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

Workers of the Creator Who Make the Torah Arid

This is the matter concerning the declining merit of the generations until they reached the final restriction in our generation and hence nobody feels any need to correct their nature. …Even those engaging in the work, it is by rote; they are not thirsty to reveal the upper wisdom. And even if they see such an opportunity, they prefer to remain at the level of simple execution.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Remedy of Memory”

Woe unto people from the affront of the Torah. For undoubtedly, when they engage only in the literal and in its stories, it wears its widow-garments, and covered with a bag. And all the nations shall say unto Israel: “What is thy Beloved more than another beloved? Why is your law more than our law? After all, your law, too, is stories of the mundane.” There is no greater affront to the Torah than that. Hence, woe unto the people from the affront of the Torah. They do not engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah, which honors the Torah, for they prolong the exile and all the afflictions that are about to come to the world.
– The Writings of Ari, The Tree of Life, Part 1, “Introduction of Chaim Vital,” 11-12
[42850]

Filed under: Kabbalistic Sources, Torah - No Comments →

Question: Does the network of connection between the great Kabbalists of the past also work on the souls that have not yet awakened spiritually?

Answer: No, these people don’t turn to them for help. You can study the Torah, read thousands of books, and this will not change anything in you. Moreover, even if you read the texts of Kabbalists with the intention to advance, the question is whether you are in the group, whether you desire to create together with others the same form of connection that exists between these Kabbalists.

Do we desire to create in the bond between us the same network of connection that exists between these Kabbalists? Do we want to move from the connection between the broken souls that think only about how to enjoy all sorts of earthly pleasures to the connection which unites our holy forefathers, the great Kabbalists of all generations? Do we wish to move from the broken system of connection between souls to the corrected one? We ask them to help us become similar to them so that they accept us in their assembly.
[43271]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Book of Zohar

Related Material:
I Want To Be A Grownup!
Resting In The Hands Of The Great Kabbalists
A Net Enveloping The Universe

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: What corrections did the Kabbalists of the past perform for us?

Answer: Baal HaSulam writes in “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 11: The sages of the Talmud have made the path of Torah easier for us than the sages of the Mishnah. This is because …they have provided us with a new means instead of the penance presented in the above-mentioned Mishnah, Avot: the “Light in the Torah.” It bears sufficient power to reform a person….”

Why did the sages of the Talmud replaced the path of asceticism (“live on bread and water, sleep on the ground, lead a meager life, and exert in the Torah”) only with the study of the Torah? It’s because they corrected the network of connection between them. This general system of souls already contains the souls that act in it, and we can avail ourselves of their help.

After the breaking, the broken souls exist in the general system of souls. And although in the diagram we depict them as if scattered in a sphere, the system has a strict hierarchy which existed in the world of Nekudim before the breaking. The souls break and fall down following the same hierarchy: each one according to its level of Aviut (the thickness of desire), meaning that the souls with a bigger Aviut fall lower.

This system contains special souls, thousands of Kabbalists who are bonded together by a special connection. This resembles a skeleton of the spiritual system.

Reading their manuscripts, we evoke the illumination from the network of connection that they have built between themselves. This illumination corrects us, and we can avoid the path of suffering and deprivation which people followed in the past, without awakening the Light, but rather subjecting themselves to suffering so that it would help them destroy their ego.

We can’t follow this path. We are weak and unable to fight our ego directly. We can do it by awakening the already existing network of connection. We as though rest in the hands of the Kabbalists of the past, as a newborn baby in the hands of a caring mother, and they look after us.

We connect with their manuscripts, especially The Book of Zohar, the texts of the ARI and Baal HaSulam, and receive from there the Light, the care of these great souls.
[43274]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Book of Zohar

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Kabbalah Study, Q&A, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Rome Convention, Lesson 1
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rome Convention, Lesson 2
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Conventions - No Comments →

A constant dialogue or requests to the Creator are good because it’s impossible to address Him artificially as in the words of prayers read from books. A person begins to understand that if he doesn’t feel these words, it’s not considered an address. The Creator will not hear it in this way; it’s necessary to turn to Him deciphering the words in relation to oneself, closer to one’s heart.

