If I accept the group as a means for my advancement, I should correlate my whole path to the group. I begin to see the revelation of the Creator in the group: that He presents to me what I see in my friends.

I have no opportunity to evaluate them objectively. Thus from now on I maintain the principle: “Each rejects according to his own flaws.”

This does not mean that I close my eyes to everything. Our relationship now simply exists in two planes. On one hand, I accept the friends above reason as the best, genuine, and perfect group. I see them as great, and I see myself as adhering to their environment. On the other hand, I perceive them according to my logic and see that we all need to change for the better in order to help the group. Both sides of my approach are built on a real foundation: Either I see myself as uncorrected, or I see all of them as uncorrected.

I understand that my outlook depends on my inner state, and thus I work on both levels: At times I bow my head before the greatness of the friends, and at times I advance equally with them in an aspiration to unity and a common ascent.

Meanwhile I know that I never see the real picture, since until the final correction, everything is relative, and I lack firm criteria.
[24658]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/10, Writings of Rabash

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #3 “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment“

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2, Item 3

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”: A more developed person recognizes in himself a greater amount of evil, and hence repels and separates the evil from within to a greater extent. The undeveloped senses in himself only a small amount of evil, and will therefore repel only a small amount of evil. As a result, he leaves all his filth within, for he does not recognize it as filth.

Suppose that I am faced with evil in my life. However, Kabbalists say that this “evil,” as everything else, comes from the Creator. It turns out that I experience bad feelings and they come from Him. Accordingly, they seem like punishment to me and bring about fear. In fact, most of our efforts we devote to ward off such “punishment.” It happens that we do not even dream of good, but at least try to avoid evil, to escape from “punishment.”

A more developed person understands that he must do good, not so much because of possible punishments, but simply because it is good. It’s worthwhile to bring good to others and oneself. This level of being no longer allows him to simply to do wrong and hurt others.

An even more developed person begins to tie his relationship to the world with the concepts of reward and punishment. In other words, he sees the system’s attributes: some deeds lead to an award, another to a punishment. As if there is a judge, Nature, the upper force, no matter what its name, and He shows His attitude.

And some go even higher and realize that there is no punishment at all. On the contrary, if bad states seem to me as punishments that come from the Creator,  this is actually a punishment and a mistake. After all, only good comes from the Creator, and my bad feelings are caused by the fact that I am opposite to Him. I need to change my oppositeness, to become similar (Domeh) to the Creator, to become a human being (Adam). Then, being similar to Him, I will feel myself in goodness.

But then the question arises: Why do I need this? Just for the sake of good feelings? In this case, I am a “savage,” not a human. It’s even possible that I could become worse than I was before, turning into filth, wanting to take advantage of the Creator. Or I have no choice: I have to have good feelings because otherwise my desire will not let me do anything.

Maybe, I will ask the Creator to still help me do good things but not because of a reward or punishment. I want to disconnect from them, disconnect from them so much that even in my vessels (desires) I am experiencing “punishment,” darkness; nonetheless, I will rise above this feeling and remain in bestowal upon the Creator. There is darkness in the desires, and above them I will give Him the Light, my good attitude to Him.

But how? Do I have to kiss the stick that beats me? No. I want to really change my nature, I don’t want to pretend to love, not fake love, but to truly rise above myself, over the “material” of my desire.

How can we do this? What we call a “miracle” will work here: I begin to live in what is happening above the screen and the Reflected Light, above my “body.”

Question: And am I shrouded in darkness until then?

Answer: Until then, I go through the stages of analysis until I decide that the darkness in me is the Light coming from the Creator. It’s no coincidence that the Aramaic word “Orta” means “night,” the opposite side of Light (“Ohr” is light in Hebrew). Each stage begins from the “evening,” as it is said, “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” I always start with the darkness, with the breaking, and this leads me to a new analysis, a new dawn.

So, what is the darkness that I feel? Is this darkness or not darkness? This is the Light that appears as darkness in my corrupted vessels, desires.

