Spiritual advancement is according to the formula of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” “Israel” is he who exerts himself in order to build a deficiency inside himself and to fulfill the Creator’s desire and allow Him to be revealed. In order to do that, the created beings’ vessel has to be whole. Whoever yearns to discover the whole vessel is called “Israel.” After all, the Creator, the upper Light, is in absolute rest and needs only the vessels.

The Torah is actually what we need to exert ourselves for to discover the love for the created beings and from the love of the created to reach the love of the Creator. We exert ourselves by yearning to love the created beings, to rise above ourselves, and to be incorporated in the environment by organizing it according to all the necessary conditions so that it will impress us and will evoke us correctly. It is impossible to reach the right awakening without an environment; it is only possible by external influence.

When we exert ourselves enough, we discover that we cannot do anything. Time and time again we discover that we cannot reach the love of the created beings and eventually we understand that we need the Creator’s help. Then a prayer bursts out by itself and it brings us to the love of the Creator.

It turns out that the three conditions: Israel, then the Torah, and then the Creator bring us to the goal; as it is said: “I have labored and I have found, believe.” It is impossible to immediately jump ahead without first exerting one’s self, that is, without the Torah, without a prayer, without a request, it is impossible to attain the Creator. It would be an egoistic request for which you will not get an answer. You will not have the letters of the prayer since they are created only by a person’s exertion. Only when their measure is filled will you know how to turn to the Creator with a request.

Before, you don’t even have a deficiency for what the Creator wants to give you, so you don’t turn to the Creator with the same request, and this is clearly why you don’t get anything!

If you want to save time and energy and to reach the goal quickly, you should act in the direction of “Israel the Torah and the Creator are one” so that eventually they will unite into one whole. It turns out that the right direction is the exertion on connection in the group in order to discover the Creator and to bring Him contentment. As it is written: “From the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.” All the sages’ sayings refer only to these three stages: Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.
[104673]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/13

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Question: What forces a person to come out of the state of Bina, of Hafetz Hesed?

Answer: We never leave the state of Bina, or Hafetz Hesed, but only add to it. In spirituality we never lose a state, but always rise higher up the ladder. If I remain in the state of Hafetz Hesed, “to bestow in order to bestow,” I will fall into the intention of “in order to receive” for myself. “To bestow in order to bestow” is the minimal level I have to be on.

I build higher states of “Hafetz Hesed” above it with increasingly greater thickness (Aviut) of desire up to the infinite state of to bestow in order to bestow. I begin to dress additional bestowal on this state of Hafetz Hesed in which I don’t need anything and I am happy to be living in the forest not to worrying about anything without even a shirt.

In the state of Hafetz Hesed I don’t bestow in any way. This is called “to bestow in order to bestow” but I have nothing to bestow. It is as if I bestow that way, by giving up my ego, which makes me one who bestows. It is like a mother who asks a child “do me a favor, stop making so much noise.” He doesn’t produce anything beneficial, he doesn’t give anything to others; he only calms down. This means that he is doing his mother a favor.

This is the state of Hafetz Hesed, which means that I stop playing with my egoism; I don’t want it, I want to remain totally naked and to totally devote myself to my mother by listening to everything she says. I don’t do anything good yet, as she may expect of me, but I have already stopped doing bad things, as she asked. This is called “to bestow in order to bestow.”

On the whole, I don’t give her anything except for “virtual” pleasure. I have stopped making noise, breaking things, shouting and going wild, and that’s it. This means that I have reached the state of Hafetz Hesed, which is only possible on top of the minimal thickness of the desire until Ein Sof (Infinity).

But above this I already begin to receive in order to bestow, to do something that mother desires: to help her with the housework. This is already above to bestow in order to bestow; this is real bestowal.
[104666]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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“One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House and Put Shoes on His Feet” (Shabbat, 129).

Question: What does it mean to “sell the beams of his house” in the spiritual sense?

Answer: “The beams of his house” are all the thoughts, the desires, and my whole attitude to life, that obligate me to worry about myself instead of uniting with the friends. In order to build one general image, one system, I have to sell this “house” that is so dear to me.

