Question: At what point does a personal relationship with the Creator appear in the created being?

Answer: It already was awoken in Ein Sof (Infinity), in the four phases of the Direct Light. Otherwise, phase one (Hochma) wouldn’t have given birth to phase two (Bina).

Question: Is that the point in the heart?

Answer: No, it is a result of those stages. The point that awakens in a person’s heart is a spark of the general Returning Light that was in the soul of Adam HaRishon (first man) at the time of the shattering.

Question: So, when does a person begin to feel the Creator’s attitude? Because then everything becomes clear.

Answer: Everything would be understood by the ego, and we shouldn’t let this happen. If I show you that I feel absolute, endless, unconditional love toward you, then you will begin to disrespect me and even hate me. Because you are a desire to receive, and, when there are no limits to this desire, when fear doesn’t limit it, it “goes wild.” Eventually, you would begin to treat me badly. It really is so. So, instead of love on my part, you would see what seems like a bad attitude and unpleasantness.

Question: However, still, we have a point in the heart with which we have to start the process, but we get stuck since we have no basis.

Answer: There was a general vessel of Adam HaRishon and it had a Returning Light. Adam HaRishon wanted to receive all the great Light in order to bestow, but couldn’t keep it in the Returning Light, and everything was shattered.

There are only Reshimot (spiritual genes) left from the desire and Reshimot from the Masach (screen), and they are the ones that awaken and are called “a point in the heart” (•). This point doesn’t come from the Creator; it is part or a spark of the Masach.

In spirituality, there is no difference between the state and its Reshimot, which is also a full picture of reality that is not yet clear to a person.

So, we must draw the Light that Reforms (the Surrounding Light) to the Reshimot, and then we will see the picture of the spiritual world. It is a very simple action. You are in a group and study from the sources, for example, from The Book of Zohar, and by that, you summon the Light upon yourself and it operates.

Question: Is there something concrete or visual for me in this work? Can I feel how our “points in the heart” are attracted to one another and how the Light unites them?

Answer: If you nullify your ego and the friend seems more important to you than yourself, if the group provides you with such importance that you want to jump inside it and disappear without hesitation, to be swallowed in it, if you exert yourself in that and make efforts “by the sweat of your brow,” then to the same extent, you summon the Light that operates on you and bestows upon you from the Reshimot and builds the spiritual level.

Question: Will we become one whole so that everyone will feel it?

Answer: Of course, whoever participates in this process, whoever does this, feels it.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/13, Shamati #9

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As it is written, “Make yourself a Rav and buy yourself a friend.” It refers to the types of connections that we can reach between us and between us and the Creator. Our correction from the shattering depends on this connection. To the extent that we connect and leap over the shattering and correct it, then, in the corrected vessels, in the connection between them, we discover the spiritual reality.

In the corporeal reality, we live in our desire until we fulfill the corporeal Reshimot (spiritual genes) on the animate level. When one Reshimo exhausts itself and another one comes along, we feel it as our death, and the birth of the new Reshimo is called another life, a new “reincarnation.”

However, we constantly can renew the spiritual Reshimot by correcting the connection between us each time. If a person understands that he can fulfill these spiritual Reshimot, can clarify and correct them, then, in the corrected Reshimot, he feels his next level of existence, which means the spiritual life.

Corporeal life is fulfilled by one Reshimo on the animate level, and, when it is completely fulfilled—which means that it goes through the phases of Ibur (gestation), Yenika (suckling), and Mochin (mind)—a person dies. However, on the level of “speaking,” we can fulfill many Reshimot by constantly changing them; we can feel our advancement in them toward the attainment of the spiritual world.

In contrast to the corporeal world that is felt in the corporeal Reshimo, the spiritual world is felt in the corrected spiritual Reshimot, which means in the connection between us. It turns out that we are living in two worlds simultaneously: in the corporeal Reshimo, in feeling our body, and in the corrupt spiritual Reshimot by feeling the corrupt connection between us.

If we correct this connection, then, in the corrected Reshimot, we discover the spiritual level; instead of a shattered world, we feel the corrected world. Accordingly, we feel the new corrected desires and, in them, the Light that fills them according to their level of correction.

So, the only thing we need is to provide the basic necessities, the minimal existence for the Reshimot on the animate level, and to advance as quickly as possible by correcting the Reshimot on the level of the “speaking.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/13, Writings of Rabash 

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Looking at the creation as a whole, in every object, in every part of it, we can recognize a measure of desire: desire to preserve itself, its properties, its state. This pertains to any part of inanimate, vegetative, animal, and human nature. Each one is characterized by a particular degree of desire since desire was the only thing that was created. On our part, we just add to it when we have a chance to work above it.