But wait, is it only in mine? Didn’t King David “get up at midnight,” when the “north wind” was playing on the strings of the “harp” that hung over his bed (see the treatise “Brachot”)? Doesn’t he write in Psalms about his misadventures? Hence, he felt darkness, didn’t he?

That is correct, Kabbalists also experience these states. May God grant us experiencing them, to come to the Light through them. Anyway, these are not the “blows of fate,” but rather the calls that draw us forward. There are no troubles; there are only appeals, calling us to come to the Creator as soon as possible.
[120028]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: What are the signs that can help us determine that the desire is corrected?

Answer: The corrected desire can connect to other desires. This is the sign according to which you can check it. If several desires connect, it is a sign that they are corrected to some extent and that they have a collective Masach (screen).

Two desires that connect can already create a spiritual Partzuf, just like when two cells merge into one that is the beginning of a new body. Each of these cells is egoistic, but the connection between them is performed by the force that is above nature. Although each cell is meant to keep its boundaries according to its egoistic nature, the force, the instinct that arrives, forces them to connect.

The force of nature connects the cells, breaking their egoistic Masachim, the shells that don’t allow them to connect. But in nature everything happens automatically according to instincts, while we need to ask for that, since we are the special part in all of nature; we want to resemble the Creator. So we use His powers, but we form the creation by ourselves. It says that the Creator has prepared everything and shattered the creation, and the righteous correct and reconstruct creation.
[119597]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why is it written, (Psalms 126:5) “Those who sow in tears will reap with song.” Why don’t they sow with rejoicing? Why do I need to be in tears all the time?

Answer: The sowing is always done with tears, for we invest much effort and feel the deficiency of dissatisfaction. What is it to sow in the inner work? I take a plow and begin to plow myself with the help of a donkey or a bull, and if I don’t have a donkey or a bull, then I tie the plow to the members of my household so that they will pull the plow and will make furrows in the ground, meaning in my desire.

Through their desire to live, they make a groove in me, in my heart. In this groove, I need to sow seeds, but I want to eat them! I don’t understand why I must put them in the ground. This is completely unnatural. If someone were to look at this from the side, he would scream, “Wait a minute. Why are you throwing this into the ground? Come, and bake bread!” However, my behavior is very strange. I put this into the ground, and further, I water it so it will rot. I look forward to the seeds that could have been eaten decomposing. I am like some lunatic.

And then, the first sprouts, shoots and stem appear. I wait a long time for the seeds to ripen on the stalks. All of my behavior seems completely illogical, but, “There is none so wise as the experienced,” and I understand that from this bread is produced.

Question: However, in any case, can I be sure that they will reap in joy, that there won’t be mistakes on the way?

Answer: If you make a mistake, then there will be nothing to harvest, and everything will be lost, and, if you don’t err, they will grow. If you know how to use all the laws of creation in the right form, then you will reach rejoicing and harvesting, and will eat all the fruit. However, this is only on condition that you are not so naïve as the villager who eats the raw, unprocessed grain, like his donkey. In the book, Sifra D’tzniuta, a story is told about a simple villager who never had left his village. But one day, he journeyed to a city and saw that they were selling all kinds of delicious, breads, cakes, and pastries. He was amazed and asked where all these wonderful things came from? And he was told that it was from the wheat grain that he raised and sent to the city.

However, he didn’t know all this because he was a “donkey” the same as his donkey. “City” means that we are joined together and then we can bake a delicious bread, and as long as you are alone, you will live on the level of the donkey. All the advancements are possible only through connection between people, which is the first, lowest level in correction of the shattered Kli in the correction of the shattering of the soul.
[118627]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/13, Writings of Rabash

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #3 “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment“

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Beresheet (Genesis),” “He Carved a Carving in the Upper Light.” Item 1

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2, Item 3

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” 

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We believe that we don’t get an immediate answer to our requests and our prayers, but it isn’t true, you do get an immediate response. You are in an integral system that is internally connected by billions of strings. So there is no way that you perform a certain action either in your thoughts, in your speech, or your actions that doesn’t affect the system. Every tiny change that you undergo internally shakes the whole system. It responds to each and every detail.