Then, instead of reading a prayer from a prayer book full of words that mean nothing to him: “for oneself,” “for bestowal,” “above reason,” “the Torah and precepts,” “good deeds,” “the Holy and Blessed One” (the same terms and quotes that Kabbalists use), a person starts to interpret them into a more sensory language. He does this even without words, in one’s inner sensations, and thereby really approaches the prayer, the request.

What help should one ask from the Creator? It’s to help us turn to Him with a request! This request will become a spiritual vessel, the “place” of the revelation of the Creator.

At each stage, one should check himself as to whether he addresses the Creator in his own words rather than repeating standard expressions from a book. Otherwise, it means that one doesn’t understand to whom he turns, how, for what, and that one is still detached from the address itself.

The ability to make a request is a great help that allows the person to change and correct himself. A request to the Creator should be viewed as a device which can change a person. The search for an answer to one’s request is not important; what counts is the requests themselves because they build a person.

Then, the person starts to understand that he is in front of the unchanging, constant upper Light. And his request is what is changing him all the time, creating his increasingly closer similarity to the simple, abstract upper Light. The person will be revealing his own image inside his requests. The image will correspond more and more to the upper Light, the level of the Creator. That is, a person attains the forms of the Creator inside of his request to Him and thereby advances.

Hence, it’s written: “God grant that he prayed all day long!” All the work is based upon the request and prayer.
[43285]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - 1 Comment →

While reading The Zohar, we should keep trying to see forms of the connection between us instead of the words. Essentially, it is the only thing that the words describe since there isn’t anything besides Malchut which ties all souls within it. This is the connection we are supposed to see behind the words of The Zohar.

In that case, all images that appear in our imagination, all the sensations we experience below Malchut, below this connection, are regarded as either the dividing worlds (BYA de Pruda), the concealments, or our own world that exists solely in our imagination. And everything above Malchut de Atzilut, meaning the forms of our mutual connection, exist from Malchut of Atzilut through Malchut of Infinity, and all are revealed in Malchut.

Hence, this is the only picture we should be seeing behind the words, trying to recognize what form, type, and expression of our mutual connection The Zohar is describing at a certain moment. After all, Kabbalists, the authors of The Book of Zohar, see nothing but that as well.
[43279]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Zohar

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Based on my teaching experience, I see that Kabbalah reveals the uniqueness of an individual, but it does this in its own way. What’s the secret here?

Answer: My craving for exclusiveness comes from the Creator but in a spoiled form. I realize it through examples: I learn from the world how to be exclusive. For example, I want to be a famous soccer player, follow latest fashion trends, am drawn to wealth, strength, deception, or dream of a career as a mafioso or a university president.

In any case, I learn from the environment which imposes certain values on me. They pull me to what suits me more according to my nature. Each is impressed by something else; most importantly, it is to demonstrate one’s exceptionalness.

Thus, during my development, society dictates bodies of laws to me, and I have to express my uniqueness according to them. I cannot decide anything by myself. For instance, if I found myself in an environment of drug traffickers, I would follow them, dreaming about an exciting career of a drug baron because I wouldn’t see any other examples.

It turns out that in this world, I throw my uniqueness at the mercy of society. It seems to me that I rise above everybody, but in reality, I serve them. Ultimately, I do what they want.

On the other hand, developing spiritually, I receive from the environment the realization of the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the will to bestow. This is an abstract idea, and I don’t know what it is. Through studying, I receive the Light that Reforms. Again, I have no idea what it is and sense only the result of its influence.

What evolves in me? It’s the point in the heart with its “spiritual genes.” Thus, I develop myself and realize my exclusiveness only in spirituality. Here, everything is decided by the Light that Reforms. I correct only my external form, and my “I” develops within.

