Rabash, “The Entrance into the Work”: The beginning of the work must be in Lo Lishma (not for its sake), which means that by believing in the Creator one will have a life of pleasure. This means that if he does this, which is called faith, then he feels elation and has higher mental powers than he has when he doesn’t perform this action.

It turns out that this is a unique quality by which he can taste greater tastes in quantity and in quality than he tastes when he performs other special actions that bring him pleasure… pleasures and unique qualities bring him limited pleasures in quantity and in quality. However, the unique quality of faith brings him greater pleasure in quantity and in quality. And all this is called Lo Lishma since his entire intention was only in order to attain a greater pleasure.

Only after he attains the level that is called Lo Lishma, is he rewarded with other phenomena and comes to a higher state. This means that he has no self-interest, but all his interests and thoughts are true. This means that his entire intention is only to annul himself in the true reality, feeling that he only has to serve the King since he feels the King’s supremacy and His importance.

Then he forgets, which means that he has no need to worry about himself in any way, since he annuls himself like a candle before a torch because he feels the Creator’s presence. Then he is in the state of Lishma (for Her sake), to bring contentment to the Creator, and all his worries and desires are as to how he can bring the Creator pleasure. And his own reality, which means the desire to receive, does not exist at all. Then he is considered one who bestows in order to bestow.

I think that you have already felt these two states at the convention. The first is when a person yearns to receive the spiritual pleasure for himself, whether he admits it or not, and does it only for self-benefit. By that he hopes to attain a good life in this world and in the next world, to gain more and change his fate for the better. In all his accounts there is only: “I, I, I,” and he cannot take himself out of the picture.

This happens unconsciously. Even if a person tries not to take himself into account, the moment he doesn’t succeed, he gradually returns to himself each time. Then he finds out that self-benefit, personal interest, was always in the spiritual picture he yearned for. So his participation in the group, the inclination to the Creator, the work, and the efforts depend only on his feeling that all this would pay off.

The realization that he operates only for himself is already a revelation. In the meantime he performs actions without the right intention, which means with his natural egoistic intention, and not in order to bestow by not detaching the action from self-benefit.

But thanks to such actions of Lo Lishma, he goes through four phases of development: 1. to receive in order to receive, 2. to bestow in order to receive, 3. to bestow in order to bestow, 4. to receive in order to bestow, and all this is in the state of Lo Lishma.

Thus he clarifies what is “allowed” and what is “forbidden” in Lo Lishma since these four states are the ones that determine the combination of his actions and his intention. But due to the fact that a person performs all these “malicious acts” because of his innate ego since he has no choice, the evil inclination created by the Creator, the upper Light constantly operates on him, and gradually bit by bit, takes him out of the slavery to the ego, cleaning him from the intention of in order to receive for himself.

He attains the level in which he begins to think about self-annulment, he feels a great measure of grace and attraction, he begins to value devotion and self-annulment, not under the pressure of sufferings, but because he values the attribute of bestowal itself more and more to such an extent that he eventually annuls himself.

If a person delves into this and works on this persistently, then after a short while he receives the attribute of bestowal from the Light: Then he forgets, which means that he feels no need to care about himself in any way since he annuls himself as a candle before a torch because he feels the presence of the Creator.

But he annuls himself not for self-benefit, but by raising the actual state of self-annulment. “Then he is in a state of Lishma, to bring contentment to the Creator, and all his worries and desires are as to how he can bring the Creator pleasure, and his own reality, which means the desire to receive, does not exist at all. Then he is in a state of one who bestows in order to bestow.

We began the clarifications of self-annulment in the Arava convention. We felt it in the general mass of the participants as one. Now we have to continue by focusing more on this point so that all the distances and the interruptions that come up in the time between the conventions will help us. They will provide us with the thickness that we need to annul in order to annul ourselves.
[98658]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/13

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Question: How should we relate to the states of confusion and blurriness after the convention? Can we do anything or should we simply wait for them to go away by themselves?

Answer: Under no circumstances should you wait! In spirituality you should never wait for anything, you should only move forward!

Believe me, I am not lying to you. When I, just like any of us until the end of correction, feel a kind of fogginess, blurriness, lack of desire, and suddenly deteriorate into tough states, I don’t lose my head. We must clearly realize that it comes from the Creator, that I was given the next spiritual level, which is revealed with its thickness, as it says, “And the evening and the morning were one day”; thus, everything is fulfilled and so I am happy about that.