It is like one body that responds to every one of its cells, to every desire. You are connected to everyone and cannot perform one single action without shaking the system. Everyone begins to move thanks to you and you constantly change the system. The mechanical actions have a minimal influence on the system and speech also has very little effect. But your intention brings about enormous changes in the whole system, even right now when your intention isn’t exactly the right one but you still are trying to attain it. You are like a baby trying to advance.

We don’t see such an effect in the corporeal world, but in the spiritual world people who are just starting their spiritual work summon a real and powerful response of the whole system by their actions. According to your advancement, you gradually grow from a person who performs actions to a person who serves those who perform actions when you rise to the level of Bina, Hafetz Hesed, or even higher than that. You only serve the lower by helping them, but they are actually the ones who bring about the greatest changes in the system and it is certainly thanks to you.

The state of the upper, whether it is smallness or greatness, depends on the lower, on the MAN, on the prayer, that they raise. But it is they, the smallest ones, that raise MAN (a prayer), and in response to that, the whole system is shaken by responding to their efforts to be incorporated in the system in their understanding and feeling.
[119971]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/13

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Question: What can help us become independent of the outcome of our work?

Answer: We should switch the corporeal outcome to a spiritual outcome. A spiritual outcome is to delight the Creator. Imagine that you want to delight someone, to please him, and to make him happy and this someone is the Creator.

In order to picture the Creator more accurately and to be less mistaken, you should imagine that you want to make all of reality happy: All the still, vegetative, animate nature, and people, you want to make feel good and you actually dissolve and disappear in them, dedicating yourself to them in every possible sense, from now till eternity, beyond time, motion, and place, in everything that you do.

In order to be more concrete, imagine that you are in a group and that you want and try to act this way with regard to the friends. You want to totally dedicate yourself to them, to be in them, and to disappear and be incorporated in them, but this has to be fulfilled in practice, which means that you should be ready to do anything in order to disappear in them. This means that everything disappears: the causes, the actions, the outcomes; everything is aimed at the friends.

Think about it and imagine this situation and check your conclusions and clarifications in practice by your actions. We have to clarify whether what we say isn’t just empty words and whether they penetrate your heart. This is examined only by one’s actions. If such an intention enables you to operate yourself, it means that your intention is right. But if you have to change your intention in order to operate yourself and to start doing something, then your intention isn’t serious enough yet, as it says “without a cover.”
[119969]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/13

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Our desire to receive was created on purpose with such special attributes, that it is prone to rest (in the sense that our ego understands the concept of rest). That is to say, that we want to receive pleasure, fulfillment, to find release, to relax. Thus any action that is against our desire to receive demands us to use force to make an effort in order to strength us in “awareness.”

Let’s suppose in a certain moment I forget my state, my work, because the desire to receive, my egoistic nature, aspires to rest. So how can I push myself, how can I check myself and return again to awareness in relation to the goal, according to adhesion to the Creator? The person himself is unable to do this, but only with the help of the society. This means through an external factor that can operate on him.

If I, on purpose, prepare and organize such an environment for myself, then it will move and inspire me. Without that, I have no possibility to promise that in the future I will be connected and aimed at the goal of creation each moment: the unity of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.”

This way is called the path of the Light, the path of accelerating time (Achishena). Through the strong support of the environment, I progress, constantly searching, like an old man who walks bent who constantly looks for what he lost, even before he lost it. I am constantly checking myself if I didn’t deviate from the correct direction of Israel, Torah, and the Creator as being one. Checking if I haven’t lowered the demands through which I appraise my loyalty to the goal of the Creator.

If I forget the goal, then only the environment can quickly return me to awareness and remind me of ascent. But if that doesn’t happen, then in any case the Creator helps me in sending me reminders and putting me back on the path, but already through means that are not so pleasant. I feel some sort of loss and absence, sorry for my actions or state of unpleasant events. The Creator reminds me by making me feel sorry that I lose out in my spiritual work or on some corporeal problem in my regular life.

