction is the goal of creation?

Answer: We need to follow scientific definitions of the wisdom of Kabbalah. The “world” (Olam) means “concealment” (Alama). Concealment is created only for Israel, those who aspire “straight to the Creator.” Those who desire to reach the Creator need to go through concealments, suffering, and blows in order to build within themselves a negative form opposite to the Creator and then desire to reach the Creator’s quality: bestowal detached from reception.

This is the point that we need to reach. Meanwhile, our desire should not be similar to the Creator in all His might. Not at all! You can have a desire that weighs only 1 ounce, but it should be correct! A correct desire means that you feel what it means to be detached from reception. This quality is most important, and we need to experience it.

After all, for the time being we are able to give only if we see a benefit. As it is written, we “trade a cow for a donkey,” as we receive what we consider more preferable. For example, a book is more important than money for me. Then I give money and receive a book. This is called an acquisition.

But why is it an acquisition? Didn’t you pay? Didn’t you give your money? No. What I gave is less important to me than what I received. If I needed to give something of equal value in exchange, I would be unable to do this. I always need to imagine that what I receive is more preferable to me than what I give. And the greater the difference between them, the more it fulfills me since I profit from it: “Look at what I found! It was almost free!”

This is how you live: Your fulfillment should be as preferable as possible relative to what you give in return. And then it is not called bestowal.

How does one feel the separation from reception in order to give and not to receive anything in return? I am willing to work without receiving anything in exchange if I believe that I thereby earn myself the world to come. It is as though I open an account in the future and make installments there. This is even more reliable: No one will take it away and nothing will get lost like in this world.

But how do you feel that you are completely detached from the result of bestowal, that you do not profit in any way from it, and it is completely isolated from you? You work arduously your whole life, and no one, including the Creator, knows anything about you. But you know about it; you work and wish to remain only in this. However, if you work in order not to feel guilty, this is your pay.

So how can we tear away from desires of reception? You need to feel this detachment in as little as one ounce, and that’s all; you don’t need any more than that. Then you are ready for revelation. After all, that is already an image of the genuine quality of bestowal, an image of the Creator.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2011, The Zohar

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