If we could recognize our “spiritual genes,” each would see himself or herself in the final state, the way he or she should be. However, a question arises: What is my uniqueness? If it’s already incorporated in me, where am I myself?

I express myself in the realization of my own exclusiveness. I attract the Light to grow a human from my “spiritual seed” and thus acquire an addition to my studies, the coefficient of development: adhesion with the Creator, His form, the ability to be in His place.

Thus, each of us actually realizes his exceptionality in order to become like the Creator, to come to adhesion. I am not growing just in size; along the path, I obtain everything He has, clothe into His garment.
[43309]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

Frankly, it doesn’t really matter what assistance a person is asking the Creator for. The key is to keep asking every instant. May one never forget that there is none else besides Him, the good who does good. May one tie every little thing that happens to him with the Creator.

In fact, a person usually thinks that it’s not the right time to be asking for help, that he is supposed to do something first, succeed in something on his own, carry out some act, and only after that turn to the Creator. But that is all wrong! No actions are necessary. The entire method is intended solely for revealing the Creator.

Hence, the more frequently you turn to Him, the more dependent you feel on Him, the more you bother Him, transferring to Him all the responsibility for everything that is happening to you, the less you need to worry.

According to His program, He will push you away, hide, and place all kinds of obstacles and concealments before you. Regardless, make it a habit to constantly seek and appeal to Him. It is the shortest and most reliable way.

It doesn’t require intelligence, only perseverance. If a person takes such a position and doesn’t lose track of it (with the help of the group’s reminding), then by constantly turning to the Creator, the upper force, nature, he definitely discovers how to appeal, why, and for what. One learns the Creator’s character, which prayers He answers and which He does not. Thanks to his firm desire to enter this communication, the dialogue with the Creator, a person can start clarifying who He is.

This is described as “Do anything that is in your power, but just don’t leave.” That is, we must ask for everything, even without thinking, just a like a child who grabs whatever he may and keeps nagging at his mother: “Give me, give me, give me!” These appeals will give way to the clarification of what really is worth asking for, where the “commandments” and the “transgressions” are in all this, where one is given free will, and what the responses are to his actions. That’s how a person learns.

It’s good that this won’t let you get confused, and you won’t think that everything depends on you or the environment. You will connect all these three “dots” together: yourself, the group, and the Creator, and direct it all in the right direction, to the upper force, to being dependent on Him.

Later on, you will start assessing how you are asking. Are you appealing for your own sake, for the benefit of the others, or for the Creator’s sake? This is how you learn about it on the way.
[43288]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - 1 Comment →

Question: What does it mean that each of Rabbi Shimon’s nine students represented a separate Sefira? Can Kabbalists like that exist in our time as well?

Answer: The ten Kabbalists who made it possible to write The Book of Zohar are the ten main Sefirot. Each of them, by attaining the root of his soul, understood that he belongs to one of their main ten Sefirot, and then their inner unification produced such an enormous force that they could fully reveal the upper Light and “splash it out” on us. That is why this book is called “The Zohar,” according to the name of the Light that shines in the upper part of the world of Atzilut (GAR de Atzilut).

I don’t think that today we need Kabbalists of such high stature. They have already revealed everything, have illuminated the entire system of souls, and then all the other Kabbalists joined the same system. This produced an entire corrected net of souls inside of the common system of souls, which are not corrected yet.

Now, if we want to correct ourselves, then it’s enough for us to read The Book of Zohar and as much as we can, with all our might, to try to join its authors, their souls, as well as the Kabbalists who follow them. They became the corrected part in the common system of souls, and if we want to join them, then we will be able to use all of the Lights and forces that operate in their mutual unification. That is how we will be able to use the Light of The Book of Zohar.

Essentially, we have already received everything! There already exists a corrected system of souls inside of the system that still hasn’t corrected itself. We have the book at our disposal and all of the science of Kabbalah in general, which we study by the method of Baal HaSulam. This is enough for us!