The method of influence depends on that, on how far I distanced myself from the direction of the unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator. If I remain within certain limits that are close to the same path, and don’t deviate from the main road, then the society brings me back in the right direction. But if I forgot the goal and didn’t prepare the correct environment for myself that will hold me within the correct borders, then I will completely deviate from the path of the Light and will go on the path of suffering.
[119273]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/13, Shamati #70 “With a Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out”

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The path to revelation consists of implementing all conditions, again and again, on each degree, until a person comes to the limitless, endless revelation, a perfect adhesion. He reaches adhesion on each degree. Each degree is similar to the next one, the difference is only in the quality and quantity of the details that get accumulated there and make us perceive a degree as a new world every time.

“Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one” derives from the fact that initially, we are in the world of Infinity, fully merged with the force of the Creator, the force of Light. There, there is no difference between the vessel and the Light, and thus there is no Israel, meaning someone who aspires to the Creator. The created being becomes Israel only under condition that it is separated from the Creator but nevertheless aspires to adhere to Him and to reach adhesion, still remaining independent.

Two opposite conditions are needed: From one side, separation from the Creator, and from the other, adhesion. That is, one needs to remain independent—this is the entire meaning of creation.

Israel, the Torah, and the Creator have to connect for us all the time in their final form—as much as we are able to imagine this for now. The creature is equal to the Creator to the extent that it can envision the Creator’s image, His properties that have already been dressed onto the creature. We imagine ourselves as being at the end of the path already, meaning having completed our current degree, because we are unable to think of something beyond our current degree.

But we aspire at least for this, meaning we wish to become Israel and to reach full adhesion with the force of bestowal and love for the wicked and for the righteous, for the enemies and friends alike—till the end of correction. Although in reality, this is only our current degree. After all, everything that we can only imagine to ourselves, the entire creation from end to end, exists within this framework, this very tiniest Sefira, which is being revealed for us now, for the meantime. And still, we must imagine to ourselves that we want to reveal everything, correct everything, and to adhere to the Creator in everything. We want to do it so that the entire world becomes my soul, and all the properties are corrected to bestowal and love.

We picture ourselves corrected in this way, to aspire for this, we study and perform all the necessary actions for this in order to attain this final state: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” But along the path towards attaining this goal, it’s necessary for us to fulfill the Creator’s commands, meaning to study all types of bestowal, which is what we do in the group. Most important is love for the friends in which all these notions are being clarified.

Having received such instruments out of love of friends, the vessels of Galgalta ve Eynaim, with their help you will be able to correct the receiving vessels, AHP, of that very degree, meaning those who are outside the framework of the group, to the degree when we start relating to everyone in exactly the same way. We relate to the group as to the place of our inner work and the source of strength. Yet, the real place of work is the AHP, meaning the entire world.

GE are created so as to take care of AHP. The breaking occurred namely for this reason, and the sparks of bestowal from GE penetrated into AHP. This way, the rudiments of correction were created in AHP. After all, without it, AHP has no hope for correction.

For this reason we need to always prepare ourselves in our GE, in the group, the studies, our connection, a friendly hug, and seminars, and afterward come out to work with the desires of AHP. The true realization is carried out in AHP, while preparation is in GE.

Although it seems to us as if we correct ourselves while working between ourselves in the group, essentially it is only the work of preparation.

Our work is called the “work of the Creator.” We do not act ourselves, the Light does. Meanwhile, each time, we need to reveal the area in which the Light will be able to work, as it is said: “Open the tip of the needle….” Our request, rising upwards as a prayer, MAN, opens the sluice to the Light, into which it enters and operates. The Creator carries out His work, and we need to only open the entrance for Him. This is called revealing the world: Each time we come to a new world.
[116637]
From Preparation for the Lesson 9/11/2013

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