At the still, vegetative, and animal levels, we live within desire and don’t understand how it can be changed in height, size, and application. On the other hand, a human degree in a person acquires a capacity to comprehend this, start wanting to change, and apply the desire in a different manner, and this ability to modify the application and realization of desire doesn’t let us rest.

We see how people live today: society dictates the size and nature of their desire, and they, like soldiers, strive to carry out the orders they receive. After all, they are given an impression that it’s for their own good. However, those who receive an additional need to work above their nature, above their desire, which is, in fact, nature’s entire material, are deprived of rest. They wish to learn, desire to know how matter, nature, can be employed, how to re-direct and “deploy” oneself so as to achieve something above nature. This is a totally different approach: not to be inside nature, but namely above it.

This is what the science of Kabbalah teaches: to use desire living not in it, but above it in order to keep attaining the upper reality. “Upper” means above desire, above the creation’s matter. We must learn how to govern desire to remain above it without sinking to the bottom, but, rather, going with the waves and using the breath of the wind, the “spirit” breathing over the sea. We need to live by something that lies above these “depths,” to breathe air, inflate sails with the wind and use the water solely to glide over its surface.

That’s what we gradually learn in this study. We learn to use our nature, the matter of desire, to control it from outside of ourselves, to restrict and turn it in the required direction, to verify and modify it, not as our nature dictates, but as we choose. This ability we can obtain with the help of the science of Kabbalah by studying the systems we have to know and as a whole, the system of the worlds, 125 steps of changes, calibration of desire. We figure out how to use it each step of the way in order to achieve something above it.

In addition, above it, we reach the degree of the upper force that created this desire in which all of mankind lives. We use the matter of desire solely to “ascend” over it and form for ourselves a spirit, equivalent to the upper force. This is the spiritual equivalent called “Human” (Adam).

Thereby, we use the matter itself and the force that created it; we construct ourselves from both. This is how a person becomes independent from matter, meaning desire, and from the force, meaning the Creator who created this desire, and gets on his feet on his own. Now, he is comprised of matter and spirit, but in the form he has found by himself and has chosen freely.

This is what our goal is, and we won’t rest until we reach it. That’s how we are made. Some will select this path by necessity, as simple workers. However, they will have to comprehend their task, although not at high degrees, not at the level of the root cause of creation. They will follow us, whereas we won’t be at peace until we attain the equivalence that we are to create on our own, the image of Man, free from both the creation as well as the Creator. From Him, we only learn how to build ourselves in His likeness, but the Creator does not obligate us to it. On the contrary, it is the independent evolution that allows us to realize that His form is the most correct one, the best, most desirable, and profound.

Yet, we do not accept the importance of this form automatically, but rather, work by way of “faith above reason,” become unplugged from the conditions of our material and the upper force, and in this disconnection from everything, attain the value of the property of bestowal which is the highest there is.

These things will unfold in us later on, but for now they already should be giving us a some sense of importance and understanding of the work that requires us to rise constantly above the mundane. We seek pleasure in part from knowledge, habits, and all types of values that have been planted in us. We strive to ascend just as high as possible and enjoy changes, even if it is not very pleasant for our matter.

We simply need to get used to it. Spirituality, or the new form, by way of small actions, time after time, pulls us higher and higher, a little more and then more. And spirituality should be something that we desire.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, Shamati #213

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Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “You Stand Today, All of You“

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Shlah Leha,” Lesson 11

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 1, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Lesson 2

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Writings of Rabash “Letter 29”

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If a person intends to bestow upon others without any resistance, not against his will, then it is the same as the whole world does, as is accepted among different beliefs and fanatic religions.

There are many charities that help people in hospitals and in other difficult situations. Their desires are consistent with their actions, and therefore it is called “bestowal” only in action. After all, the action, the intention, and the desire are all in one direction, not meeting any inner resistance. So a person is in high spirits, feeling good about himself since he believes that he receives a reward in this world and in the next world.

We, however, act against our natural desire, and feel the inner resistance since we don’t want to bestow and to love others. First we discover an empty space inside us, and we don’t feel any inclination, attraction, or connection to bestowal. But when we begin to work by rising above all that, we come out into the spiritual space.