In fact I am happy when I go through such times, because for me it doesn’t take long. In the past it could last for two months, while now it takes a couple of minutes, but these minutes are very joyful. I feel what I will attain by what I have just invested, what my additional ego will bring me in attainment. I immediately rush to the computer and begin to work on some materials. I don’t see anything at all on the screen! But I work mechanically, correcting The Zohar texts or articles by Baal HaSulam and Rabash, adding commas and periods here and there.

I sometimes sit like an idiot and after several minutes everything passes. Now it takes a couple of minutes, whereas in the past it could take a week and even longer. Gradually it takes less time, but in order for that to happen, we should work on these states. They become shorter to the extent that you begin to understand that there are no descents and that this is the next level.
[98716]
From the Virtual Lesson 1/20/13

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Question: Due to recent changes (from the women’s convention), a big importance of women’s unity has emerged.

There are women who are more active and less active in our group. For the active women, we organize certain activities and separate workshops, thereby creating a few circles in the women’s community. As a result, there are many unhappy women who think that we have split this community. Is it right to do this in the women’s group?

Answer: I believe it is incorrect. The mass should be as uniform as possible. I do not divide anyone. Some women participate less, no matter for what reason, some more.  I never look for reasons, especially if we are talking about women, not men. Men can be pressed, but women should not be, and in general, women should be treated as equal to men. But they must not make any divisions between themselves. Absolutely no!

Question: So, on what principle could the women’s group be formed?

Answer: According to the principle of the circle—everyone is equal. If I want to advance towards spirituality, I do not need earthly levels: What honors I would be rewarded, how many stars they attach to me? What is important for me is spiritual ascent, and I do not ask anything for myself. If it is possible to invest my efforts, I invest them, if there is no opportunity, then there is none. But a person should wait for the highest reward for his invested efforts, rather than have power and position in the group. What for? This is incorrect!

There are people who have organizational skills; it is another matter. We appoint them to be responsible for this or that because we benefit if they are engaged in these duties or something else, but in any case, we should not divide the group.

We have people who work very hard for the group. So what? Are they supposed to get more? For what reason?

As for women, they are mostly not free; they have a husband, family, children, and parents. So, we cannot demand the same things from them as from men.
[98640]
From the Virtual Lesson 1/20/13

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Question: During the workshops and lessons at the Arava convention was the first time I was awarded with strong hatred for the group. It is difficult to overcome. How can I work with this; is it through work in the intervals between the congresses or work during the congresses? In other words, when we face this at a convention, do we overcome this by means of our work in between the congresses and there must be a constant effort to control oneself?

Answer: The effort should be in place. You need to prepare for falls in advance. There is nothing wrong with them. On the contrary, you need to meet these states with joy, despite the fact that you feel, “How can it be? I don’t want that!” This inner struggle is very good and essential.

In any case, do not try to remove it, do not erase it, but also do not dwell on it inside, do not beat yourself up, but rise above it correctly. It should be understood, in spite of feeling hatred, that the Creator sent it so that I recognize my egoism, how much more it is revealed in me now, and that is why, instead of love and agreement with the group, I feel hatred; I must rise above it and ask the Creator to help me. Don’t try to rise and get out of the pit you fell into by yourself, but ask the Creator to help you get out of it together with Him. Then you will have some contact with Him. This is why He arranged this fall for you.

We need to prepare for falls. Our workshops are especially good preparation for them.
[98637]
From the Virtual Lesson 1/20/13

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Question: I think that we proved at the Arava convention that everything is possible. What’s next?

Answer: The problem is this: In this world when I see a goal and it is important in my eyes, I have enough energy and vigor to attain it, but if the goal isn’t obvious or isn’t important, then I have no strength for the work: “Really, why should I work hard?”

In the end, our problem is recognizing the importance of the goal. This importance is deliberately diminished so that we will create new importance each time, so that there will be a new creation for us, a new spiritual world, everything new.

And we, with the friends, need to build this ourselves. They need to tell me how important the spiritual path is even though they themselves don’t feel it. But we are committed to each other, and this is called Arvut (mutual guarantee). This means that we constantly need to tell each other how important it is, as a mother or grandmother tells the same bedtime story to a child.

Tell me, what was so special at our convention? What were your deepest impressions? Was there something tangible there? No. Did you receive something in your hand? No. Do you feel, hear, see, or taste spirituality? No. Actually there was nothing there, simply “you were filled with hot air” like a balloon, and from your swelling, you began to fly upwards. That was your entire convention.

