Question: What should our intention be when we read The Book of Zohar?

Answer: When we study different sources, we discuss our desires, problems, successes, and failures. Now we begin to read The Book of Zohar in order to discover all our deficiencies: those that we feel and those that we don’t feel, the conscious and the unconscious, the exposed and the forgotten. We want to correct all that.

What is correction? We don’t really understand others and are quite confused. Where is the correction supposed to come from? We don’t know and it is concealed from us. Therefore it is called merit.

We simply ask for correction and that’s it! When this happens we will see what it means. But we can already ask, like a baby whose mother understands when he cries and gives him what he wants or needs; although he cannot express his request by even one word, she understands what he needs by his voice.

It is the same with animals. On the whole, on every level, the lower level doesn’t know and cannot understand the upper level. The request of the lower isn’t realistic and is of course, incorrect with regard to the upper. But the difference between the levels compensates for this flaw and corrects it.

So it makes no difference if our request isn’t clear and isn’t expressed correctly. It is still accepted. There will always be a gap between the upper and the lower who cannot ask for what the upper has. If we had the desires of the upper, we would already be in His place.

I have my own desires and I only need to ask in order to receive. The request of the lower from the upper is compatible with the abilities of the lower, and the response of the upper is compatible with the abilities of the upper. The difference between them is called merit.

It is impossible to feel the influence of the merit directly. A person performs many actions: he works in the group, in dissemination, in the kitchen, prepares the room for the lesson, and it is clear to him that he invests his own powers here. But when he simply sits and listens to what is read, it seems that nothing happens.

Here we need faith in the sages, according to which there is no stronger source of Light than The Book of Zohar. We don’t see and don’t feel it, but it’s real. We simply have to keep on reading it, even half an hour a day, and it works. Let the Light operate in you.

We only see the outcomes in our desires, but we don’t know how the Light works. It is like electricity that we don’t actually know, but if we connect different appliances to it: an engine, a lamp, or a measuring device, we will see that electricity is flowing in the network. But it is invisible in and of itself, and we discover it only by its actions. Therefore, it is called the force that operates in the created being who is managed by this force.
[134746]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/02/14, The Book of Zohar

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 17

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 43 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” 

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Question: Can the power of the group help me in disseminating and make it easier for me to explain our ideas to people?

Answer: Of course, it is the general force that affects us, which we call the power of the group. But in fact we are the ones who operate the light that operates. We use the power of the group and friends and by our desires to connect, we draw the Light that begins to operate on us, and so we succeed. Everything goes through the Creator, through the general force.

I operate the desire, the desire operates the Light, and the Light operates the desire. Therefore, we have to thank the Creator after every action because eventually He is the one who does everything. But I operate the desire and by that I operate Him to do it.

A desire cannot influence a desire. Even when we say that we influence one another, it is not direct influence, but only through the Creator, through the Light. We cannot connect directly, and it is the Light that operates on the cooperation between us in small portions.
[134822]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: There are friends who theoretically understand the whole path and the requirements, but in practice they cannot annul themselves with regard to others. How should we attain connection in practice so that it will be more than just lip service?

Answer: There can be a gap of 10 to 15 years between the moment a person understands things theoretically until he can actually implement what he understands. A person continues to come to the lessons and has to do something, but he cannot bring himself to the center of the group, to participate and to incorporate into it voluntarily.

If he does it voluntarily, it means that the accurate desire to reach the Creator is already stabilized in him in its real form, which means in order to bestow, and that he already feels the right connection between people.

A person can listen and speak beautiful words and he can also understand everything, but it may take another 15 years until he actually participates in the work voluntarily.

He cannot do anything by himself. He tries, but it leads to nothing. The Upper Light still has to work on him and influence him bit by bit.

If a person incorporates  into the center of the group and realizes that this is where he will find the goal of creation, it is great progress; everyone should wish for this.
[134749]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/02/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can we increase the importance of duties so that friends in the group will understand that it is part of the spiritual work?

Answer: A person understands the importance of the group and the rigid frameworks he is in according to his spiritual level.

These frameworks determine whether he will follow the path of suffering, together with the whole world, or the short and comfortable path. If I understand that this gives me a unique opportunity that can disappear at any moment, then I need to make the best of every moment I have this opportunity.

It is like a person who is under the water and finally manages to rise to the surface and breathe. I also have to seize every opportunity, make haste, and participate in building a framework for myself. Thus I create the living conditions inside the aquarium or the hothouse where I can grow.