This kind of work really bears fruit. It doesn’t dull us like in the fanatic approach since there is a difference between receiving and bestowal. After all, our inner desire is to receive according to our nature, but if we rise above this natural desire and yearn for bestowal, looking for an environment, a society, that will help us build this attribute inside us, then we are obligated to draw the force of the Creator that will help us become bestowers over our egoistic desire.

Therefore, we need an environment that needs the Creator, since otherwise we will not be able to establish bestowal on top of receiving. Then we will be able to build the inner space inside us that will be filled with the Light, and in it we will start feeling and understanding all of the upper spiritual reality.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/13, Writings of Rabash 

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We have to respect the feeling of confusion, darkness, blurriness, and powerlessness. It says “respect the sons of the poor since the Torah will come from them.” It is these poor who have nothing, who feel a growing emptiness in their hearts and minds, who are unable to concentrate and find their way around in these states, who are thus preparing their vessels in which they will receive the Torah, the Light that reveals to them all the spiritual discernments.

So the main thing is to get used to studying in darkness and in the light. This is symbolized in the Kabbalists’ tradition of beginning their studies at midnight. This is what Kabbalists did throughout the ages, and even King David used to get up at midnight in order to “awaken the dawn.” It is because at midnight the Zivug (coupling) of the upper Aba and Ima begins in order to awaken the vessels to receive the Light.

If a person wants to attain the Light, the state is called “day.” He has to try and awaken the vessels to receive the Light in their lowest and darkest state, when he is “asleep” and doesn’t feel himself.

We don’t notice these discernments yet, but we will soon learn how to discern them in order to see everything in the darkness and in the light, and to know how to use every state in the clearest and most conscious manner. The main point now, after the ascent we attained in the convention, is not to leave the work in such times, which are not really understood, are not pleasant, and which do not fill us.

Such times come along so that we will face them, and despite the heavy feeling in our egoistic desires, which don’t understand the darkness, we will remain in connection and rise, and thus build the vessels for the next ascent.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/13

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, article 25, “Things that Come from the Heart”: In other words, all the concepts upon which he builds his building, saying one must always follow in the path of the Creator, is founded in the Dvekut with his teacher. Thus, if he loses the foundation, then all the concepts are powerless, since they will now be lacking the foundation.

Hence, one must not rely on one’s own mind, but cleave once more to books and authors, for only that can help him, and no wit and intellect, as they are lifeless.

Question: What is adhesion?

Answer: On the whole, adhesion is when two people have the same desires, the same thoughts, and the same values. In that case they are “adhered” to one another.

The question is how can two people who are so different be adhered? They are different in every sense and do not match in any way. There cannot be perfect adaptation in nature, so can they attain resemblance and become “adhered” to one another?

If each side rises above himself and doesn’t want to use his attributes for himself, but rather gives the other everything that is in him, and the other also wants to rise above his personal interests and to act in favor of the other, then they resemble one another. In what way? In giving, in bestowal, which means that they are “adhered.”

How can this be attained? They cannot do this on their own, the Light is needed here to connect them. This means that in order to be adhered, two people need the Creator between them. It is a kind of a “sandwich” with the Light in the middle, and this is called a spiritual unit. You can also compare it to a small dumbbell.

Question: So how can we draw the Light so that the adhesion will be realized?

Answer: First, each one has to rise above himself and ask himself: “Why should I adhere to someone? What is adhesion? Could it be that I want to connect with others to achieve something in this world, like in socialism? Or do I want it in order to attain the Creator? Who is the Creator?”

In short, in order to reach the simplest action, I have to renew the whole system since there is no halfway in spirituality; everything in it is integral. Just like in a holographic picture where in order to change a small line I need the right scale to change the whole picture.

So every question that we have actually includes everything in it. If you ask what we have to do, the answer is simple—do it all. We need to clarify who the Creator is, what we need this for, what the act of creation is, what freewill is, and what “each one shall help his brother” is, what the group is, etc. Everything should be included in this. We can see this picture in different resolutions, but one way or the other, everything is in it.

Question: Can we rise above our general, “round” desire to receive like in a hot air balloon, and keep this general state between us?

Answer: Each of us is an egoist, and spirituality is what is between us connecting and bringing us together.

What I feel inside me now is called “this world,” and what I feel between us is called “the upper world.”

If you and I are close to one another and differ only by one measure (1), then I feel the Light of Nefesh. If the difference between us is doubled (2), I attain the Light of Ruach between us since now I have overcome a greater distance. On the one hand, our ego grows and separates us, but on the other hand, we adhere to one another despite the ego, and by that attain a greater intensity.

