Having started to work in groups of ten, you can think about your big group only through your “ten.” The ten is now the cell through which you connect to the world, whether it is speaking to your wife or to your boss at work. Every action you make is through this group; you dress in them.

A group of ten is not about physical bodies, but about principles that we clarify and fulfill together. Gradually, you begin to feel that this invisible, airy formation becomes clearer, connects with the forms of your relationships, and takes on a certain weight, shape, stability, and a real, tangible existence.

Now, in the relationships between you and others, you feel things that you only heard of or read about before. It already becomes a reality.

A group of ten is a sensible, materialized image of your unity, like a family. Indeed, what is a family? There is a woman who lives with me, and I have several kids who live in the same house. A family, however, is not separate people, but something that is a single whole: our relationships, our dependence on one another, the mutual bestowal, and the concern. It is a whole system that is called a “family.”

I don’t worry about someone personally, but about the well-being of the entire family. This is the feeling I should have with regard to my group of ten so that I will approach every discernment and feeling only through it. Otherwise, I never will see the upper world. I must start looking at everything through this focusing lens, through an aperture adjuster.

It limits my sight, and I look at everything only through it, through this very narrow aperture. If I look through a very small hole instead of using glasses, I will see everything sharply just as with glasses since glasses merely limit and focus the ray of light. This is why this very narrow aperture also allows me to see well as if I had very powerful glasses. We can look through the group in the same way. If you don’t look through the group, you won’t see the world.
[108088]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, The Book of Zohar – Introduction

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Question: What is the indication that a person is advancing? Is it when he feels that he is increasingly more repulsed by the friends or that he values them more?

Answer: A person’s advancement doesn’t depend on either one of these signs, but rather on the extent to which a person can “weave” the right picture and correctly combine the feeling of repulsion and attraction. The repulsion stems from the evil inclination and the attraction from the good inclination, and a person determines when he has to choose. He creates a connection, the combination, and he works like a weaver on a loom.

Everything depends on how he combines the two opposite forces: He understands that the repulsion is just as essential as the attraction. He has to discover that all the forces that are revealed in him with regard to the upper are always a blessing, and for his own good. There is nothing in the world, in reality, that is harmful or bad; everything depends on whether a person can see and justify it.

Can he unite the two opposite forces, not just in order to connect them but in order to make a new reality out of them? This is the new psychological picture of the world that is woven of two forces, as from two threads.

This reality doesn’t exist by itself: All of reality, both the fictitious and the real, exist only if we begin to identify it as we create it for ourselves. So we have to try to connect all the power and force and obligate them to work together, as this is all our work.

We have to see the whole Torah, human history, our whole evolution that is made of the creation of the spiritual reality from the two forces that were revealed to Abraham in this light, in this perspective. Our success depends on how well we manage to connect the two: the evil inclination and the good inclination, and do everything for the connection, the unity between them.
[107629]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/13, Writings of Rabash

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Rabash, “What is an Optional War in the Work,” Part 2: It is said: “My beloved is like a deer.” A deer turns its face backwards when it escapes. Thus the face becomes the posterior again. This means that He yearns and longs to adhere to Israel again. This generates longing in Israel too and the longing to be adhered to the Creator, and the extent of the yearning and the longing is actually the face itself.

This is the only way we advance, and it isn’t only spiritual advancement, but also in the corporeal world where time goes by and there are good times and bad times in our evolutionary process. From the time of the shattering of the vessels onward, the Light constantly influences the vessels and the Reshimot (informational genes) change all the time from face to posterior and back to face again, at one time corresponding to the Light and at the other not, and this goes on continuously.

So it seems to a person as if the Light comes and then it’s dark according to the state he is in. This is how corporeal life is arranged as joy and sadness constantly change, and it’s the same in spiritual work. But in spiritual work everything depends on a person and on his ability to awaken himself with the help of external means: the study, the group, the teacher, and dissemination.

Thus he hastens time. The more he participates actively in hastening time, the more strongly he feels the lowliness of his nature, but at the same time, he also feels elation and the greatness of the goal he wants to attain. It turns out that the Creator constantly turns His face or His posterior to a person, which is in fact only the person’s feeling according to his attainment. It’s all a result of the changing Reshimot in a person and his own participation.