But this is not enough either. I have to buy shoes to put on my feet, which means that I need a defensive force that would hold me in its field. It isn’t enough to just annul my opinion and lower my head before the group, which called to “sell the beams of his house.” I also need to receive powers that allow me to remain adhered to the friends above all the thoughts that are evoked in me.

This means that it isn’t enough to annul myself, but that I need an additional force that binds me to the group. This is called a “covenant” or “shoes on his feet (raglan),” so as not to “spy” (meragel, which has the same root as feet in Hebrew) for the benefit of my ego.
[104554]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13, Writings of Rabash 

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Question: Would you say that the source of Anti-semitism is hatred of unity?

Answer: No, if the Jews showed and “radiated” unity, if they explained it, if they loudly talked about their mission, about what they are called to give to the world, then the attitude toward them would be completely different.

Once, during the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Jewish people were “good students” of spiritual advancement. However, for further steps, they had to reveal Egypt, Pharaoh, meaning the state of descent, which could be corrected later in order to rise to the degree of the First Temple.

However, they didn’t manage to preserve that level: Inner disagreements began and that led to the Babylonian exile. It was followed by a new level of unity and revelation, and the ascent to the Second Temple. Then unfounded hatred threw the people into the last exile.

All these falls on the path were necessary, and the results of the last of them merged in the “latent” period with a certain measure of suffering, which did not stop until the era of the Ari. Since that time, recovery started in the world, mainly in Europe: the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, partial emancipation, and so on.

However, all that time, the Jewish people were slow in correction. Chaim Vital, a disciple of the Ari, wrote about this. The Jews could not be awakened. They continued to be immersed in their habitual existence.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the situation became tense. Big parts of the nations of the world found themselves in a serious breaking and did not know in which way to develop further. In fact, if the Jews had revealed the method of correction practically at that time, before WWII, they would have prevented it. It was possible to come, theoretically, to the necessary recognition of evil, which is much more efficient than the death of tens of millions of people. Spiritual correction at a higher degree would have worked completely differently. There, even a small understanding is worth a huge material loss.

Then, came the 21st century. Do the Jewish people realize correction, completing the program of creation up to the necessary level? Indeed, in its inaction, it can reach a complete failure and will be forced to go into exile again. Moreover, there is a question as to who will give it refuge this time. During the Holocaust, no one was willing to accept Jewish refugees, and all this is according to the upper program from which there is no escape.

Back in the Middle Ages, the Jews were invited because they could foster development. However, since the time of the Ari, they are not wanted because the world does not need what they offer. The world needs the method of correction, instead of a banking system and industry as in the past. Are the Jewish people ready to give the nations of the world what they really need today?
[104588]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/13, “Holocaust Remembrance Day”

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Before the spiritual ascent humanity goes through a period of preparation without understanding the laws of evolution. There are several theories regarding that, but we see that the process is driven only by the evolution of our egoistic desire that operates only for our benefit. It is particular to each person and has determined our behavior throughout the eras of humanity’s evolution.

In mankind, there are several outstanding civilizations each of which has developed in their own way, at their own pace, and in their own direction. During the times of ancient Babylon and the tower of Babel, a certain part of humanity broke off from the rest and started to advance in a special way, since in addition to the desire to receive, a desire to attain the goal of reality was also evoked in them.

This desire needs a method in order to be fulfilled and this created a problem. It is because a person actually wants to know why and for what he is living, what the goal of his life is. But suddenly he discovers that the answer to this question is fulfilled according to the principle of “love thy friend as thyself.”

It is commonly believed that the meaning of life is to be revealed after the death of the body or in some mystical reality that is beyond the corporeal nature. But suddenly I am told about the love of others and that if I begin to love the other like I love myself and develop such relationships, I will discover the upper world, all of reality, the whole depth of creation and also the eternal, whole concealed force called the Creator.

I don’t understand this. Is it enough to love just anybody I see? Do I have to subdue and annul myself so that I will not see the difference between us? This is called “to bestow in order to bestow.” Then, I also acquire the other’s deficiency and care for him like for my dear baby, like for my own soul, which he is actually part of. I am told that thanks to this love I will find and fulfill the goal of my life. The main thing is to do good unto others.

