A good environment is a society that affects a person in a positive way and changes him or her in the direction of connection, unity, the best comfortable state. This is still just an earthly, animal well-being.

But then inside this society, a person suddenly begins to open a wonderful source of energy that flows forth from there and raises him upward like a fountain of water toward the sun.

Imagine that our world is superimposed, an overlay of many worlds, many possibilities. We are still in one possible cut of them, and we can move into others. It all depends on the observer’s angle of view, on the person.
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From a Talk About Dissemination 9/7/12

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Question: Can you describe in a few words what one should expect in the spiritual world?

Answer: It is impossible to describe the feeling of the spiritual world in words. How can the feeling of infinity, the ascent above time—when two opposite poles connect and the past, present, and future merge in one point—be conveyed to a person who perceives the world only thorough his current corporeal senses?

If you change one millimeter in the angle of your vision in this space, you will see a totally different world. If you change it by another millimeter, you will see another new world. It all depends on your position regarding the world of Ein Sof (Infinity). You choose the angle of vision by yourself, and then another section of an infinite reality is immediately revealed to you.

However, it is impossible to explain that since these pictures do not include the visual images we are used to. It is possible to teach a person the spiritual mechanics, to explain how the transition from one state to another occurs and how to perform different actions, but it is impossible to convey what he will feel then. In order to do so, he must be ready for a spiritual sensation.

On every spiritual level, there is the expansion of the mind and an exceptional feeling that cannot be compared to anything in this world. There is no way to express this, not even in music or in colors.

No matter how hard artists have tried to approach this in the late phases of the history of painting, in impressionism, this whole stream stopped, having reached a dead end. A person has no other greater means to express his inner world.
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From a Talk About Dissemination 9/7/12

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Question: Today people already understand that things will only be getting worse in the world. But Kabbalah is still far from the masses. How can we cover this distance? And why is it there?

Answer: It is there in order to provide us and mankind with an opportunity to make an effort. This separation allows us and the external society to do mutual work in regard to one another. The distance was created with a purpose, for you to invest your knowledge, comprehension, understanding and to think about what is getting in the way of continuing the natural process.

Once apes descended from the trees and with time became primitive people. This was followed by the era of slavery, the Middle Ages, and the period of capitalism. And today, when this development has concluded in a collapse, people could come to the realization of the need for good unity. So why does development not continue automatically?

Because then the human would never appear. It would be the same primate that came down from the trees, driven by its egoism. We do not realize that we are completely under the control of our self-love. If I were shown the system in which we all exist, I would see that I do not do anything on my own. In this situation, the creature will not emerge. Take anyone through the filter of independence, and nothing will be left of him – nothing but the upper force, which was there initially.

“How do you make a human?”: That is the question. A human can be made only by providing him with darkness, a little knowledge, and a little strength to give him an opportunity to find a way to prevail over his nature and build something opposite to him out of the darkness without much knowledge or understanding. Then he will want to take the necessary parts from the Creator, and submit himself willingly to the environment, which will obligate him to do it. And he will be able to acquire a supernatural form through this mutual work, a form that is above his nature. And this form is called a “Human” (Adam), a form that he has created without the use of the Reshimot (informational genes), which were left in him from the times he was a primate.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/19/12, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Question: Is it possible for someone who was born in sin not to sin?

Answer: Of course not. All of us have been born in sin and we can’t avoid sinning. No one expects us to be angels. What is expected of us is to realize this and understand what a sin really is.

A sin is any desire directed against connecting with others, against correcting the breaking. The common soul broke and now every one exists in a broken system alone with his egoism. I want to use this egoism to somehow use others, but this is not bad, it’s a natural desire.

Real egoism, which we need to resist and against which we need to work, only manifests when I really try to connect with others, and a resistance arises in me, a lack of desire to be connected with them. Regular people, who operate in this world in a customary manner, are not called egoists. They’re not trying to unite into a single system.

Egoism only manifests under the condition that a person is planning to connect with the intention of correcting the breaking, meaning uniting with the purpose of revealing the Creator. And it’s possible that I don’t even want this. But if I still make an effort then the evil in me or the power of the breaking becomes revealed to me. This is true egoism.

But a regular person, who doesn’t work with this, doesn’t have egoism! First, the power of the breaking that operates between us needs to be discovered. Then we’ll be able to correct it and turn it into the power of unity. This will be the recognition of evil, the prayer will be born out of it and the correction, the goodness, will come.

This entire process only happens to those who try to connect with the purpose to correct the breaking and to reveal the Creator for the sake of pleasing Him by so doing. It needs to be absolutely clear to us that all this only happens with this intention. Then we connect to the chain of actions that help us reveal the evil, we ask for help and receive the strength to perform the correction, and we reach the revelation.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What can I do if nothing helps me wake up and we are totally surrounded by indifference?

Answer: We should understand that even if I can’t wake up internally I can still act it externally, and thus I awaken the friends internally. If we speak about the Creator’s greatness, we will be ignited and awaken ourselves. That’s the way it is in every action. It would be enough to hire foreign actors to act before us their awe and excitement regarding the spiritual goal so that we would be impressed by it.

