It is written that everybody crosses the Red Sea: men, women, elderly, children, the cattle, and so on. We, too, have to gather all our strength, each of us individually and everyone together. If we put forth this effort, we will definitely enter the spiritual realm.

It has never happened before and it will never happen that a person was ready for the exodus. Indeed, the exodus from Egypt is a blow from Above, which takes us from one place and transfers to another. A person cannot identify this state in advance and stands no chance of reaching it independently. It can’t be measured or predicted.

We only need to join forces and pressure, push, until it happens. What’s more, it will happen without a warning, forcefully, “in haste.” It may happen tomorrow, a day after tomorrow or in a week, it’s not important. We only need to anticipate redemption, and we will acquire it.

Let me dip into the past, into the Egyptian hell again and again, not feeling any progress. Let the efforts that I exerted a moment ago go down the drain, let me feel desperate and weak again. Let me gather my strength anew each time, in order to aspire to unification. Despite all this, I need to keep trying, harder and harder.

Baal HaSulam writes that a true, seasoned, steadfast desire is formed gradually. Overcoming hardships, we finally reach a force that shoots our desire like an arrow—and it receives a response. This is the only way to escape egoism.

Hence, do not think that we worked for nothing. Not at all. It’s just that our efforts accumulate and ultimately produce a result. We only need to be sure that we gather our efforts; at the end, they reach a required measure and bring us closer to the desired breakthrough.

I think it is very close. We only need to anticipate it every moment.
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From the talk during the festive meal 4/22/2011

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When reading a Kabbalistic article, a person needs to attune himself or herself correctly to its perception. Not a single word in the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of our world, ever. We do not exist in this world. It is an imaginary world; it is not taken into account at all and does not fit in with the entire system of the worlds. It simply does not exist!

Therefore, Kabbalah does not talk about this world, man’s physical body, or certain geographical places: the land of Israel, the Sinai desert, Egypt, or Babylon. It only concerns itself with the internal states a person undergoes in his aspiration to reach correction, the purpose of creation.

If a person has the point in the heart and aims himself or herself at the purpose of creation, on the path toward this goal, he begins to experience various states. The wisdom of Kabbalah and all the Kabbalistic books—the Torah, Talmud, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Mishna, and so on—describe these states, these degrees in particular. All spiritual, “sacred” books talk exclusively about “sanctity,” meaning about reaching the property of bestowal referred to as sanctity.

Hence, while reading these articles, we need to completely sever ourselves from all familiar material pictures and images and imagine only spiritual degrees, meaning the degrees of coming closer to or further away from the property of bestowal. They talk only about it. These books describe desire created by the Creator, its state in each of us, and our experience on the path when, from our current state, we start aspiring to the property of bestowal, to love of another, which is called “sanctity.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: An example of mutual guarantee at the cellular level is very convincing. One can easily imagine how the cells act for the sake of the body, leaving for themselves only life’s necessities. But why is it so hard to imagine mutual guarantee at our human degree?

Answer: It is because we do not see this system with our own eyes. If we saw it now, we would have no freedom of will and would be forced to comply with its laws. If the necessity to bestow is suffocating me, if I have two options: to die or to give myself away for the benefit of others, then I surely agree; “Take everything I have.”

I as though feel a gun against my temple:
“Give everything you have!”
“Take it, I can’t help it.”
Death is not an option—they would take everything anyway. This is the absence of choice.

This is why our interconnection is hidden from our sight, and we are unable to comply with it. What can be done? With the help of the environment, I have to come to a state when I will put a gun against my own temple.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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A child’s question: The Creator promised Noah that there wouldn’t be another flood. So why was there another tsunami?

Answer: That’s a difficult question. I’m not used to viewing the Torah as a historical tale. The corruption that happened then—the sin of Adam and all the other transgressions leading up to today—is still the same corruption, and we are beginning its correction only now.

The reason for disasters like tsunamis or earthquakes, past or future, is that we are causing an imbalance. Does the Creator really promise that the blows will stop? No. He promises that there won’t be a flood that would wash away the whole world!

The flood means that malicious waters arrive and wash away everything, leaving only the point in the heart. It really did happen once because a corruption of that magnitude had to happen, but no more. We are facing only correction. But if we don’t correct ourselves in time, we ourselves trigger the blows that befall us.

I hope that we will be able to avoid them, but we must feel responsible for what’s happening. After all, if the wisdom of Kabbalah was revealed, and we know that by building on our interconnection, we correct the world, we are capable of preventing misfortunes.

Remember what the Creator said to Abraham: “If I find ten righteous men in Sodom, I will not destroy it with an earthquake.” But there were not ten good people, and so the earthquake happened.

