Question: How can I make sure that we are acting as one person in our shared dissemination?

Answer: We go out to disseminate, each one turning in his own direction, but with the same mission, the same goal, as if we are scattered all over a forest in order to gather mushrooms or berries and don’t see each other behind the trees. But afterward we gather and each one throws what he found into one great common pot and we use it to prepare a feast for ourselves.

Each one knows that now, somewhere, his friends have also scattered to all kinds of places and are doing the same work. And in truth, this work that you are carrying out in all the groups is beautiful, and the result that will be revealed from it will also be beautiful.

Question: How can I support the friends, knowing that they are also gathering mushrooms in the forest now?  What should I think about?

Answer: I simply feel that they are doing the same work. Even though I don’t even see them, they go out together with me for the same work. We bring and gather all that we did, and from this we make a shared feast, fill ourselves, build our common Kli (vessel), and continue to go forward together. There are works in which we are scattered, and there are works in which we gather and connect together.

If we think about each other, about all of us dispersing in the evening for general dissemination, this will give us the strength to achieve success. I need to feel connected with everyone and see myself as their representative who must bring my share to the maximum of my ability for the collective pot.

By thinking about the overall success, I am already helping everyone. I don’t have to know exactly who is doing what at any given moment and ask about him. The main thing is our collective success, for the world is deteriorating more and more downward. The Creator shows us with this His higher oversight, the demands that the world advance as rapidly as possible towards correction.

And advancement of the world towards correction depends upon us alone, for only we have free choice, and therefore we need to realize it as much as possible. We realize it through consolidation, and now we are working specifically towards consolidation.

This activity will go in the right direction and you will see how, according to this, the Creator will forgive us and will help in everything. The Creator will fight for me, but the main thing is to always check the correctness of the direction. With this we open a place for the Light, and it acts.
[134829]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/02/14, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
From The Least To The Greatest Of Them
It Is Impossible To Build A Spiritual Partzuf Without Uniting The People
I Brought You Part Of The Miracle

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Group Work, Spiritual Teacher - No Comments →

Question: How can we deal with pain that keeps us on the animal level?

Answer: The Surrounding Light, the Light that Reforms, operates on me, penetrates, and goes through the levels of Aviut (thickness) of my desire: the root phase, phases one, two, three, and four. If the Light reaches only the levels of the root phase, phase one, two, and three, then I am unable to feel any source of Light.

In the four phases of Direct Light, the feeling of shame awakened and there was a Tzimtzum (restriction) only on the fourth level of the fourth phase. So the Light has to penetrate all the way to the fourth phase of the desire. If it spreads only through three phases, then I feel pain, but in fourth phase, I feel the source of the pain.

I still feel the pain, but I understand where it comes from. Thus I begin to compare the pain with its source, with the reason. Why did the Creator cause me this pain? For what purpose?

Then I realize that it isn’t pain at all. It isn’t the Creator who causes my pain. I feel pain because I am not corrected; the Creator actually sends me wonderful presents, wanting to embrace and kiss me with love. The Light of love comes to me, but instead I feel pain.

It is like loving a parent who pressures his child and may even slap him, but who does it out of love. I have to change my perception and calculate this delta, the gap between the pain that I feel and its real essence.

I can only do that through the group; there I make this calculation as well as in its relation to the friends. All our relationships with people and especially with the group help us learn how to calculate our relationship with the Creator.
[134825]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/14, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
How To Rise Above The Power Of Pain
A Sign Of Pain
Why Doesn’t The Creator Hear Me?

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

Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Igrot,” Letter 22

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 47

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 6

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Question: Inner work is a matter of constant inner clarifications. Is it possible to love it?

Answer: A good worker is called an artist who enjoys his work and not for the pay. He needs the reward only for advancement, but for him it isn’t the main thing.

He carries out difficult and unpleasant actions, but he loves his work and receives delight from it, which he can discover only through hard work and efforts.

That is called art, otherwise it is just an simple act of work for reward.  What is considered is only the extent to which you enjoy the work that the Creator gives you. Therefore, we need to honor Pharaoh.

Everything depends on that, on what you identify with. It can be that I only want to feel good and nothing else concerns me. Or the opposite, it isn’t important what I feel, but I need to know the essence of the actions that I am now going through. And from that, I want to receive satisfaction.

This means that I am not stuck in the sensations from within my desire to receive, but to the idea, the goal, and the mission, which brings me satisfaction. In that, I change from one form of fulfillment to the other and I detach myself from the feeling of difficulty in the work and from the darkness and attach myself to the greatness of the goal; specifically from within the greatest darkness, I am able to see the greatest Light and the greatest satisfaction.

I change the inner essence of the action, and instead of delight, which is received within the ego, I receive delight from my connection with the Creator. Therefore, it is only from within the greatest darkness, from the Machsom (barrier) that I can’t cross, and the Masach (screen), which is between myself and the Creator, in which I am interested, can I justify it and transform myself to be like it.