It’s clear that there will still be new revelations, we will explain everything more and will better understand what is written in this book. But from above we have already received everything in order to complete our correction.

Kabbalah is studied in a group. And every person in the world who feels that he has to correct his soul and aspires to reveal why he exists, where the root of his life is and its reason, will eventually find his way into the same net—into one of our groups. There he will begin to reveal what we are doing and how to reveal the root of the soul, how to reveal the spiritual system in which we exist, although we are there in an unconscious state for now. So how can we come to realize this system?

When we come to the group and start studying, then at first we see people in front of us. But then, after we have studied for some time, we begin to understand that these are not people, but an internal connecting net that unites us.

For now this system is dysfunctional, but we are trying to reveal a certain connection in it, looking for a force that could correct us, make us one person with one heart, bring us to love for the neighbor, mutual guarantee, and mutual unification.

This mutual aspiration toward one another in order to reveal the connection between us in the unity of hearts brings us to the sensation of that net. We feel that it exists. We suddenly begin to feel that it is present. And then, inside of this connecting system, we see ourselves and all of the great Kabbalists that enter this net as its corrected elements and support it, conducting Light inside of this system, nourishing it by the Light of unification, love, and mutual participation among all its elements.

It doesn’t matter how we sit together: physically or virtually. The most important thing is that we feel together and want to become part of the same system, to join the Kabbalists. And if we read The Book of Zohar, then we pull nourishment, force, understanding, and spiritual sensation from these souls, from that corrected net, just like children pull it out of adults. This enables us to become part of that system ourselves and attain mutuality, connection, and concessions, canceling ourselves and uniting with everyone.
From the program about Lag B’Omer on 5/17/2011

Filed under: Collective Soul, Group Work, Holidays, Kabbalah Study, Kabbalistic Sources, Q&A, Spiritual Teacher, Spirituality, Unity, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Question: What is the difference between our unity with the group, with all of humankind, and with nature?

Answer: The fact is that everyone who begins to engage in spiritual work becomes more individualistic. The group also becomes rough, clearly defined in itself; everything is mixed and bubbling inside. The groups have difficulties merging with each other.

When this mixture starts to connect, especially during the conventions, it gives a tremendous spiritual force because suddenly, within a few days, everybody coalesces together in the same material, in a single burst, in the same songs, in the same daily schedule. This affects everybody and releases a huge amount of spiritual energy. This is why the conventions make such a strong impression.

In other words, the more we are opposed to each other, egoistic—each of us individually and the groups as a whole —the greater spiritual potential our unity passes on to the world. This immense potential truly shakes everybody up.

We cannot imagine that our unity injects such a strong reviving infusion into the world, and the world charges forward without even knowing where and how. This infusion gives the world powerful energy for the next state. Accordingly, we advance as well because we cannot move forward faster than the world.

In the past, Kabbalists could reach the world of Infinity and our world kept on rotating as it was. But we are in a period of global correction and should realize this correction. So, our movement will be only in accordance with the movement of the world! And for that reason, we must take this fact into account during our conventions and to think as much as possible about everybody, not just about our friends everywhere, but about the entire world.

The world is beginning to sense that problems exist, and these problems cannot be solved. Anxiety is seizing the world, and humanity feels that it simply distracts itself to avoid becoming frightened and going insane. We know how it’s done: It’s better to give painkillers to the terminally ill in order for them to feel no pain and leave quietly. The world is preparing itself for this state and would even wish it. If people knew that they could take such a pill and not wake up tomorrow, evidently, it would be salvation for them… But it’s not that easy.

We have to understand that our unity is necessary for the world. A huge responsibility is placed upon us! Thus, we are uniting not only to spend a good time together. We have very serious goals. We don’t even realize how global and universal they are, and how they find response in all the worlds.
[43226]
From the Virtual Lesson, Fundamentals of Kabbalah Series 5/15/2011

Related Material:
Responsible For The World
Unity For All
The Convention Will Revive Our Collective Soul

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →