One of the powerful symbols of Yom Kippur, clearly pointing to the mission of the people of Israel, is the story of the prophet Jonah. A prophet is a person who has revealed the higher force to such an extent that he can seemingly speak with it.

The Jewish prophet Jonah receives a special task from the Creator: to go to the non-Jewish city of Nineveh, which is immersed in vices and crimes, and bring its inhabitants back to the Creator, that is, to love and unity.

Since the time of Abraham, the Jewish people have been given the mission of being a “light to the nations.” Although this small group left Babylon for the land of Canaan, it was clear that it would eventually have to return to Babylon in order to unite all its inhabitants.

The people of Israel left Babylon only to learn the method of unification. Then this small group was to return to Babylon and work on uniting it. Just as Abraham once worked to unite the Jewish people, the people who received his method were expected to work on uniting all of Babylon, that is, all humanity, and bring it to solidarity and unity. This is what it means to be a light to the nations, to those who remain divided from one another.

Jonah received this task from the Creator, but did not want to fulfill it, and he fled. He boarded a ship that set out to sea. A strong wind, heavy rain, and a storm began, threatening to sink the ship. The sailors (described here as the Creator’s angels) realized that everything was happening because of Jonah. He did not deny it and agreed that they should throw him overboard. He understood that he was responsible for what was happening and had to save at least those who could still be saved.

Jonah finally accepted the Creator’s assignment when he saw that people were suffering because of him and could perish. He decided to save them even at the cost of his own life, hoping that the sea would calm if he were thrown into it. In the sea, a huge fish swallowed him, and he lived inside it for three days, reflecting on his actions and regretting that he had acted against the program of creation and had failed to help humanity reveal a beautiful, eternal world, a life of paradise for everyone.

He deeply regretted fleeing from his mission. After three days, the fish brought Jonah ashore, directly near the city of Nineveh. Jonah entered the city, conveyed the Creator’s warning to its inhabitants, and taught them how to relate to one another. The Creator gave him the power to persuade them. The people of Nineveh united and stopped fighting, killing, and deceiving one another. Nineveh became a beautiful city whose inhabitants attained the Creator, eternity, and perfection.

According to tradition, the story of the prophet Jonah is considered especially important, and many people are willing to pay large sums for the privilege of having it read publicly during the Yom Kippur ceremony. People believe that this brings good fortune.

Indeed, if the people of Israel fulfill their mission toward the nations of the world, and, first and foremost, toward themselves, if they recognize their responsibility and show everyone an example of positive unity, the entire world will also unite and reach a happy life, the promised shore.

Everything depends on the way the people of Israel relate to one another, on establishing peace and love among themselves, which can become an example for the entire world, a light for the other nations. This is what Yom Kippur teaches us.

If the people of Israel fulfill their mission, the whole world will reach a day that will be “like Purim” (Ke Purim): the most joyful holiday, when one may drink “until one no longer distinguishes the difference” between this world and the upper world, and everyone will live an eternal and perfect life.

Everything depends on the people of Israel accepting this mission and learning from the wisdom of Kabbalah how to fulfill it.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 626 – Yom Kippur: Self And Social Realization” 10/8/16

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Question: What do you recommend thinking about on Yom Kippur?

Answer: Let us think about the story of the prophet Jonah and the obligations of the Jewish people. Reading this story is the culminating point of Yom Kippur.

Perhaps then we will understand that it is worth paying any amount of money, our entire fortune, for the opportunity to practically realize this story in our lives.

Question: The prophet Jonah found it very difficult to realize that he was responsible for all human suffering. How can we arrive at such a difficult conclusion?

Answer: This is possible only through the explanations provided by the wisdom of Kabbalah. The Torah and the entire Pentateuch speak about the same thing, but they express it in such allegorical language that it is difficult for a person to understand, let alone implement.

Our evil, egoistic nature is so stubborn and fiery that stories alone cannot tame it. Only when we begin practically uniting in groups, like those formed by us throughout Israel and in more than one hundred other countries, do we plant the seeds from which an increasingly strong connection between people can develop.

I very much hope that we will manage to stop the negative trend and turn it into a positive one. Therefore, on Yom Kippur, it is worthwhile to reflect on the need for us to unite. This should be done not only to achieve a good, secure, and prosperous life in Israel, but also to bring this well-being to the entire world.

On this holiest day of the year, we hear from the Creator the message of the mission entrusted to us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 626 – Yom Kippur: Self And Social Realization” 10/8/16

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 242

What Can We Do to Prefer the Connection with the Creator at All Times?

We need to constantly understand that, apart from the connection with the Creator, everything else—good and bad feelings, good and bad events, everything that happens—is intended to strengthen our connection with Him. At the higher degree, we need to remain constantly aware and at the very heart of the search for a connection with the Creator, holding on to that point. We must know that everything happening is intended to add more to that connection with Him. In order to maintain this, we must build both an inner and an outer system.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Sukkot 2003, Lesson 5 (10.13.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Studying with Friends

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Question: Before Baal HaSulam, did anyone write commentaries on The Book of Zohar?

Answer: There were commentaries, but they were very brief and limited. Baal HaSulam wrote that all the previous commentaries on The Book of Zohar did not cover even ten percent of the book, and that they were scattered and incomplete.