But this is totally contrary to my view! What can be more repulsive than that?!

I exaggerate and emphasize this point on purpose, but it is really so. A person needs time in order to understand that this is his self-realization. It is in the relationships with others on the current level when we hate one another, disrespect and spit on one another, kill each other without thinking twice, and in addition also enjoy harming the environment; it is here that the infinite depth of the spiritual world is revealed to us, the true reality. At first it is simply incomprehensible.

Therefore, it is a long way. A small group started to fulfill the method back in ancient Babylon and had to go through many ups and downs, while everyone else continued to advance along the egoistic path.

Eventually, a small part of humanity reached the final ego through the shattering, through the destruction of the Temple, while most of humanity advanced linearly within the ego. On the way, the two parts are integrated and reached the current phase, which requires the final fulfillment of the correction.

So, the preparation begins to correct the distance. A small group called the “nation of Israel” goes through special states, falls from the spiritual levels, and then goes through gradual corrections that are deep and slow. It corrects its shattered vessels, desires, and this requires preparation; it requires the transition from the intention of “in order to receive” (Lo Lishma) to the intention of “in order to bestow” (Lishma) and from to bestow in order to bestow to, to receive in order to bestow. All the stages along the way are gradual and organized, and the nation of Israel corrects itself by the Light that Reforms, which is called the “Torah.”

On the other hand, the parts of the general vessel called “the nations of the world,” were not shattered, and so they do not need the gradual correction. In fact, they have nothing to correct. The nation of Israel has to raise all the shattered vessels back to spirituality from which they fell in order to put them back together into the ten Sefirot, each one separately and all of them together, to reconstruct the reality of the common soul. For all the others it is much simpler as they receive an illumination that provides them with a Masach (screen), which is their correction. They participate in the process and connect to Israel who correct themselves gradually through many hardships.

Eventually, the vessels of the nations of the world reach corrections on such a level that they take the children of Israel on their “shoulders” and bring them to the “Temple,” the nation of Israel cannot rise to these levels by itself, but the nations of the world can because they don’t have shattered vessels.

So, the last phase of correction is fulfilled, not simply with the nations of the world, but thanks to their help, and support “on their shoulders.”
[104610]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How can a student who lives far away in another country receive the same special force felt in the group that is physically beside you?

Answer: I want to clear up these doubts once and for all. If a student is 10,000 miles away from here, somewhere in Chile, for example, and receives an impression of “one ounce” during the lesson, it is equal in value to being right here in the study hall and receiving an impression of “100 ounces.”

It is the same. You are simply not taking into account the influence you feel here. There, it is one hundred times weaker than here. And when you come here, it seems that you exert yourself by one gram, but here everyone exerts themselves by one hundred ounces. You see that here the tension is a hundred times greater, and so you worry as to what you should do.

But you are not taking into account that the force of the magnetic field operates on you even from a distance, but only weaker. At the same time, you exert yourself relatively more compared to those who are here in the center. So although it may seem that you are missing something, you are not missing anything.

The Creator receives a person’s exertion taking into account the state he is in. The question is only whether you are building your environment correctly wherever you are. Do you make the best of your group by annulling yourself before them, before the Creator, and by that reach the revelation of the force of bestowal in order to bring Him contentment? If you do that wherever you are, then nothing more is required of you.

If you are thinking about moving to a place where a greater impression is felt, I am not sure that this is the right thing to do. It is because exerting yourself in another place according to different conditions equals a person’s exertion here under the conditions that I provide for my group. So you may very well gain more being far away than being here.
[104613]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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In the News (from Stratfor): “The global financial crisis of 2008 has slowly yielded to a global unemployment crisis. This unemployment crisis will, fairly quickly, give way to a political crisis. The crisis involves all three of the major pillars of the global system – Europe, China and the United States. The level of intensity differs, the political response differs and the relationship to the financial crisis differs. But there is a common element, which is that unemployment is increasingly replacing finance as the central problem of the financial system. …

