From Rabash’s Article “A Prayer of Many”: …We can interpret the words of the holy Zohar, which advises those people with an inner demand, who cannot accept the state they are in because they do not see any progress in the work of God, and believe what is written… The advice is to ask for the whole collective.

In other words, everything that one feels that he is lacking and asks fulfillment for, he should not say that he is an exception, meaning that he deserves more than what the collective has. Rather, “I dwell among my own people,” meaning I am asking for the entire collective because I wish to come to a state where I will have no care for myself whatsoever, but only for the Creator to have contentment. Therefore, it makes no difference to me if the Creator takes pleasure in me or can receive the pleasure from others.

The fact that we only perceive a small fragment of reality is not essential. Authentic reality is integral, closed, single, and unified; this one vessel was created, organized by, and fulfilled with one Light called “The Lord and His Name are One” where the Creator is the Light and His Name a vessel, desire.

If we want to eventually start perceiving the true reality, responding to it correctly, and becoming its conscious participants, being worthy of a human developmental level rather than just behaving at inanimate, vegetative, or animate levels that are completely subordinate to the Light, we should start thinking solely about our society. In fact, all of us already act accordingly. We never make mistakes, nor do we ever commit “bad” deeds since we are just following the orders of nature without even acknowledging this fact.

That’s why only those who study Kabbalah can be considered “sinners” or “righteous” since they understand that reality is global, integral, general, unified, and that the Light fulfills it and acts inside it. If it is so, then how can we make personal, individual plans or rely on ourselves? How can anything of an individual nature exist if the entire system is completely intertwined?

There is no such thing as individuality. Each element is an inseparable part of a whole. It is included in all other elements of the system and the entire structure is a part of them.

There are just 10 Sefirot; each of which is divided into 10 parts and so on to infinity. That’s why it is impossible to state that we have something that belongs exclusively to us. Everything is collective! There is nothing outside us since we are present in each particle of the entire structure.

Thus, correct calculations are always of a social nature. There is nothing private. “Individuality” apart from a commonality is just a point in which we agree that we completely belong to the entirety and that nothing but wholeness exists.

We should think, feel, receive, and bestow solely through our sense of commonality—only through unity!
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/14

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Right now we need to clarify which problems must actually be solved before and during the convention. Otherwise this will not be called a “convention,” a convening, a connection.

Question: It is understandable that we need to feel happy about connection. But must we also be afraid of not attaining a connection?

Answer: There is a particular age below which the child is exempt from commandments (Mitzvot) because he is small. After that we begin to educate him and say to him what he is allowed to eat and what he is forbidden to eat, or that one can do something this way and is not allowed to do it that way.

The first commandment is called “fear” in the presence of the Creator. I am afraid of whether or not I will be able to give Him contentment, will this action make Him happier, what will make Him less happy? For this, I must reach an age of maturity, “Bar Mitzvah,” meaning a level when a person is aware that he is responsible for his thoughts, intentions, and deeds of correction. A “Mitzvah” is correction. The question is, have we reached this age?

If we were already like this today, we will feel the fear, the apprehension: “Friends, the goal before us is to give contentment to the Creator! If we don’t do this, it will be very bad.” This will be very bad not for ourselves, but bad for another, for others; otherwise, this is not called a “Mitzvah” if I am thinking about myself. But if we succeed in giving contentment to the Creator, this will be good for the entire world! What will be with us doesn’t matter to us.

This means that we must make many preliminary corrections before we reach realization of this first commandment of fear, of apprehension, of the thought, “Am I giving contentment to the Creator or not?” It’s forbidden for you to get some kind of benefit from this in return for this will no longer be a commandment, this will not be bestowal, this will not be giving contentment to the Creator. It’s possible to bring contentment to the Creator only if there is no self-interest, if one is making Him happy without considering personal loss or gain. We must still rise to this level by making a restriction on our ego so that the result will not be considered in relation to ourselves.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: To what level do we need to rise today? What exactly must we emphasize in attaining connection between us?

Answer: The first task is: “Love covers over all transgressions.” All evil that is revealed is discovered within the entire system and doesn’t depend upon anyone personally, even if it seems that this comes from someone or is discovered in someone. Everything that is revealed comes from the general integral system even if I see it locally and attribute it to a particular person and not the Creator. This is a defect in my comprehension.

All of the problems and defects are revealed so that I can rise above them again with faith above reason. If I discover negative characteristics in a friend (a friend who is with me on the path), this is a sign that I can accept him with faith above reason, with love.

All of the troubles and all of the joys, everything that happens with all of us, we must register this in our shared account and not attribute it to someone or something separate. This is all a game from above that the Creator plays with us.