Therefore, he was the only one to provide a complete commentary on The Book of Zohar, along with four introductions. For this reason, before beginning to read The Book of Zohar itself, one should study these introductions, because without them it cannot be understood.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 10/16/16

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Question: What is the condition for adopting the Creator’s perspective?

Answer: The condition is a correction that a person receives from above, when the Kli (vessel) of the desire to receive, in which fulfillment is absent, receives pleasure even if it is not the natural fulfillment that the Kli wants. The Kli wants to receive the light of Hochma, but instead receives the light of Hassadim and calms down.

This is a special action. I want to experience pleasure. My Kli feels only the presence or absence of the desired pleasure. Suddenly, instead of receiving the pleasure that the Kli wanted, instead of the light of Hochma, I sense the giver of pleasure within it. And this fills me. I need nothing else.

This can be compared to the transition from stage one to stage two where the vessel desires nothing more. If, within my desire to receive, I feel the Creator instead of the fulfillment I previously wanted (instead of animalistic pleasures, money, honor, or knowledge) if I perceive the sensation the Creator through all my senses, then that is it! I need nothing else.

I do not receive pleasure itself; rather, I sense the giver of the pleasure. And this is enough for me. Why? An animal would find this insufficient, but a human being, developed according to the four stages of desire, can be satisfied with Hassadim—the sensation of the Creator.

And now, when I am filled not by my natural pleasure, but by another kind of fulfillment, one that enables me to break free from the domination of Hisaron (the sensation of lack), I gain the possibility of becoming independent. Now I can examine, measure, and determine what kind of fulfillment I want: fulfillment according to my nature or fulfillment that I give to Him, according to another nature.

There are many nuances here, but this is the transition. You ask: “How can one cross from one side to the other?” We have everything needed for this except the sensation of the Creator. This is the correction of the Kli. For there are only two parameters: either the pleasure that fills me when I sense what lies before me on the table, or the sensation of the host standing beside the table. There are only these two possibilities.

I do not have many choices. It is either one or the other. One could say that I am always under the influence and dominion of one or the other. But there is nothing besides these two things.

I am a Kli facing two possibilities. Through suffering, by not giving me direct fulfillment from the table, the Creator teaches me that I must think about another fulfillment: filling myself with the sensation of His presence, and this will give me what is known as “independence.”

After that, I receive the same fulfillment from the table, but in a different form. I use my Kli as a means, not as a goal. The goal is no longer to fill the Kli, but through filling it, to attain something above it. The concept is very simple.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

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Question: Is it possible to return from the end of correction and begin everything from the start?

Answer: If we have corrected everything into the intention for the sake of bestowal, acquired all the inner discernments, can fill ourselves with the presence of the Creator, and have become similar to Him in qualities, then why would we need another incarnation?

The entire path we undergo is needed only so that we can unite our inner discernments and build a Kli from all kinds of impressions.

After I have felt everything, clarified everything, decided everything, and correctly connected it all, I then possess a true Kli (vessel). Into this Kli I now receive the revelation of the Creator in its full measure, since it is completely similar to the Creator; that is, the intention of the Kli coincides with the Creator’s intentions.

Everything has cause and effect. What reason could there be afterward to force me to enter the shattering and fall, and then correct myself again?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘The Concealed Things Belong to the Lord, and the Revealed Things Belong to Us,’ in the Work?”

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Question: What will happen when the whole world reaches the end of correction (Gmar Tikun)?

Answer: The end of correction means that all the souls will attain their final correction and become equal in their properties to the light of infinity, as they were in the beginning.

They do not become the light of infinity, but through their actions they become equivalent to the light, which is called the Creator.

After that, everything only begins, because until this point you were merely correcting your Kelim (vessels), whereas afterward you already have all the inner definitions necessary to continue the work.

Now you can be called an adult, equal to the Creator. You become equivalent to Him in your properties, and He takes you as an absolutely equal partner for something that we do not know about at present. These are already the secrets of the Torah.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘The Concealed Things Belong to the Lord, and the Revealed Things Belong to Us,’ in the Work?”

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Question: Must I first commit a sin in order to build a Kli?

Answer: In the second part of Study of the Ten Sefirot, in “Inner Observation,” we study that there are the concepts of “possible” and “intending,” and from these arise four combinations: “possible and intending,” “not possible and not intending,” “not possible and intending,” and “possible and not intending.”

In short, these are four possibilities. Therefore, we see that not everything, not always, and not immediately is interpreted as a sin. In fact, a sin is when you could refrain from enjoying, yet still intend to enjoy. Of all four degrees, this occurs only in Malchut.

All of this is not so simple. But we do not need to think about it or examine whether I intended it or not. This is not for us, who are below the Machsom. This is absolutely not our work.

Simply, from what is given to us, we need to try to understand something and carry it out. The main thing is not to run away from the “battlefield.” What matters is the process of study, the work in the group, conducting lessons, and other things of this kind that we carry out. Everything else that happens to us is completely unimportant.

The most important thing is that you do not violate anything that should be part of your daily schedule. If you have a daily schedule, then everything else will fall into place, and you do not need to pay attention to it. There are things to which you simply need to turn a blind eye. Let them happen to me, and that is that.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/4/26, Rabash, “The Klipa [Shell/Peel] that Precedes the Fruit”

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