So what is stopping you from doing that now? Why can’t you rise even higher? Specifically now when you feel heaviness and lack of interest, when all kinds of calculations appear to you, and you begin to think in a more “realistic” way—specifically now begin to act.

Question: At the convention, we, as if, banged our heads against the wall in that we tried to attain something impossible until we discovered that it is possible, albeit at a minimal level. And that means that everything is possible.

Answer: Excellent. Now continue. But don’t think that a spiritual sensation was revealed to you to a small degree to give you a solid basis for further steps. The opposite is true, your heart will be burdened, difficulties will be added, you will be forced to forget it, as if it doesn’t exist at all. They will take back from you all the “advance payment,” otherwise it will turn into an egoistic basis for advancement: “It is worthwhile to go forward since it is pleasant and wonderful. I want that kind of life.” This isn’t spiritual anymore, but Klipot (shells). Previously it wasn’t there, and now it appears. It is also, of course, an attainment, but not the one you were waiting for.

In short, continue. It is especially now that we begin to work with spiritual discernments: a little virtue, a little self-annulment, importance… we passed the hardest period, and now each time there will be something real, concrete. You will feel these things, “in your hand,” you will “ taste” them, you will feel them as internal heaviness, as resistance. In a while, you will even begin to measure them.

We passed the hardest stage, where we didn’t know where we were, what is happening, like a baby who just was born and still doesn’t really hear, or see, or respond…. and now begins the new stage.
[98491]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, Shamati #213

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Question: At one of the Arava congress workshops there was a question about the point of no return that we have to pass through on the path. How are we supposed to pass through it: individually or together with the entire group?

Answer: As it advances, the united group overcomes all stages of the path. Although everyone may be undergoing a particular state at his level, in fact, we all are going together.

Question: So, is it possible that the group will “drag” me through a certain state?

Answer: The group doesn’t act selectively, choosing him and only him; it “pulls” everyone forward. No one advances alone; our entire way is by the group. No matter how much a person puts in, he still “eats” what the others do. It may be in a lesser degree, but he still moves along with all the others. And hence, everyone passes the Machsom; everyone comes out of Egypt, including the “children,” “women,” “men,” and “elderly.”
[98488]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, Shamati #213

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Question: What is the relationship between quantity and quality of a congress? When there are more of us, how does it reflect on the quality?

Answer: Today, considering what state the world is in and what this puts before us, it is our duty to admit everybody and in this broad audience preserve ourselves as the nucleus. We need both factors together.

We can’t screen out those who don’t attend lessons daily, do not pay maaser, and so on. The congress will not be more powerful because of it. We should be guided by what Nature demonstrates to us. The Creator opens the doors to everyone, although the public is not in a hurry to enter. I hope that in the coming year, people will “digest” and understand the events of the recent years, including the crisis, despair, and all the rest. It takes time: A person reads something, hears about something, and little by little, it settles down in him until he sees how the world becomes “bleaker,” and “dissipates” without more to offer.

I hope that in this year, along with the broadest dissemination, we will be able to accomplish something…
[98482]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, Shamati #213

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Question: How do we become a lower Partzuf that annuls itself before the upper one and requests to be created in the spiritual world during the congress?

Answer: Our upper Partzuf is the group and only there does the Creator get revealed. We transform the group into Malchut, the Shechina, while the upper for it is Zeir Anpin, the Creator. We need to induce the state in which our connection with the upper force is revealed.

It’s quite doable and very likely to happen. Illumination from this state will certainly be granted to us, and we are already receiving it, everyone according to one’s degree. But when we truly connect, then instead of a personal illumination, we reveal the Light.

It will also be revealed to each person in the degree that one has achieved unity and exerted oneself. But it will be a clearly defined portion of Light and not some external illumination. I am confident that not only at the men’s but also the women’s congress we can feel such illumination. Our group’s annulment before the upper means that everyone renounces oneself in full force for the sake of unity and inclusion in all the others, and will lose one’s material self there and exist solely under the spiritual influence.

We studied in the article “600,000 Souls” that there is only one soul, everyone attains only it, and plugs into the very same soul. In truth, there is no division and only the force of the shattering is causing us pain right now because we think each of us has his or her own personal soul. We imagine it only because we haven’t reached complete attainment yet and remain in confusion, fog, and loss of awareness. Therefore, at the congress, we wish to plug into this one soul.
[98221]
From 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Now, after the “Flame in the Desert” convention we will go through many states. We have attained a certain level of connection, unity, detachment from matter, the importance of annulling ourselves before the friends, different inner spiritual discernments that are close to a real spiritual level.