It is specifically through this that I become independent in Gmar Tikkun (end of correction) by completely differentiating from the Creator and adhering to Him above all the differences. Thus two opposites connect.
[134680]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/14, The Book of Zohar

Related Material:
An Indicator Of The Internal Work
The Upper Thought Is Bestowal
When The Light Force Suddenly Unfolds

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Teacher, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: There are various levels of concealment. Why is it that we sometimes go through states that are so painful that we cannot think of anything besides the pain and thus detach from the Creator?

Answer: At times, the work can be done in the state of concealment; sometimes it is not so. It depends on the type of concealment. It so happens that every now and then, all one is going through is just physical pain. The Light impacts this person’s desire and demonstrates a lack of health and tremendous physical suffering.

According to the physical affliction, one remains at the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels. One does not, as yet, ascend to a speaking level. In other words, the Light illuminates to this person only the first three stages but doesn’t reach the fourth level, since the fourth phase is a human state; i.e., a state when a person has already established a connection with the Creator.

If the Light embraces only the first three levels, one feels pain and nothing else. However, if the Light illuminates one additional level (the speaking level), one starts understanding that the origin of one’s pain is the Creator. In other words, this person stays in concealment because he senses affliction instead of benevolence. And yet, to some extent one attains some degree of revelation because one realizes that the Creator is the origin of one’s suffering. It means that one can already deal with one’s troubles.

Everything depends on the Light. When the Light stops working, people turn into animals. When the Light shines, even a little on us, we become just slightly similar to human beings, to the people that we will become in the future. At least we establish some connection with the upper governance.

Are we able to control this state? It is possible only within the group; nothing else will help. If one is used to being a part of the group, then even if one becomes subjected to this kind of the Creator’s impact and even if one doesn’t feel anything except pain that in one’s eyes is not connected with Him in any way, with the help of one’s friends, one can quickly wake up and connect with the Creator.

If one is not a part of a group, one will inevitably fall under the power of pain and severe problems, nor will one be able to advance until the Upper Force takes pity on him. This natural developmental program continues working and continuously modifies the states we go through.
[134595]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/14, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
A Sign Of Pain
Why Doesn’t The Creator Hear Me?
From A New Perspective

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, Suffering - No Comments →

Question:  Why is it said that the truth can be seen only from the opposite side, the darkness? Do we ever perceive anything except deceit?

Answer: All we see is the deficiency that has to be filled with our correct attitude to the Creator. In this context, the truth is a revelation of an empty space that has to be filled with our love of the Creator and our correct attitude to the absence of revelation.

The Creator discloses a fragment of the entire picture to us, and we have to figure out what form of bestowal we are supposed to discover in the piece of the puzzle we are given. We can do it through work in the group, dissemination, and the states we go through.

We can only guess what particular shape we have to choose to fill the empty space in the puzzle. We have to make a decision when we see a cloud above and the earth below the empty space or the grass and a small part of a tree on either side. So I imagine what’s in the middle of the puzzle , i.e., what form of bestowal it is. If we work with our deficiencies in this manner, we will eventually find out what’s missing.

The process of working with the deficiencies described above is called “a revelation.” The Creator shows us the place of the deficiency; He unveils and illuminates it for us. That’s why we begin sensing the deficiency. The Creator influences our will to receive by the Light of Hassadim (mercy). Our will to receive rejects the Light of Mercy. However, the lack of a desire “impresses” the will to receive and it manifests in various forms.

This is the way a negative picture is built in us. Our task is to flip it and transform it into a correct and positive form.

We can only guess what particular form of bestowal is missing in the world and in our relationships with others. In fact, the overall bestowal that dresses in this world is the Creator. We can only imagine what this form is, but we are unable to fill the empty spaces without the Creator, and therefore we need His assistance.

Thus, a need to disclose the Giver’s shape appears in us. We want the world in this missing fragment of the puzzle to be corrected, reaching the state of mutual bestowal. This is how we gradually complete the puzzle.
[134537]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/14, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
In The Arms Of Hidden Mercy
Sacred Hatred
Drawing the Creator’s Image When He Is Concealed

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Perception, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 43

Workshop

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Pinhas,” “Holiday of Shavuot,” Item 766

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 46

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 5

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

Question: What is unique about what we can offer to the world?

Answer: We can offer the world connection in which the Light is found. They will not actually discover the Light, but will feel above all that what we are doing is a blessing. Everything is working and advancing, there is some kind of grace that is attractive in this, there is success.

When others look at us and do the same thing, this will not work for them. There won’t be any success. They can organize wide, wonderful, and attractive publicity, but there won’t be any success with it. About this it is said, “An alien god bears no fruit.”

It cannot be otherwise. If there is no picture of the goal, a form of the coming state, then you don’t feel it and don’t know where to advance. Imagine a child who is not instinctively developing through nature, instead he is only developing according to external examples that he sees in front of him. If a two-year-old child doesn’t see the example of a three-year-old child in front of him, he cannot grow to the level of the age of three.

No matter how many blows they give him, he will not understand what they want from him. When we connect a person to the Upper Light and bring him an example, he gets an example of how he needs to be at the “age of three.” Now he understands this, is attracted to this, wants to grow, and activates his deficiency, the Reshimot.