Our mission is to hold on to this state and to constantly return to it, and if you want, you can take it upon yourself. What else do you have to do in this world except for that? Take a decision where your life should flow and whether you want it to flow in the spiritual dimension. I cannot dictate this to you. At the Arava convention I gave you an example of what you should do. If you want to fulfill this, then do it and the results will be according to this fulfillment.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, Shamati #25

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Question: I think that we proved at the Arava convention that everything is possible. What’s next?

Answer: The problem is this: In this world when I see a goal and it is important in my eyes, I have enough energy and vigor to attain it, but if the goal isn’t obvious or isn’t important, then I have no strength for the work: “Really, why should I work hard?”

In the end, our problem is recognizing the importance of the goal. This importance is deliberately diminished so that we will create new importance each time, so that there will be a new creation for us, a new spiritual world, everything new.

And we, with the friends, need to build this ourselves. They need to tell me how important the spiritual path is even though they themselves don’t feel it. But we are committed to each other, and this is called Arvut (mutual guarantee). This means that we constantly need to tell each other how important it is, as a mother or grandmother tells the same bedtime story to a child.

Tell me, what was so special at our convention? What were your deepest impressions? Was there something tangible there? No. Did you receive something in your hand? No. Do you feel, hear, see, or taste spirituality? No. Actually there was nothing there, simply “you were filled with hot air” like a balloon, and from your swelling, you began to fly upwards. That was your entire convention.

So what is stopping you from doing that now? Why can’t you rise even higher? Specifically now when you feel heaviness and lack of interest, when all kinds of calculations appear to you, and you begin to think in a more “realistic” way—specifically now begin to act.

Question: At the convention, we, as if, banged our heads against the wall in that we tried to attain something impossible until we discovered that it is possible, albeit at a minimal level. And that means that everything is possible.

Answer: Excellent. Now continue. But don’t think that a spiritual sensation was revealed to you to a small degree to give you a solid basis for further steps. The opposite is true, your heart will be burdened, difficulties will be added, you will be forced to forget it, as if it doesn’t exist at all. They will take back from you all the “advance payment,” otherwise it will turn into an egoistic basis for advancement: “It is worthwhile to go forward since it is pleasant and wonderful. I want that kind of life.” This isn’t spiritual anymore, but Klipot (shells). Previously it wasn’t there, and now it appears. It is also, of course, an attainment, but not the one you were waiting for.

In short, continue. It is especially now that we begin to work with spiritual discernments: a little virtue, a little self-annulment, importance… we passed the hardest period, and now each time there will be something real, concrete. You will feel these things, “in your hand,” you will “ taste” them, you will feel them as internal heaviness, as resistance. In a while, you will even begin to measure them.

We passed the hardest stage, where we didn’t know where we were, what is happening, like a baby who just was born and still doesn’t really hear, or see, or respond…. and now begins the new stage.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, Shamati #213

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Question: At one of the Arava congress workshops there was a question about the point of no return that we have to pass through on the path. How are we supposed to pass through it: individually or together with the entire group?

Answer: As it advances, the united group overcomes all stages of the path. Although everyone may be undergoing a particular state at his level, in fact, we all are going together.

Question: So, is it possible that the group will “drag” me through a certain state?

Answer: The group doesn’t act selectively, choosing him and only him; it “pulls” everyone forward. No one advances alone; our entire way is by the group. No matter how much a person puts in, he still “eats” what the others do. It may be in a lesser degree, but he still moves along with all the others. And hence, everyone passes the Machsom; everyone comes out of Egypt, including the “children,” “women,” “men,” and “elderly.”
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, Shamati #213

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Question: What is the relationship between quantity and quality of a congress? When there are more of us, how does it reflect on the quality?

Answer: Today, considering what state the world is in and what this puts before us, it is our duty to admit everybody and in this broad audience preserve ourselves as the nucleus. We need both factors together.

We can’t screen out those who don’t attend lessons daily, do not pay maaser, and so on. The congress will not be more powerful because of it. We should be guided by what Nature demonstrates to us. The Creator opens the doors to everyone, although the public is not in a hurry to enter. I hope that in the coming year, people will “digest” and understand the events of the recent years, including the crisis, despair, and all the rest. It takes time: A person reads something, hears about something, and little by little, it settles down in him until he sees how the world becomes “bleaker,” and “dissipates” without more to offer.

I hope that in this year, along with the broadest dissemination, we will be able to accomplish something…
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/13, Shamati #213

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