We have no control over the process we are going through, and we advance according to the order of the Lights and vessels. We are between them like between a millstone, and different forces constantly operate on us advancing us towards the goal, according to our understanding, agreement, will, and support of their action.

Eventually, all the work of the “millstone” is only according to our agreement, that can be under the influence and pressure of sufferings, or by the help of the Light that Reforms. We don’t do anything by ourselves; this work is called “God’s work,” but we have to agree with the actions and want it to take place, although it is against our basic nature.

Since this work is against our nature and we feel it as very difficult, against our will, it allows us to become free, to have freewill and to transcend our nature.

Now after our convention, we go through very special states, and we must use them as quickly as possible to rise above them a few steps ahead. Therefore, these days are very important for whoever participated in the convention physically, mentally, and virtually. We now have to process everything we have received in the convention correctly, as much as we can, and to continue our advancement forward quickly.

The processing of the states is in clarifying the importance, who do we attribute it to, is it important that we have somehow discovered the connection with the Creator, with the spiritual space, with self-detachment, with the new space in which we can really live and after which there is an opening, and if I am born there, then I am born in a new reality, in some matrix, in a new dimension; or do I sink into the current of ordinary life and return to my ordinary animal life?

It is very important to rise above our matter, above the desire to receive that actually pulls us “by our feet” back into the abyss of the ego the moment we want to rise a bit. We, however, have to try and rise.

This effort can succeed only if we operate together, like in the convention where we attained a new level only thanks to the connection for which we have received powers from Above and felt that there is something above nature.

This is how we should continue now, so that all the forms of the egoistic desire and the thoughts that cross our mind will immediately be incorporated in the new ascent. Then we will constantly, every minute, rise higher and higher and will not wait until all these awakenings that the Creator is sending us in the form of the “hardening of the heart,” as an addition to the egoistic desire, as strange thoughts, as blurring and fatigue, will add up to a “big account,” and then we would have to go through them through the path of sufferings and different blows.

On the contrary, every moment we have to go on and on and thus “one penny is added to another and they make up a big account.” We shouldn’t wait until these “pennies” accumulate by themselves; it is much more difficult and disrespectful in the eyes of the Creator; in the eyes of the Creator it is respectful when you don’t leave Him.

So while reading The Zohar we have to connect and to think about how to receive help from Above in order not to break away from the great appreciation we feel towards self-annulment, connection, love, self-detachment and adhesion to the Creator.
[98419]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, The Zohar

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Question: What made the great success of the convention that has just ended: the special work during the convention or the preparation for it?

Answer: During the convention we don’t do any work. The convention is not meant for working; it is a “gathering” of all the efforts we made before. We have worked for many years, and the convention is the fruit of our work.

Everyone has received a whole measure from the convention, but it is revealed according to his understanding and his awareness. It is like a small child in our world that is full of different modern devices, machines, etc. but who only sees his few toys. This is what he can perceive in the meantime in his mind and heart; this is what’s important for him.

We have received much more than what each one reveals now. A new and very important level has been revealed, but each one is impressed by it according to his exertion, according to the desires and the thoughts he has developed for this level. Therefore, one perceives it like a two-year-old, another like a four-year-old, a third as a ten-year-old or a fifteen-year-old. There are those among us who have perceived it in its full form, which means that they already feel the complete feeling of the first spiritual vessel that should open up now.

I hope that very soon we will advance towards this revelation and acquire it. The spiritual development is like the corporeal one, and it grows faster according to our advancement. See how slowly humanity is developing, having been in the first state for thousands of years, until it reached to the age of slavery, and then it went on very quickly to feudalism, and even faster to capitalism, and much faster than that to the postindustrial society. The pace of development increases exponentially and more and more changes take place in a shorter time.

The same will happen in our spiritual development, the main thing is to continue! And not to just forget, but to continue this level that we have attained: the same level of clarification, connection, and self-annulment. Just don’t leave what we have attained: hold on to it like a tick, or like a bulldog, and advance further.

Learn from the snake that actually symbolizes our nature in the way it swallows its prey deeper inside it until it swallows it fully. We too have to reach this level, not to leave it, but rather hold on to it very strongly until we swallow all of it.
[98416]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/13, Shamati #26

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