“Consider the geography of unemployment. Only four countries in Europe are at or below 6 percent unemployment: the geographically contiguous countries of Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The immediate periphery has much higher unemployment: Denmark at 7.4 percent, the United Kingdom at 7.7 percent, France at 10.6 percent and Poland at 10.6 percent. In the far periphery, Italy is at 11.7 percent, Lithuania is at 13.3 percent, Ireland is at 14.7 percent, Portugal is at 17.6 percent, Spain is at 26.2 percent and Greece is at 27 percent. …

“A rule I use is that for each person unemployed, three others are affected, whether spouses, children or whomever. That means that when you hit 25 percent unemployment virtually everyone is affected. At 11 percent unemployment about 44 percent are affected.

“It is important to understand the consequences of this kind of unemployment. There is the long-term unemployment of the underclass. This wave of unemployment has hit middle and upper-middle class workers. … Poverty is hard enough to manage, but when it is also linked to loss of status, the pain is compounded and a politically potent power arises. …

“Fascism had its roots in Europe in massive economic failures in which the financial elites failed to recognize the political consequences of unemployment. They laughed at parties led by men who had been vagabonds selling postcards on the street and promising economic miracles if only those responsible for the misery of the country were purged. Men and women, plunged from the comfortable life of the petite bourgeoisie, did not laugh, but responded eagerly to that hope. The result was governments who enclosed their economies from the world and managed their performance through directive and manipulation.

“This is what happened after World War I. It did not happen after World War II because Europe was occupied. But when we look at the unemployment rates today, the differentials between regions, the fact that there is no promise of improvement and that the middle class is being hurled into the ranks of the dispossessed, we can see the patterns forming.”

My Comment: As the technical and technological progress continues, unemployment will rise. In addition, human desires grow not only in size, but also in quality: a person does not want to work and buy, to be a slave of those who grow wealthy because of this. Desires change. The era of the consumer society is ending for several reasons.

A new era is ahead—a transition of the mass of unemployed to work on themselves, to build a new integral society. This phase is preceded by the phase of integral education, training, upbringing, and changing of the human being, and then his conscious transformation of the world. Working from offices and in factories will be transformed to going to the schools of integral education, the courses for retraining people who will then create new public relations—rational consumption in a unified integral community.
[104343]

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From Rabash’s Letter 5: … you should do more in love of friends. It is impossible to achieve lasting love, unless through Dvekut [adhesion], meaning that you will unite the two of you with a tight bond. And this can be only if you try to “undress” the clothing in which the inner soul is placed—the clothing called “self-love”…

And when you feel that you are at war, each of you will know and feel that he needs the help of his friend, and without him, his own strength will weaken, too. Then, when you understand that you must save your life, each of you will forget that he has a body he must keep, and you will both be tied by the thought of how to use the enemy.

Love of friends is attained by way of a war for its sake. It is impossible to attain adherence that indicates constant love without striving to leave the clothing of the evil inclination in which the soul is clothed. To leave this clothing of self-love is possible only if you exchange it for love of the other, for the screen and the Returning Light.

This, specifically, is what we must reach. When we begin to search for how to do this, we feel that everything essentially depends on our relationship to the other, things that are so contemptible in our world. All relationships in the world are established according to laws, protecting the rights of the individual, of democracy. However, when we see some of the truth through the influence of the Surrounding Light, we then understand that it is specifically through connection with the other that we realize the entire program of creation.

The other one, whether a friend or the Creator, is the same; there is no difference. If I want to rise above myself and reach the Creator, it is precisely then that I see that I require help from a friend. As long as all the friends have not come to my aid, according to how much I give myself over to them, I cannot do anything.

What we require is mutual cooperation where we depend upon each other. As much as I give myself over to others, to this extent they can help me, and when they come to help me, I stop thinking about myself. In spite of myself, I rise above myself.