If we so desire, we are capable of saving the world from suffering. Everything depends on us. I hope that we will be successful because we really need to take this seriously.
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From Lesson 7, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: Ever since we started studying the article “There is none else besides Him,” I feel totally confused about the intention. If the upper Light is constantly at work, doing 100%, then what is the “Light that reforms?” And whom do I ask for it? From whom do I demand it for others? What works here if everything is inside of me?

Answer: Suppose I have a remote control. I press a button and activate some kind of mechanism. Nowadays there are many devices that work this way. However, if you were to show this to a person who lived 100 years ago, he would think that you are simply an angel that performs miracles: You press a button and suddenly the glass turns into a picture….

That is, using the remote control I can activate various systems. For example, I press a button and you, who are looking at a piece of glass (a screen), start to receive all sorts of impressions. You start crying and then laughing, experiencing worry and then joy. It turns out that by simply pressing a button, I made such a powerful impact on you. I influenced a friend.

Kabbalists say that when reading The Book of Zohar, it’s as if you are holding the remote control to all the souls and they depend on you. Think about how you awaken them! This is called “pressing a button.” If you think about this, then you “press the button” and activate an influence that causes them to begin awakening.

Everything depends on how much you desire for this to happen and how many other people also aspire to awaken others. All the efforts must be both qualitative and quantitative.

That is how we awaken one another. No one can awaken himself. Every person can attain this spiritual community called “the group” only in order to awaken others. Otherwise, he does not even come in contact with the group. That’s because the group is like Malchut of the world of Atzilut.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/11, The Zohar

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Shamati #13, “A Pomegranate”: The measure of the filling is as much as one can go above reason, and this is called Romemut.

There is only emptiness in a place where there is no existence, as it is written, “hangeth the earth over nothing.” You find that what is the measure of the filling, of the empty place? The answer is, according to one’s elevation of oneself above reason.

This means that the emptiness should be filled with loftiness, meaning with above reason, and to ask of the Creator to give one that strength. It will mean that all the emptiness was created, meaning it comes to a person to feel thus, that he is empty, only in order to fill it with the Romemut [greatness] of the Creator. In other words, one is to take everything above reason.

We do not know what “faith above reason” is. It is a total separation from all of our calculations. I remember how three or four months after I started studying with Rabash, I asked him, “What is faith above reason, since it is written that a person must always be in it?” At that time, I even wrote down on my hand that one mustn’t forget to think about faith above reason, even though I did not know what this was. As I was sitting in the car behind the wheel next to Rabash, I looked at what was written on my hand and asked him: What is the meaning of this concept?

In reply he gave me an example that is, of course, limited by the boundaries of this world: Suppose that a friend borrowed a thousand dollars from you and later returned the envelope to you as if it had the entire sum inside. But you find only one dollar inside. Your friend says that there is a thousand dollars inside, but according to your calculation there is only one. Where are the other $999?

That is when you can advance by faith above reason. That is, you attain such a correction (rather than just forgiving your friend the debt!) that you perceive this dollar as if you received a thousand instead of one, as if the friend returned everything to you.

But how do you perceive the $999 that are missing? This is called the force of faith above reason. It is impossible to understand what this means ahead of time. Only when this force becomes revealed inside of us as a result of our inner efforts, inside of our desires, when we change, then we see that we really can make up for the knowledge with faith, and this faith is bestowal instead of reception.

In any case this will remain unclear until a person actually acquires this quality.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/11, Shamati

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Question: Can it be so that the social structure itself may become one of the obstacles on the path of advancement on the spiritual ladder?

Answer: In other words, how can we move from the egoistic world to the spiritual one with balanced consumption? This is a multi-layered process. Right now, we face the first one of them, when humanity begins to understand that it has to restrict itself because the riches of natural resources and nature in general don’t belong to individuals or states.

But for seven billion people to exist on Earth and not to “eat each other up,” we have to reach equilibrium not only among ourselves, but also between us and nature. This is already clear to all people of good sense. The problem is in how to transition to it.

Transition as such is essentially egoistic. We might be able to help them with it, but I think that this transition will occur as it did in many countries already. Have you seen how a million people came out to the streets and changed the environment, society, and the government?

We are yet to witness how immigrants will flood Europe and swallow it completely. Do you think the United States is that far from Africa or South America? Not at all. And since nature forces us into balance with each other and with itself, we don’t have a choice. Nature works toward homeostasis, and it’s not up to us.

So far, it doesn’t pertain to spiritual correction, and this very process is necessary for us to exist. If I don’t want to fear that my neighbor might come to kill me, it’s beneficial for me to share my wealth out of necessity.