So there are three factors that influence this process:

• a person’s Reshimot, which is the Aviut (thickness) of his desire;
• a person’s participation, which is his future Masach (screen);
• the Light at absolute rest, the Creator who always wants to be in a state of “face to face” with a person and is waiting for this relationship.

The main thing is to see that every state comes from the upper force and that it’s only in order to help us advance.
[105258]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/13

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Rabash, Letter 41: Thus the Torah is names of pleasures, and each pleasure has a different name.

Question: There are also sufferings and troubles other than pleasures, what names should we give them?

Answer: We name things according to the vessels, to the desires. It’s because we understand and perceive everything in the vessel, including the Light. It doesn’t exist by itself, apart from us, but rather like electricity about which we speak only with regard to its effects. Similarly, we discern the phenomena that stem from the Light, the effect of its actions inside us.

Pleasures are extra Light, a filling by the Light, and everything is revealed in the vessel. This is where the names stem from. Each one indicates the beginning and end of an action, as well as what happened in the actual process.

The name expresses an action that was performed by the force behind it. We, the created beings, have no other way to describe something. It’s because we don’t have any contact with the Light itself. We are limited in the matter of the desire and the form it takes on as it changes from its initial state until it resembles the Creator.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/13, Writings of Rabash

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 2“

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The Book of Zohar – Introduction, “The Letters of Rav Hamnuna Saba, the Letter Kof, Reish, Item 25, Lesson 17

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 2, Lesson 47

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Lesson 17

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Question: I still don’t understand what the “integrality” that we speak about all the time means.

Answer: Essentially, it’s about changing our approach, about a new “data set,” about a new perspective of the world. What is an “integral?” Let’s clarify this in geometric terms. Suppose there is a certain area that can be divided into small squares of a certain size. Then the area of each square is one square (1…²). In addition, we are also left with smaller parts that are not squares.

So how do we calculate the general area of the body (S)? We add all the squares to the area and then we have to calculate the area of the special parts (S-?). If we were speaking about weight, we would have to see what their center of mass is (He-?).

So we divide this area into even smaller squares and then add it up. The sum (∑) is called an “integral” (∫). Thus we calculate from zero to infinity (∞), down to the smallest details.

In the same way we reach the lowest level of the human race by integral education, down to the last detail. Eventually each of us, every “square” is equal to all the others. This is how integral education relates to generality, wholeness, and complexity.

The education will not correct the ego. The ego will still remain as it is, and there is nothing we can do with it: It cannot be re-trained, re-educated to move from reception to bestowal. The integral education “cuts corners” a little, but it doesn’t correct humanity. By implementing it we only bring people closer to a state that allows us to bring them the Light, and the Light will do its job, which we call “reform.” The conclusion is that the circles that we build will actually change only after we pass the Light to people.
[107751]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Question: What does it mean to be the Creator’s worker without any preconditions?

Answer: Suppose you say: “I don’t care what I do, I am ready to do anything from being your deputy or your chief foreman, to being the last, lowest, most despised cleaning man. I am ready to work for any wages from half the kingdom to nothing at all. I don’t care how pleasant the work is, whether I receive pleasure from it, or whether I am beaten. I am ready to be beaten every workday as long as you allow me to work for you. I beg you, take me without any preconditions!”

Everything depends on your tolerance here, on your patience, and on whether you are ready to withstand the unpleasantness and the pleasantness, the rewards and the punishment involved. Thus you advance above your “donkey,” above your ego that feels good or bad, and receive half the kingdom or blows in return for a day’s work. But the human being in you is totally adhered to the landlord. Do you agree to work this way?

You want to be given such conditions since it helps you attain the pure intention with regard to the landlord. But if you didn’t have such conditions you wouldn’t understand where you are and whether it is your ego that motivates you, lies to you; you are like the thief running before everyone shouting, “Catch the thief.”

You want to know exactly who is managing you, and it is possible only according to the changing states. You will attain nothing by feeling bad alone; there is no Light without darkness, and there is no darkness without Light; you need to feel both.
[107682]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/13, Writings of Rabash

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” “According to What Is Explained about Love Thy Friend as Thyself”

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The Book of Zohar – Introduction, “The Letters of Rav Hamnuna Saba, the Letter Tav,” Item 23, Lesson 16

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 4, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 18, Lesson 13

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace”

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Question: Why do we speak so little about good things and so much about problems and hardships that we encounter along the spiritual path?

Answer: I think that the problems we encounter are a good thing. In our case, we wouldn’t turn to find the Creator if it weren’t for these “troubles” as we call them.

I feel that such troubles are sweet since otherwise my “animal” would never turn in the Creator’s direction. They can indeed scare me and worry me and can even be a threat to my life, but it all comes in order to direct me to Him.

If so, what is wrong with that? Your corporeal body is what experiences the unpleasant feelings, so don’t identify with it, start forming the human being in you that “rides” the corporeal animal.

On the whole, the spiritual world is based on overcoming the evil inclination. It’s impossible to escape from it. Humanity has tried to do so throughout history with the help of various religions, beliefs, social structures, law codex, science and technology.

All this was actually an attempt to escape, a search for other means to improve our lives and abandon the path to the Creator. But these means bring about an even greater flaw, and eventually we will be left with nothing. For example, a few days ago the UN recommended using insects for food in order to fight hunger. Here it is—the future of the world….

In short, only by the revelation of evil can we be directed towards the goal since this is how we can choose what to consider as evil.  I may feel bad when my self love “complains” out of discomfort, or I may feel bad since I haven’t acquired my soul yet, the connection with others, and with the Creator as part of it. This is exactly where our free will lies.

It’s impossible to escape that, no matter what arguments you bring. The upper Providence operates without asking for my consent. Now I have to accept it and later I will understand it.

In any case spirituality is built on the corrupt desire for pleasure. So we cannot avoid speaking about it; after all, it is said: “I have created the evil inclination.”  “Torah,” meaning the method of correction, is needed exactly for this reason and this is precisely when a little bit of evil is revealed between us, when we already want to unite, but still don’t know: in what form, in what principle, that will “glue” us together, and how to fulfill this unity.

Thus we demand the Torah manifested in opposition to the evil that is revealed, but it is “sweet” evil. We begin to understand that we don’t have the power to face it by ourselves, that we need the help of the upper force, and that the evil is in the tear of the connection between us. We simply must; we want to strive to connect, “as one man in one heart.” We may call what is happening “evil,” but in fact it isn’t evil at all, it’s the oppositeness of the Creator, His “posterior.” It’s all Him.

This means that we don’t struggle between the grips of evil and the Creator at all, since I feel that the good and the bad are both Him and are the faces of His attitude. A father also sometimes smiles at his son and sometimes gives him a tough look thus evoking different reactions in the child as he forms his perception.

Question: Still, on the one hand, I am shown the negative side, and on the other hand, I am not shown what I will receive at the end….

Answer: You will pass the breaking point, the shattering, as a result of which you will suddenly feel pleasure in bestowal. The Light will come and awaken you to love others. Then you will bestow upon them and will feel infinite pleasure.

After all, it’s your ego that limits you and that is stopping you by saying: “This is as far as you can go and not further than that.” You struggle with it in order to expand the limits of bestowal. If there were no ego, you would engage in bestowal in the same manner that you engage in receiving now, simply because you find that bestowal is pleasant.

So to make sure that it is real love and that it’s not artificial, it’s built on the desire to receive, so that you can be neutral, free of receiving and of bestowal. Then you actually work, you actually control the filling of all of humanity and you perform the Creator’s mission, taking nothing for yourself, having no contact with the negativity that you have to escape from or the positivity that could bring you pleasure. This is the moment of eternity in a person, the midpoint on the scale of good and evil.

Question: What does it mean “to bring us pleasure?”

Answer: It’s a different meaning, a new one. I choose the pleasure so that it will not depend on me and I will not depend on it.

It’s impossible to explain, to illustrate, or to draw. It’s about a feeling, and if you try to touch it with your current mind, it’s the wrong approach. After all, you don’t allow your heart to open wide.

It isn’t by chance that we speak about a game as the major tool for our advancement. If you put yourself out of the game, then you are left only with complaints. You can diminish the value of everything in life by a disrespectful attitude, and what’s next?

