It is written, Be careful with the sons of the poor… from them, Torah will emerge. A person who feels poor, who does not have real Kelim (vessels) to receive the light of the Creator’s revelation, is called a poor man. For example, “poor in knowledge.”

What does “be careful” mean? The fact is, a person neglects such states, does not want them, and flees from the feeling of poverty when he has nothing. After all, the desire to receive, egoism, is unwilling to suffer, such is its nature.

A person always calms himself down and glosses over the feeling that he lacks something, that something is wrong with him. He does not feel ready to reveal his true desires.

Egoism is ready and likes to give him the opportunity to feel sorry for himself and to “gnaw” at himself, but this is not called a feeling of poverty.

Here, the feeling of poverty is a lack of strength to bestow, and here the desire to receive leaves us no opportunity, it always leads us away from it. Therefore, it is written: “Be careful with the sons of the poor,” that is, we must pay attention precisely to the consequences of feeling poor, to what I demand as a result of this. After all, it is precisely from this demand that the Torah comes through, and it is from here that the light that returns to the source comes. The Kli for receiving correction is called “the poor.”
[352117]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18-19/26, Rabash “What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”

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Question: How can a person look at others and see them as flawed, see their desire to receive in an uncorrected form, but not see it in oneself?

Answer: How is it that a person looks at others and sees they are all in the desire to receive, but he is not?

Rabash gives a very simple example: I have a child, and the neighbor has a child. My child is cute, adorable, smart, and well-behaved. I look at him and see a small man. But when I look at the neighbor’s child, he looks dirty, ignorant, neglected, rude, and loud. Why? It is all in the attitude.

Is my child unlike the neighbor’s? They are both children, there is no difference, but in my child, I see the good half, and in the neighbor’s the bad half. That is, both you and your friends are the same. It is only that I can justify myself, I know why I am like this. But why is the friend so? That is the difference.

Later, you will discover something different, you will see negative things in yourself, and positive things in your friend, and then you will start to envy him. This will be a good envy. At first, it is bad, and then maybe good, when you want to be closer to him to learn from him and grow stronger with his help. You will bestow on him, and he will reciprocate.
[352172]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/26, Rabash “What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”

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Question: When we speak about an integral state, do we mean society, or according to Kabbalah is it a single spiritual organism?

Answer: It is one and the same. We are speaking about a society that begins to sense itself as one common whole. Within it, a collective mind, a collective feeling, collective needs, and a collective outlook on everything emerge. That is, the entire society becomes one unified whole and begins to feel all levels of nature as fully interconnected. And when a person includes this vast nature within himself, sees it and feels it inside himself, he begins to internalize its program.

As part of this program, he starts to perceive it in its entirety. It is as if he sees himself as having originated billions of years ago and as continuing his development billions of years into the future because he begins to be included in this immense organism of integral nature. He starts to feel all the forces he exists within, and understands how this works, how it influences him, and how he can influence himself, his destiny, and his future, as the only active element in nature, not instinctively, but consciously.

However, he will attain this only when he is integrally included in all levels of nature. Then he rises to the highest level of nature, to the level of the Creator, so to speak. There is no Creator as such; nature itself is the Creator. But a person reaches such a level.

Question: How can we define the very concept of society, since society and an organism are perceived as different things? Society is sometimes compared to an organism, but this is a metaphor, an image.

Answer: These concepts are perceived as different in a society where all the elements are not interconnected. If it is an organism broken into parts, into fragments, like a sick person in a dreadful state, when all the systems are out of balance, then you are right. That is the state of today’s society that we are trying somehow to save from destruction, from the complete disintegration of all its systems. But when all systems are in mutual support and balance, each one and all together, like the human body, then this is simply an integral society.

Comment: So we must draw a clear line between the notions of society that prevail in sociology. There everything is very simple: there is a simple society, a primitive community, a tribe, and there is a complex society, which must be highly differentiated.

My Response: Primitive communities, by the way, were practically integral communities. For them this was based on an instinctive level, as in the animal world.

But we differ from the animal world in that egoism has grown in us. And now we begin to unite on a different level.

Animals are instinctively united in an integral community. Nature holds them together through its general law. Then, above our animal body, egoism grows, and we must begin to integrate above it, together with it. That is, egoism itself gives us a new level of integration.
[96031]
From KabTV’s “Integral World,” 11/26/12

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Why did the Kabbalists choose the “language of branches” for their explanations?

Let us assume that I have attained the connection between the root and branch at the very first degree, and someone else understands it at a higher degree, and a third person at an even higher one. It does not matte; the branch remains the same branch.

A child knows that if you put a plug into an electrical outlet, the toy will work. I know that there is electricity in the outlet that comes into the house through wires. And a person who is even more technically educated knows that there is a power station somewhere, and so on. But we are all speaking about the very same process regardless of how much each of us understands it and how far each one “looks into the root.”

The roots continue in the same direction toward their upper source, but the branch, in our world, remains a branch. The “language of branches” is taken from reality itself; it is impossible to invent another language. And this one does not need to be invented. It turns out that this language is prepared for us by nature for communication within ourselves, between us, and with the Creator.

Moses, in his book The Torah, was the first to describe the entire path of spiritual ascent, at all degrees, in this language. The Book of Zohar gives commentary and supplements the language of Moses with its own language.

Rabbi Shimon passed through the same degrees as Moses, which every person must pass, and in his description, he added a greater connection between branch and root. Therefore, The Book of Zohar is so effective in drawing the light (the surrounding light, Ohr Makif) from the root to its branch (to us).