The second task: We are not gathering in order to connect among us! We are coming to discover the Creator! And in order to discover Him we connect between us. Don’t confuse what is secondary from the essence.

Regarding everything that happens, we must feel first that this comes from Above and “If I am not for myself who will be for me?” and ultimately everything that happens is happening according to the program of creation. But in the middle, between these two points, the beginning and the end, I must reveal full devotion, nullify myself, and beyond this nullification, help everyone also to become like this as well.

First I nullify myself completely. And when I finish totally nullifying myself, then above my nullification, I begin to help others to do everything that they want. This is called reception for the sake of bestowal. Remember that our convention is not a convention of connection between us; instead, it is a convention of connection with the Creator.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How do I feel the friend’s ten spiritual Sefirot inside me and how they develop when I penetrate the friend?

Answer: If you penetrate the friend you begin to feel his ten Sefirot. They are felt as different tastes, as if you are in a good restaurant and received the main course, and next to it many other dishes: different salads and desserts. You begin to feel many flavors in the friends, different attributes.

When your connection continues to develop, nothing disappears from you. In the corporeal world we usually forget the weak flavors when we receive some great pleasure. It’s very common with small children who immediately throw away an old toy when they see a new one. But it’s different in spirituality where the Light of NRNHY operates and which includes many levels.

It says: “Love will cover all sins.” This means that we have to feel the sins, the conflicts and the love simultaneously, and there cannot be one without the other. This is the structure of the ten Sefirot of the Direct Light and of the Returning Light that are dressed into each other that we have to feel in all their opposite forms and attributes. One doesn’t extinguish the other. This is the wonder of the spiritual world where there cannot be “a little bit” of anything but rather the maximum. There is no past, no present, and no future; everything connects simultaneously into one feeling.

In the corporeal world we want to forget the family quarrels and to start a new leaf as if nothing happened, but this isn’t correction. The correction is actually when all the disagreements remain and nothing is forgotten and on top of it we establish an even greater state. This is actually the reason that everything flourishes. We have no such opportunity in the corporeal world but only in the spiritual world. When two opposites exist together in order to bestow, they amplify one another.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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From Shamati #4, “The Reason For The Difficulty Of Annulling Oneself For The Creator”: If one can magnify one’s vessels, to that extent he magnifies the luminescence. Yet the question is, with what can one magnify one’s vessels? The answer is, in the extent to which he praises and gives thanks to the Creator for having brought one closer to Him, so one would feel Him a little and think of the importance of the thing, meaning that he was awarded some connection with the Creator.

As is the measure of the importance that one pictures for oneself, so the measure of the luminescence grows in him.

At first, it seems to us that our task is to feel the Creator. It is like an egoistic desire: to see Him, to attain, to reveal. It is not understood how one can aspire to this reward because one has to work selflessly: without feeling and attainment, like slaves who are dedicated to their master no matter what they get. If it is bestowal, it should be pure.

Feeling the Creator already seems like a reward. But this is not so because in order to feel the Creator, one must become like Him, achieve the same properties, desires, and thoughts. Thus we are allowed to strive to reveal Him.

Kabbalah is the method of revelation of the Creator by created beings in this world,

meaning, correcting them to a state of equality, to similarity to the Creator. According to this similarity, the created being reveals the Creator and adheres to Him, feels that “the whole earth is full of His glory.” Every desire of a person is filled with the property of bestowal and love, which is called the “Creator.” A person takes this structure, the form of complete bestowal and love and this means that the Creator is clothed into him.

There is no Creator without the created being that would come from somewhere and become clothed into us. “This will be one’s entire work, meaning all the vigor that he puts into the work will be only to achieve that, and not for any other things”—in this correction that allows a person to achieve adhesion with the Creator and be grateful for that. That is, he puts efforts into work in order to adhere to the Creator, to reveal Him, changing and becoming like Him. He should not think of anything, meaning that the only reward that he wants for his work should be to be rewarded with faith in the Creator.

Faith is bestowal; that is, a person looks for an opportunity to bestow.

We must know that there is no difference between a small illumination and a great one, which a person attains. There is complete unlimited abundance in the world. Take whatever you want from creation—only use it correctly in order to build yourself in the corrected form. This is because there are no changes in the Light. Rather, all the changes are in the vessels that receive the abundance, as it is written, “I the Lord change not.”

Hence, if one can magnify one’s vessels, to that extent he magnifies the luminescence. Yet, the question is, with what can one magnify one’s vessels? The answer is, in the extent to which he praises and gives thanks to the Creator—that is, he values the property of bestowal and love that becomes high and desired for him; he feels grateful for having brought one closer to Him.

A person is grateful for the entire path: for all the bad and good. He understands that his life has not had a single state not aimed at the goal. It does not matter whether a person realized that or not, but the Creator steadily advanced him to the goal. Any event in human history was intended to strengthen our unity with the Creator.