We need to unite, and in order to do that we work in groups. Why groups? Because this is how we allow the Light to influence us at least a little. We may underestimate the connection between the friends and what it can draw. But by our mutual efforts, we give it importance and appeal, and again prompt drawing a bit of Light that Reforms by that.

Who actually needs bestowal? No one. But yet, we speak about it and the Surrounding Light responds to that, and is ready to accept our “lie.”

This is how we develop and there is no other way. It’s always from an egoistic state of Lo Lishma (not for its own sake) that we reach the altruistic intention of Lishma (for its own sake).  It’s impossible to form the created being in any other way.

As for the complaints, the ego always plays the role of the accuser, but the sufferings will eventually break it. You will not be able to dictate your conditions to the Creator. He aggravates you on purpose in order to spur you on and there is only one answer for that: to subdue yourself before the group.

You must understand that your ego is totally “square” and that you will achieve nothing by its help. As long as you look at reality through the prism of self-love you will see nothing. All the worlds are concealed from you; the upper Providence system is out of your sight. What can  be opened for you if your ego filters all His calls? Can you claim the demonstration of anything when in front of you is an impervious blindfold?

This is why Kabbalists give us advice about how to act in this state. If we don’t use their advice, the troubles will help us grow wise.

There is no point in feeling resentment that something is concealed from you. You have no means to see the truth; it’s only in unity that we can see the Creator’s leadership and to be aware of what is going on.

But it’s on condition that this understanding and this feeling will not throw you off track. After all, when you finally get this chance, you will actually not want to feel and understand in order to avoid a “bribe.”

You will say to the Creator, “Don’t reveal anything to me.” Otherwise I will lose my free will and will turn into an “angel” and descend to the “animal” level. I would rather be a human being that struggles and makes mistakes than a “holy animal” that has no free will at all. Only on the human level can I express my attitude and only there do I exist.

You will want to place Masachim (screens) over the Light, fearing that you will not resist its temptations. After all, the guards that don’t let you get into the King’s palace keep you away not by sufferings but by blows of abundance which are much stronger and are revealed to you as love that drives you crazy. It’s much more difficult to put a Masach over it than over the troubles of the evil inclination.

Today it actually helps you in contacting the Creator. The sufferings focus you on the goal. Therefore, it says, that Pharaoh brings the children of Israel closer to the Creator. Then there will be other obstacles and I will understand your complaints. After all, the blows of the Light are much harder. But no matter what happens, you will always want the struggle between these two opposite forces since only between them can you determine your independence.
[107732]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/13, The Zohar – Introduction

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The connection between us is where we will find everything. We begin to discover the idea of “connection” according to our advancement and we see that everything concentrates in it and depends only on it, including our private life, our health, our success, family welfare, the entire world, and our spiritual attainment. Everything depends only on the connection in the group that advances by the power of faith, by mutual bestowal.

There is no other means by which we can change anything in our reality except for making greater efforts to connect. Then, everyone receives everyone else’s power (of the whole group of ten) and thus acquires the general force of bestowal as one whole by which he can advance.

We must reinforce the connection in the spiritual cell that is made of ten people in order to ascend to the second level, and we need a greater connection with the external circle for that. Thanks to the connection with the external circle, you can “squeeze” the inner circle of friends even more and thus reach the second level, the Light of Ruach, in order to advance even further.

The quality and the quantity complement one another and allow a person to advance. Everything concentrates in the center of the group and depends only on it. The main thing is to reach the first feeling, and then you will not be able to break away from it anymore, but rather will be attracted to it like to a source of life.

In the meantime, however, we must act artificially as we play. Soon it actually will be revealed, and then you will see that it is really so. Then, you will discover that, instead of greater efforts to connect and to squeeze, you will have to do the opposite kind of work and try not to hurt or harm others.

The Creator will give us opposite exercises. When you are in the ego, you enjoy the fact that the others suffer a little and that they feel bad, and if it is your enemy, you actually enjoy the fact that you can harm him and beat him. However, now you are ready to give up everything for people that you didn’t love before and by whom you even were repulsed and hated, as long as they feel good. You are amazed at your previous attitude since everything turns the other way around.
[107748]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/13

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