There is a story about a Kabbalist who lived in a remote village in Europe, who used to invite Klezmer street musicians to play for him. His wife used to yell at him for giving them the last pennies since they wouldn’t have enough for food, and he would answer he had to do it to revive his soul.

The wife wondered how he could be impressed by them. After all, he was such a great man, a respected Rabbi, and they were just drunk vagrants who would use the money to buy vodka and to get drunk. But he answered that it didn’t matter. They played for the money since they wanted to drink and he listened since he wanted to be spurred to the spiritual work.
So you too have to find friends who will play before you, even if it is for their self-benefit, as long as you will be impressed.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What will happen when we connect? How will it work?

Answer: It is a connection that is created above the feeling of separation, since we achieve it by ourselves and this achievement is based on the contrast between two opposite states. Above the resistance between them, we discover our achievement.

It is like a resistor in an electric circuit that resists the connection between two points by creating a resistance between them. However, if we connect this network to two poles, we create a potential difference, and then by this resistance we can clarify what the difference is: By clarifying the gap and the relations between them we can understand what is on one pole and what is on the other. All this is clarified by the resistor, by the resisting force.

The system of life is built on this basis—on the connection of opposite particles. These particles connect into atoms and the atoms into molecules and everything connects on the basis of opposites, a plus with a minus.

Different materials are created thanks to the different connections between the positive and negative particles. Such internal opposite qualities are typical of every material, of all the elements on the periodic table. Later this connection between the plus and the minus becomes increasingly varied and complex. Different qualities appear in it, which turn these creations into living cells.

It isn’t a static system anymore in which the plus and the minus are connected in a stable relationship to one another, but a system in which this relationship begins to change and thus the element of life is created.

The lower can already exist not simply adhering to the upper the way it was in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), or separated from Him, like after the descent of the worlds to this world, but also in starting to perform independent movements with regard to the upper. This is already a change from the level of the still level of nature into the level of the vegetative and then into the animate level and finally into the level of the speaking. This is how the ascent up the levels occurs.

This is how life is created in this world and this is also what happens in the spiritual world as a person advances and annuls the partition that separates him from the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/12, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Igrot,” Letter 76

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt “Aharei-Mot,” Lesson 10

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 8, Item 8, Lesson 4

“Introduction to the Book, The Tree of Life”

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There is an awakening from Above and an awakening from below. Everyone can be awakened from below in any state. For example, on Friday afternoon I can be in a state of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and two hours later in Pesach (Passover), or just in an ordinary weekday. This is what we call the spiritual levels and here everything depends on a person.

In addition, there are phenomena that are part of the general order when there is an illumination from Above that comes in order to arrange the worlds. This is an awakening from Above that influences everyone.

The difference between the general and the particular form is in the intensity of the awakening. If a person operates on his own, he corrects himself and eventually reaches his individual end of correction, by leaving the general “stony heart” uncorrected. On the other hand, the general corrections are much wider and more intensive; it’s a totally different thing. This is also the difference between an individual and a group, since it’s in a group that we discover the upper force and all the individual levels are transcended in the relations with the friends.

In the article “The Discernment of a Wife and Sons in the Torah,” in The Rungs of the Ladder, Rabash says: Good days implies the ascents of the worlds, as each one rises a level, and rises a bit above the state it is in. This means that everyone who is part of the worlds rises together with the worlds. However, whoever is not on the ladder of the spiritual levels climbs them, since they require self-annulment. If you can annul yourself, then everything that happens in the worlds will happen with you and by your self-annulment you are included in the spiritual processes.

Rabash continues: And this is the time when everyone checks the cause for which he takes upon himself the yoke of Heaven. Why should I annul myself in order to ascend with the worlds? What will I gain from that? If I had already known the answer I may have not ascended. What do I actually get? Love of others? Concern for others? General connection? Do I really need all this?

A person should check whether it’s worthwhile to pay for this by such great efforts and exertion, giving up all his previous life and annulling himself. Malchut annuls itself before Bina, which means that the desire to receive is annulled before the desire to bestow.

This question is also relevant today, before Rosh Hashanah, (the New Year). Usually people wish one another a good year. So how do I imagine what a good year is? This is exactly what I have to check. A year is a change, the next level, an ascent. What changes would I want in the new year? A raise in my salary? Or something else?

A person should check for what he should annul himself. Time after time we discover to what extent we can bear self-annulment in order to reach the level of others, and to serve others devotedly. Before you attribute nice words to the Creator and praise Him, you should relate to all of humanity. The basic condition is: from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator. Otherwise nothing works; first you have to prepare the vessels, and your vessels are humanity. Then the Creator is revealed to you there, according to your equivalence to Him. When you treat people correctly, He reveals His attitude to you. This is where you will meet in mutual vessels.

Question: Does this mean that I have to wish humanity a good year?