However, the friends can come to help me only if I subdue myself with respect to them. With this, I oblige them to be concerned for me. This is saying that everything depends on the work of the individual regarding his environment. The more I subdue myself and am ready to adhere to the environment, to the teacher, to the books, to learning, to dissemination—which is to say, to all means for attaining the goal, trusting like an infant, surrendering myself to the lowest level—the closer I come to my spiritual realization.

I must begin my spiritual ascent from zero. The more I approach zero with my thoughts, desires, and deeds, the more I adhere to the group and oblige it to be concerned about me. I begin to receive the right influence from inside the group. Whatever level on which it is found at the moment is not even important. This influence makes it possible for me to nullify my self-love, departing from the egoistic shell (Klipa), from the evil inclination, and to start the spiritual work.
[104446]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13

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Rabash, Letter 59: The Zohar says, “Everyone is what his heart presumes, to that extent the Creator’s Light illuminates on him and this is called the phase of faith.”

We speak about the human level here, which values the Creator’s greatness in one’s heart. To that extent I acquire the level of equivalence to the Creator, and discover the upper Light in me.

First we are all in an egoistic desire, and for a long time we assume that we can attain something. This period is called “the seven years of satiety.” Then we begin to understand that the ego will not give us anything, and feeling disappointed in it we turn to the desire to bestow.

This is already a great revolution, “and a new king rose in Egypt.” In other words, the egoistic desire in which I saw everything that is good now showers blows upon me. What are these blows? If we look at the modern world, we see that it is full of plenty for all. In the exact same way the children of Israel didn’t lack anything, they had more than enough “meat.” So what was the problem? What was lacking? What is this new domination?

The point is that I begin to understand and to feel that my ego is not me. It becomes a new cruel king for me. I don’t identify with it anymore and look for something above it, but it holds on to me and doesn’t let me go…

Today, even the poor live much better than most people lived two centuries ago. A simple worker enjoys what used to be luxuries for a few in the past. But the problem is that I feel bad and cannot do anything about this feeling.

The moment we feel this new dominion we begin to look for a way out, since this kind of life is meaningless. But it turns out that we cannot escape. I hate my life, I feel helpless, in exile, imprisoned. I feel that I am “cornered” by my family, my work, my debts, and by consumerism. From birth to death I am a slave that imagines that he is free and at the same time discovers the yoke on his neck.

I want to escape this slavery but encounter an even more difficult question: “What am I living for?” The simple pleasures of this world and its “animal” existence do not satisfy me anymore, and so I look upward to see if there is something there.

Then, I get a chance to rise above this life. I begin to understand and feel that we are actually living in a different reality, and that the current perception is simply unreal. This is where the work begins, the search thanks to which we discover that the only way to open our eyes and our emotions widely, in order to open the door to the real life, is through unity.

There is the personal individual perspective and there is the general perspective that goes through the general connection. By connecting we discover a totally different picture, but it’s very difficult to discern this picture. After all, I have to annul myself, and to refocus my perception of the world and my attitude to life in order to see everything through the group, though a collection of people whose opinions and desires become a “magnifying glass,” a “lens,” through which I see reality.

It’s very difficult to lower one’s head before the friends and to acknowledge the fact that they are great and to allow them to form the picture of the world for me in my mind and heart. If we do these exercises often enough, according to the method that we have, we see the results, and it’s as if we “regain our sight,” which means that we begin to see the current system in which we live, a system that was previously out of my sight.

So, the initial correction during the phase of preparation begins when I “lower my head” before others. The first phase of the annulment is called the “exodus from Egypt.” If before the ego subdued me and prevented me from connecting, now I leave its domination and I can already connect. Thus I escape the ego, detach myself from it and leave it.

But in the meantime it’s only an escape. Later I make greater efforts to annul myself and in the time of “smallness,” during the “counting of the Omer:” I am small and only want to connect to the friends as much as I can with all my might.

This is what we are going through now. If we try we will reach the giving of the Torah, which means the Light that Reforms, even if we don’t see anything and if we don’t understand, but we make efforts, wanting to connect above Pharaoh, above everything that is in us, we attain connection in which the Creator is revealed. This is called the giving of the Torah. Then we continue our connection in practice.
[104388]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/5/13, Writings of Rabash 

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