The hope that the arms and force the developed countries possess will help them is illusory. Rome, which was even more powerful, still fell. The question is: How can we transition to the next stage when we discover that we are unable to distribute wealth fairly as nature dictates? How will we compensate man and his egoistic desires to get bigger, more powerful, and wealthier?  What will we sustain it with?  What will we sustain him with? After all, people can’t stay at the animate level of evolution since our ego keeps growing and demanding even more.

Humanity has no solution to the issue: What compensation can we offer to those who will realize the need for a fair distribution? What will satisfy their ego? If we want everyone to remain as animals, to be the same, we thereby destroy man because the “human” level is above that of the “beast” in each of us. There has to be spiritual compensation, and only the wisdom of Kabbalah can provide it.

But we all know that 90 years ago, in Russia, they wanted to achieve the same by making a revolution. But as a result, a regular person didn’t get compensated for it. Why should he be satisfied with a typical apartment, an average salary that provides for his retirement plan, and a normal vacation time? Why should he be equal with others and be happy with just what he has?

For the time being, we advance according to the program of nature, in order to gradually present it to humanity in the degree that it will realize that it has no other option: It has to come to a relatively equal distribution. Therefore, if we don’t offer man spiritual compensation, we won’t be able to implement the law of balance with nature. And to do so, we will need the knowledge of the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From Lesson 5, WE! Convention 4/2/2011

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Question: You said that compensation for unity will be spiritual fulfillment. Is this world prepared to hear this or should we replace the worlds “spiritual fulfillment” with something else?

Answer: In order to reveal what our ego should be filled with, we must unify amongst ourselves. Then, through our inner spiritual fulfillment, we will be able to show the world that there is an answer to the question of what every person can be fulfilled by beyond the satisfaction of their daily needs.
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From Lesson 7, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Our main problem is to establish our attitude to the Creator. Clearly, it is subjective and depends entirely on us, on how we think and feel. It does not change depending on the Creator’s attitude, which is unknown to us, but is determined by what we think about Him.

On one hand, we are talking about nature, about the environment in which we develop. Once upon a time man began revealing nature, thus ascending in our world from the animate level to the human level as he researched the nature around him. After that he began to research the spiritual world, once his desire grew to that level. Thus, to the degree his desire grew, a person delved deeper and deeper into nature.

However, a person consists of two parts: one that feels and one that understands, and the two have a specific connection and influence upon one another. Precisely through them, feeling and reason or the heart and mind, he researches what he feels. Anything that does not enter his senses remains unknown to him. He researches only his impressions, whereas the things that are inaccessible to one’s sensations cannot be discussed at all because that would be empty philosophy and fantasy.

Therefore, our ideas of the Creator are not based on how He actually is, but on how we perceive Him. We will never know who He really is! We only know that there is an upper, external force that is perceived as the nature around us.

We call its closest part “this world.” But there is a greater nature which becomes revealed to a person when he undergoes a special development. It is called upper nature. Yet, no one knows who the Creator Himself is.

Therefore, the science of Kabbalah talks about everything in relation to man. It is written, “There is none else besides Him!” That is how a person feels and what he discerns as a result of his research.

Kabbalists tell us about their impressions of this single upper force, and it turns out that the Creator seems to get angry, or to get happy, or to enjoy something. But this is how a person feels. This is how he senses the upper force! However, we do not know what really happens to it.

Nevertheless, it is very important for us to establish our attitude to this upper force so we would know where this form, picture, impression, or sensation comes from, which we receive from Him. Whom do we feel: Himself or ourselves? Or do we perceive ourselves on the background of His Light? Or do we feel something that’s common to both of us, some interaction between us? That is something I have to know!

When I feel good or bad, then whom does this sensation depend on—on me, or does it come from the Creator? Or perhaps it depends on our similarity to each other, on some special connection?

If I perform any action, whether in words, thoughts, or physically, is He forcing me to act that way or do I have some kind of freedom? But where can I get that freedom if I am a result, a product of His work?

That is to say, we must somehow define ourselves in relation to our connection with the Creator. Otherwise we will constantly get confused. This bears great significance for our attitude, our inner work, and our connection with Him. This is also reflected on all of our relationships with one another, inside the family and when a person is one on one with himself.

Therefore, this is not an abstract question for us. Establishing our state, connection, and attitude to the Creator influences all the layers of our lives. This is the most fundamental thing there is. That is why Baal HaSulam’s opinion is so important to us in this regard, which he lays out in the article, “There Is None Else Besides Him,” the very first article in the book Shamati.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/11, Shamati

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