The Creator all the time attracted a person, “so one would feel Him a little and think of the importance of the thing, meaning that he was awarded some connection with the Creator. As is the measure of the importance that one pictures for oneself, so the measure of the luminescence grows in him.”  If a person is constantly thinking only about this, then he feels the greatness of the property of bestowal and love; the state that he has to achieve, being detached from his “I.” To that extent, he attracts the Light that Reforms, which advances him in the desired direction.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/14

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All of our lives must be directed towards the one cause from which this life is derived, that is, towards the Creator. And He is the goal we must achieve. And all the events in our life in our world are in sum derived from that thought of creation. And if we direct ourselves correctly at every moment towards that unique goal that is shaped by the thought of creation, we advance on the “royal road.”

Clarifying the direction and being conscious of this way is possible through the means that are given to us in this world. This world is created and stabilized in such a way on all of its levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human and the relationships between them all only to give us the unique possibility of correct action, meaning that we direct ourselves towards the Creator at every moment.

And the means that helps us to direct ourselves towards the Creator from every circumstance that happens to us in this world is the group. The group is like a mini-humanity within which we find ourselves in the right environment that we have constructed for ourselves. The more we organize it in an ideal, correct, good, and true form, through this we can rise higher and higher. The group is a level that is above me towards which I elevate myself more and more upward through the society.

Work in society is interesting and unique in that it becomes the intermediary between us and the Creator and between us and humanity. I cannot find the Creator by myself because I must reach equivalence of form with Him for this. In order to become equivalent to the Creator I must achieve “for the sake of bestowal,” essentially I must be in the intention to bestow. And this is possible only if I insert myself into a group and lose myself there. If together with the group I go out towards the Creator, surely I will be found in bestowal.

In order to bestow to the Creator by way of the group, I must carry the entire group in the direction of bestowal to the Creator. Therefore together we must mold the group in this direction with such a goal, with such a mission, to be connected in order to bestow to the Creator. This must be our shared goal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/14, Workshop

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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Article, “You Are in Partnership with Me,” Item 64: When that word of wisdom that was innovated in this world rises, it connects to those words of Atik Yomin, ascends and descends with them, and enters eighteen concealed worlds, which “Neither has the eye seen a God besides You.” They come out of there and wander, and they come full and whole, and assemble before Atik.

The Zohar explains how we can reach partnership with the Creator to us. To the degree that we take control of our egoistic desire to receive, we are found in partnership with the Creator to this degree. The Creator dominates all of reality and all of reality was created from a desire to receive. Therefore, we also ask the Creator to give us control over our desire to receive. And in this way we reach equivalence of form with the Creator.

Our desire to receive is that field within which we work together: both the Creator and us. We act within this field, and within it, we meet the Creator, and there we become His partners. After all, we ask for a force from the Creator that will make it possible to manage and control our desire to receive just as He controls us. The Creator created all of the worlds, and we want to create them; He shattered the worlds, and we correct them.

We become partners of the Creator to the degree that we are in control when encountering the ego, when encountering our desire to receive. Our degree of control over the desire to receive determines our degree of adherence with the Creator and our spiritual levels. The entire hierarchy of levels is our greater and greater level of partnership with the Creator, our working together.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: How is the “middle phase” between this world and the spiritual world discovered?

Answer: The transitional phase between this world and the spiritual world is the physical group where we can begin to establish spiritual laws. This is a wonder in this world: deeds which are Lo Lishma (for my sake) can bring us to Lishma (to bestowal).

In other words, we do all kinds of deeds artificially, with false bestowal. Yet they advance us because there is a transitional level between the spiritual world and this world. This intermediary level is a person who is comprised of two parts: one within the other. Therefore it is possible to build an external group of people to carry out external actions and to awaken internal actions within them. This is as if we have two parts from different worlds in one “medium.”

And therefore a collection of people, a Minyan (ten people), become the ten Sefirot that intervene between this world and the upper world.
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Question: How can a person open his desires before the friends on the corporeal level as well as on the spiritual level?

Answer: Everyone should feel that they are in their own family where you can be sure that no matter what happens, it is all yours. All the problems, the outbursts, the disagreements with the children or the spouse are all yours and you have to fix things no matter how difficult it is. So try to treat the friends that way and see; check your heart to see whether it is really inclined to respond that way, whether it has this inclination, and whether it is ready for that.