Baal HaSulam described the connection between the root and the branch even further by adding Kabbalistic definitions and the connection in the three lines.

All of them speak about the same visible picture and its roots, but each Kabbalist adds the description of the connection in his own way, thereby increasing the power of ascent (the descending surrounding light, Ohr Makif), and also paving a path for us to pass through the degrees of the upper world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/10, Rashbi, Zohar for All, Vol. 6, “Shmini”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 21, “Concerning Above Reason,” (1986) (1.31.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Recording of Rabash, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 5, Item 22

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3rd part of the Lesson — Preparation for the Congress “Connecting in the Ten, Adhering to the Creator,” Lesson 5: “A Prayer From Within the Ten”

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Now you can understand their words about the verse, “I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.” The Sanhedrin (98) interpreted, “Not rewarded—in its time; rewarded—I will hasten it.”

Thus, there are two ways to attain the above-mentioned goal: through their own attention, which is called a “path of repentance.” If they are rewarded with it, “I will hasten it” will be applied to them. This means that there is no set time for it, but when they are rewarded, the correction ends, of course.

If they are not awarded the attention, there is another way, called “path of suffering,” as our sages said, Sanhedrin 97, “I place upon them a king such as Haman, and they will repent against their will,” meaning in its time, for in that there is a set time, and they will want it (Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” p.7).

Before us there are two paths for attaining the very same goal, and we stand at their crossroads. Every moment we must feel ourselves at this crossroads that determines our free choice. And the choice here is very simple: to go by the path of light or by the path of suffering.

There is no third path! We are obliged to advance by one of these two paths, and at every moment we must decide how to take the next step. The foot is already suspended in the air; choose where to place it: on the path of light or on the path of suffering?!

A moment will pass, and again you will have to make the same choice. From above, your foot is lifted, compelling you to take a step, and you must decide where to lower it, onto which of the roads. And according to this, you will receive the forces and means for advancement, because in any case you are obliged to move forward.

But if you advance by the path of Beito (natural development, in its time), then the forces of nature push you forward against your egoism, since you wish to walk in accordance with your ego. And therefore, forces act upon you that oppose your egoism and try to keep you in bestowal.

Through the path of Achishena (accelerating time), you yourself begin to persuade yourself, through the environment, that it is worthwhile to be in bestowal, and in this way, you draw the surrounding light, which returns you to the good, upon yourself.

On the path of Beito, you receive blows, and you learn from them, until in the end you also come to a request, a prayer for correction, and advance, just as when following the path of Achishena.

And if you immediately take the path of light, you save time on the first section of the path where you would have lost it by not wishing to listen and to apply your own efforts.

There is no time for deliberation over which path to place your foot on! Everything depends on the preparation of the environment.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/4/10, Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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What is the Creator’s game with us? It is to be in union with the Creator above our sensations in the desire to receive.

If the Creator were revealed, a person would not be able to leave the feeling of connection with the Creator, with the root. One would be forcibly merged with Him and would never be able leave the system of reward and punishment. A person would not be able to build himself, because he would neglect the sensations in the Kelim (vessels) and would be merged with the Creator.

The Creator would suppress one’s feelings in the Kelim of reception. We see that sometimes we are so excited that we are ready to give everything, and we want to remain in a state where material things are unimportant. This happens if we feel the illumination from above for a while. But this situation connects us to the Creator, not by our choice or our decision, and not against the Kelim of reception. This is not the right path.

Therefore, faith is called the result of feeling the Creator when He is important, great in my eyes, rather than because He fills me.

We need to achieve a “true-false” assessment rather than a “bitter-sweet” feeling, so that truth and falsehood determine how I act and what I decide, rather than a bitter or sweet feeling in the desire to receive.

If I move from the feeling of bitter or sweet to the understanding of true and false, it is considered that I rise above reason. This is only possible if I make a full reversal. I need to consider that focusing on the true-false category is more important because it adheres me to the upper.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/26, Rabash, Article 28, “What Is, His Guidance Is Concealed and Revealed?”

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When a person crosses the Machsom and already has vessels of bestowal, the Creator again begins to reveal reward and punishment to him, and the person, despite this, must still prefer connection with the Creator because he wishes to be merged with the true life, with its root.

If earlier he judged the Creator according to reward and punishment in the vessels of reception, now he judges Him according to reward and punishment in the vessels of bestowal. By this, the vessels of reception are joined to the vessels of bestowal, and this is called that he corrects the double concealment first and then the single concealment. Thus, the Creator constantly works with the created being. In His “game” with the will to receive, He can raise the created being above this will each time.

When He gives a greater will to receive, then reward and punishment appear to a person as greater, and based on them he adheres to the root. This is called going in faith above reason. And so, he connects with the Creator more and more until his entire will to receive enters into action, that is, reward and punishment become enormous and fill the whole volume of the soul.

It turns out that he has completely realized reward and punishment in order to fully adhere to the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/26, Rabash “What Is, His Guidance Is Concealed and Revealed?”

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Question: How can we feel the greatness of the Creator in our current state?

Answer: In our state we feel the greatness of the Creator in the form of the surrounding lights.

We have a great desire to receive that wants to enjoy and be filled. That is, I want to feel the greatness of the Creator in such a way that He stands above the desire to receive, so that this sensation is like a surrounding light around this desire. Then I will cling to the surrounding light and can do something above reason.

This means I receive the strength to rise above the desire to receive from the surrounding lights with faith above reason.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/26, Rabash “What Is, His Guidance Is Concealed and Revealed?”

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