And when he grows up to the age of three, he must develop further, and blows alone will not help here. He wants to grow, wants to avoid the blows, but he doesn’t know what to do. He now needs to see in front of him an example of a child of four. And without us, this will not happen.

Question: So are we offering connection to people as a goal or as a means?

Answer: Connection is a means for building the right form of humanity, that within this form it attains its source in order to connect to it. This is called humanity fulfilling itself. All of its desires are fulfilled with everything required, like some kind of completely filled container.
[135022]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Living Force Of The Universe
A Million Dollars Or The Upper Light?
Unity Is The New Format Of Humanity

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: How should we form our prayer? Should we start from a request to help the upper more, the fathers, the group, and mention myself only at the end?

Answer: This is exactly how we should form our prayer and we have to learn that. But at the moment, you can turn to the Creator any way you like, as long as it comes from the center of the group. We will gradually format our collective appeal correctly.

A prayer is not a simple appeal. You will have to place yourself in an increasingly more accurate manner that is established by several steps. Each appeal is a whole chain of adaptors, of connections, which at one end connects to you, then processes your request several times and makes it adaptable to the upper level.

It is a whole system. A prayer isn’t just words, but the order of two vessels (since a letter is a vessel), which on the one hand, are adaptable to you, and, on the other hand, to the Creator. You have to build this chain, starting from ZAT of Bina that takes care of you, until Malchut, in which you are incorporated when you rise from the system of the worlds of the shell.

In order to do that, you have to use the 22 letters of the (Hebrew) alphabet correctly and the five final letters “MNTZPCH”, so that your prayer in the form of the spiritual vessels, which means that is made of the letters that are correctly arranged, will attain the Creator (God), ZAT of Bina.

We don’t know how to do that, but we gradually form our prayer by our experience. Kabbalists who lived during the time of the Temple prepared the Siddur (book of prayers) for us. The time of the Temple was the time that the Holy vessels existed, in which Malchut and Bina were connected, which is called the house of Holiness, the Temple. A house is Malchut and a Temple is Bina.

The great Kabbalists of that time made up the great Knesset (assembly), which means that they were connected into one vessel and were on a level of greatness, in great spiritual attainment. They are the ones who wrote the Siddur for us.

We will attain these prayers some day, but Kabbalists wrote them for us in advance. If we express them, whether we understand them or not, thinking in this direction, we still advance. If we read the prayers correctly, which means that we perceive these appeals in a spiritual manner, we can see great things in them.

Kabbalists express their appeals in two ways: one through words, which means in a sequence of letters, and the other in the form of symbols, simply letters with a filling. The form of every letter is a whole HaVaYaH, which means ten Sefirot, with a special Reshimo (spiritual gene), in a special state, and this is why they wrote the prayers.

My work is how to adhere more to the group, to the Rav, to the books, to dissemination, to everything that is relevant to the Light. There are no other means, but these are enough.
[133677]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/04/14, Writing of Rabash

Related Material:
A Prayer By The Central Pillar
The Components Of A Correct Prayer
A Prayer Book Is The Saga Of Spiritual Life

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: When the Light illuminates us, it is easy to be disengaged from our ego and look at it from the side. But what can I do if things are bad for me and I am entirely within my ego?

Answer: If things are bad for me within my ego, why don’t I use this to help me to get away from it?

Question: But it hurts!

Answer: It hurts because you are stuck in this feeling. Why can’t you disengage and leave it so that you can look at it from the side?

This is the whole difference between the path of Torah and the path of suffering. If I don’t prepare myself, I become stuck with a bad feeling. But if I have prepared myself, then the bad feeling helps me to disengage and get away from this bad feeling and adhere more to the group.

This is the dividing point between the two ways. Everything depends on preparation. Then I accept bad things as good, as gifts, and I bless them.

I don’t need to artificially bless the bad as well as the good . Rather, both the bad and the good help me to run forward. It is as if I am sick and feel pain; this helps me to turn to a doctor immediately and show him exactly where it hurts.

We suspect that I am sick, but we cannot determine where the painful area is. So the pain shows me the problem area, so I am happy about the pain. I go to the doctor and show him where it hurts me and then he heals me.

So I see a sign of advancement, of healing in the pain. Without it I would not be able to advance. I don’t feel the pain itself, except as an indicator of correction and advancement; and I am happy about this!

This pain is felt completely differently, since it is not felt as pain and suffering, but as a sign. It is all the subtlety of a psychological perception in the mind. Try to relate to it in this way and you will see that there are no pains, but instead, there is a traffic light that turns red.

Everything depends on my relationship to this traffic light. Sometimes I am angry at it and am ready to kill it, and sometimes I perceive this in a relaxed manner, only as a sign. I even want this pain to come me, “I awaken the dawn.” To me, signs of malfunction are desirable because then I advance through them.

My work is how to adhere more to the group, to the Rav, to the books, to dissemination, and to everything that is relevant to the Light. There are no other means, but these are enough.
[134483]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/04/14, Writing of Rabash

Related Material:
True Gratitude For The Creator
Don’t Look For The Painkillers, Go For The Treatment Instead
Letters On Parchment

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Perception, Spiritual Work - No Comments →