We must develop our connection until we reach the level of mutual guarantee. Mutual guarantee is when I am ready to respond this way to everything for the sake of everyone, like a mother with regard to her children. She is ready to be responsible and to provide her children with everything that they need. This is natural and everyone understands this in our ordinary life. This is why we live in the corporeal world. Later this world will disappear and we will see forces instead of bodies. This world is called fictitious because instead of forces and qualities, we feel the body as the still, vegetative, animate nature, and people, which are all matter. But later we will see that these are forces of receiving and bestowing.

This world is given to us so that we will be able to ascend from this lowest point without being forced to or pressured to from Above. If we could see the spiritual world, we would lose our freewill. We would want to do everything according to what we see. So the concealment helps us to be free and puts us in a state where we can grow freely.

Adults move away from children in order to allow them to do things independently. It is the same here as the Creator conceals Himself to a certain extent and helps us in different ways “behind the scenes.” He gives us clues by showing us exactly what is wrong and what needs to be corrected. Our job is to remember that we are constantly shown our deficiencies in a negative manner and to constantly try to change the negative to positive.

Then we will be grateful to the Creator for treating us this way and teaching us in different ways, showing us the picture of all our attributes in an opposite manner, in their negative form. We want to connect this negative picture with our attributes, desires, and thoughts and make them positive. This is why we are in a constant search.

This is called the work of the Creator, which is done on top of everything that surrounds us. If we regard all these things spiritually, it will be spiritual and it will become our spiritual world. It is said that “the Creator did not change its original action of creation.”
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/14

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“Israel” means “Yashar-Kel” (straight towards the Creator). This is a person who reacts to influence from the Creator within himself and is ready to react in regard to Him. The Creator sends the “burdening of the heart” to us and it is up to us to surmount this, and to the degree that we surmount it, we begin to enter into a connection above all the disturbances, above all the egoistic desires, above all the thoughts that weigh upon us and which don’t direct us towards equivalence of form with the Creator.

When we rise above these disturbances that the Creator sends, we are called Israel. And if we sink within the disturbances and yearn to alleviate our condition, to become as comfortable as possible at every moment, then we remain on the level of corporeal, material existence.

Eventually, after undergoing very many trials and disappointments, “A penny and a penny are gathered into a large amount,” into a higher level. And then we begin to feel that we won’t agree to continue life this way. It is clear that this development can only be by means of the Light that ultimately brings us to a state of Israel, the yearning “straight to the Creator.”

The states through which we pass accumulate. We must pass through a multitude of actions, which within our ego, we don’t agree and don’t want to endure patiently. For our ego we want everything to happen quickly and pleasantly; but according to the relation between Lights and Kelim, it doesn’t happen this way. This continues until the desire to receive ultimately decides to be transformed, changing to an intention “for the sake of bestowal.”

This is like a pendulum that goes up higher and higher in two directions until in the end, it transforms at the highest point, reaching an intention “for the sake of bestowal.” And then all of the movements forward and back, right and left, up and down, in all directions and in all forms, everything enters into the volume of the new Kli that receives an intention “for the sake of bestowal.”

Therefore it is said, “I labored and found.” We must invest maximal effort until we reach this finding. And the finding arrives from Above. Even just a moment before this it is impossible to know when it will happen. It is forbidden to reveal this secret and to talk about it, so that we don’t sweeten this period too much for a person whose ego must be restrained.

Baal HaSulam laughed about the complaints of his students and said, “I am happy about the wicked that are discovered”. I remember when I was studying with Rabash, I was angry and demanding and encountered a very dry response from him that did not seem appropriate from a person who loved me. I thought that the teacher hated me, so happy was he with my difficulties. That is how it really seemed to me in the beginning of the study in the first half year. He would simply laugh in my face in response to my complaints.

I was really furious because I had invested so much effort; I did everything that he required from me, and he wasn’t at all merciful to me. But all this was only not to weaken this feeling of bitterness and despair in me. This is because if we soften this feeling, the time is lengthened. There is nothing to do; we must bow our heads and continue to accumulate our overcoming.

It is true that it is possible to “get your world in an hour.” Our efforts can be gathered very quickly and we can suddenly reach revelation. And truly there are signs that we are very close to revelation. But the last effort has a unique quality. And all of the quality that is attained depends upon the connection between us, in its strength and directness. For this we must open ourselves maximally so that not one thought or desire will remain that we wouldn’t reveal to everyone. This is the way each must examine himself, both men and women.

The work of the women is different from the work of the men, it is earthier, and that of the men is more spiritual. The men are more connected with the Creator and the women among themselves, overcoming rejection. This requires much effort.

It is worthwhile to pay attention to this, for in general a person thinks that spirituality is something detached from life, that it is above this world. He forgets that the spiritual Kli within which the Creator is discovered is his link with the friends. If the link between us will be appropriate for the discovery of the Creator, then He will be revealed, and if it is not appropriate, then the Creator will not be revealed. Period!
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/14

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