So a duty is purely working on my connection with the group. We already know that our advancement depends only on our connection with the group. This means that we have nothing to worry about but our connection with the group that is closely available.

Then we discover the mutual guarantee, the Creator, the prayer, the MAN, in the center of the group. But first we have to establish the framework of the group. The framework of the group is first of all participating in the duties and the different activities that support the group.

So whoever thinks lightly of the duties simply loses. The group will exist without him, but he will not be able to exist without it. If he wants to discover spirituality, then he has no choice but to make haste, to incorporate in the group, and participate in everything possible in order to advance it towards unity.
[134668]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/14, Writings of Rabash

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 17

Workshop

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 42

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 4

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I hope that through dissemination we will feel a need to adhere with the Creator. The group itself doesn’t have a big enough deficiency for this. If the dissemination will be with a strong enough intensity, in return, this will create pressure on us. We will then need to mature, like a young couple who become parents and begin to take care of a child. They are forced to become more serious, more mature, responsible and independent.

Then you will need to see that in every stage of life it is only a picture and nothing more. It comes from the Creator as a game, and  with the help of the environment, you must position yourself towards it in the right way.

The more you participate in the group, in dissemination, and essentially in the world because you are going to bestow to the whole world, the more and more actively and practically you enter into this game with the Creator. This helps you to participate in it with more understanding and more feeling.

Just as the Creator acts on you, manages you, and plays with you, you act in exactly the same way towards the external community, managing and playing with it. Meanwhile, you still don’t know and don’t feel this yourself, as you have not yet accommodated between you, the community, and the Creator. But this will come.

During the process of work in the community, you will feel that it is very much like what the Creator does with you. In sum, what does Bina do? It takes what is before it, from Keter to the middle of Bina, and bestows all this to Malchut.

So our dissemination is really the game of life where we learn and transform ourselves in order to become similar to the Creator.
[134549]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/04/14, Writing of Rabash

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Question: How does it follow that you can try for years to connect with the society unsuccessfully and not understand and feel that the society is more important and greater than you, and then within half an hour of dissemination work, you suddenly understand everything?

Answer: The idea is that dissemination makes you more like the Creator. You come to tell people about connection, love, and the necessity to unite, and with this you become a conduit for the Light, a pipe that transmits the Light.

And because you carry out your role with this, from Above a little more special Light comes to you that causes you to grow. If you raise the shortcoming of the lower to the higher, you get a double portion. You are already getting a part of your AHP that you never had before. With this you grow qualitatively: It’s not just that from a little baby you become a big baby; rather, you get the powers and understanding of a youth and then those of a mature person.

If a person doesn’t take care of the external public, he will not develop his desire to receive, his AHP. And all intelligence, sensation, and development are found in the AHP. Therefore, it is said: (Talmud Babyli, “Ta’anit,” 7a) I learned much from my masters, more from my friends, and even more from my students.

For when a teacher teaches his students, he develops his AHP, as it is said: (Talmud Babyli, “Baba Batra,” 124a) The firstborn gets a double portion. And through this he grows. And if a teacher doesn’t take care of his students, then he grows only in his Galgalta and Eynaim, which is called being mute.

But the moment that you go out to disseminate, you qualitatively develop your vessels; this is the AHP of the vessels. Therefore, this is so important. I hope that dissemination will bring us salvation, meaning that it will raise us to the next level.
[134546]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/14, Writing of Rabash

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 16

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Emor” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 40

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah”

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Question: Could it be that we lack the feeling of fear with regard to the greatness of our role, of our mission, when we go out to disseminate to people?

Answer: It is impossible to demand this feeling of fear from a person if he doesn’t see the whole picture. How, for example, can a baby know how dear he is to his parents? He runs around but has no feeling of self importance, of the importance of his role, of the fact that he exists. If he could understand how important he is to his parents, to those around him, he might run around differently.

It is the same with us: How do we know that we are infinitely dear to the Creator? We hear about that but we don’t understand and don’t perceive it enough so that we would begin to act differently.

Question: How can we develop ourselves so that adhesion to the goal and the great responsibility that we have will affect us in a way such that we will not leave others until we bring them to where they should be?

Answer: Simply do what you have to do each time and everything will gradually work out. Don’t worry, leave some work for the teacher, the group, and the Creator. Don’t take all of creation upon your shoulders.
[134544]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/14, Writing of Rabash

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