Answer: Myself, “I want a good year and it will be good if I adhere to the Good and the Benevolent.” How can I adhere to Him? I can do this in my attitude to everyone, by wishing them the best. Then the Creator will help me with that and there I will meet Him, which means the attribute of bestowal. No matter what I think, this is the Creator, I will dwell only in the attribute of bestowal and receive only the one force of love, and this is called “correction.”

Question: What is self-annulment?

Answer: Now you have desires, intentions, and different inclinations and you annul them in order to adhere to the Creator, Who is absolute love. You can’t be totally in bestowal if you don’t annul yourself in some sense.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/12, Customs of Rosh Hashanah

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, #168, “The Customs of Israel”: The customs of Israel are so important, that it is safe to say that they give more spirituality to a person than the Mitzvot themselves. This is so although breaking a custom does not yield punishment, and breaking a judgment does yield punishment. Still, concerning the benefit, meaning producing fear of heaven, the customs yield more spirituality, since the great ones who established the customs arranged it so that spirituality would shine through them.

There is a great problem as for the corporeal actions that are aimed at love and connection; actions which Rabash describes in his articles about the society. We mustn’t think lightly of them and thus we perform everything relatively.

A “custom” is a condition, a law, which I can’t perform on the spiritual level at the moment and so I keep it only in corporeality. I bring the friends contentment and try to fulfill the desires of the friends, to connect them, and to connect to them in order to bring them contentment. I constantly fulfill different actions that belong to the commandment of “Love thy friend,” to connection and to mutual guarantee. Indeed, neither I nor the friends have reached a spiritual fulfillment yet; it isn’t the fulfillment of the “commandments” yet, not the drawing of the Light that Reforms that connects, that awakens, and fills us. In the meantime we are on the level of preparation and all our actions are on the level of “customs.”

So we study, work in the group, carry out the advice of the Kabbalists, and it doesn’t matter whether we understand them or not. They attached special help from Above to their advice—the Light that Reforms. So, even though our intention is egoistic (Lo Lishma – Not for Her Name) from Lo Lishma we arrive at the altruistic intention of Lishma (For Her Name).

Everything that helps you reach correction in the meantime is used with the intention of in order to receive, which means with egoistic intentions, is called a “custom.” You operate in order to connect and even if you don’t want to connect, even if you are looking for self-benefit, the Light comes and brings you a different intention, which you couldn’t even have asked for. You didn’t even think about it, but it happens—you suddenly begin to appreciate the attributes of bestowal and love.

In order to do that, we need group work: to annul yourself, to raise the friends in your eyes, to spur them and yourself. Yes, you want to gain something by these actions, after all, you benefit by such actions since this is the only way to draw the Light.

It’s a simple law: The Light comes only to the desire that is similar to it in its properties. True, you haven’t reached an equivalence of form yet, but you have the corporeal body and this is what it was created for, so that with it you will support the friends and tell them how much you love them and how important the Creator is, and give them examples of bestowal and of self-annulment. With the help of our bodies we connect to one another. Although all our actions in the group are in order to receive, they are the type of actions Kabbalists have prepared especially in order to attain true connection.

My intentions are the opposite, malicious, I intend to use the upper world and the Creator for my own benefit, but the actions I perform are right and thanks to them, thanks to the mechanism Kabbalists have created, I can correct myself. Otherwise, how could I exit the shattering? Here the “customs” are necessary, the right action that lead to the right intentions.

Kabbalists have performed special corrections in order to insert the Light that Reforms into the customs after the “shattering.” The Light can’t pour into the “vessels” that are below, beyond the “shattering line,” within the desire to receive. Still it’s possible to raise the vessels that are beginning to wake up. Thus we begin to work.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/12, Customs of Rosh Hashanah

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The best states of all are when a person needs a connection with the Creator. A connection can only occur when he needs the help of the Creator. And he should want this help not for himself; otherwise, it would have been an egoistic desire. But precisely above his desire, the yearning to do good, he can build relations with others and begin to take care of them, help them to be corrected, act in their direction.

Thus a person will change caring for himself to caring for others to such an extent that he will ask the Creator to help him realize this care, to correct his friends and thus bring pleasure to the Creator.

This is the building of the whole system of relationship within a person in the direction of the other, in the direction of the Creator. It does not exist naturally, and it will never emerge in a person by itself. A person has to build it above the egoistic desire that is revealed before him.

This work is called the work of Israel, of a person who strives straight to the Creator, who starts to work on the basis of the first desire revealed in him, and who gradually turns all his desires towards the Creator. This is the work of Moses who turns to the Pharaoh demanding he release Israel from slavery, and the work of the Pharaoh on the people of Israel and Moses so that they feel how they need the Creator’s help.

A person should find out that the main work in his heart concerning the Creator and the Pharaoh is aimed to bring the people out of slavery, that is, to purify all the desires, the entire world. The entire world are parts of the human soul, and a person’s duty is to free this whole world from the power of the egoistic Pharaoh.

Through studies, the group, and many clarifications, he needs to turn his personal, selfish desire to attain the spiritual work, to reveal the Creator to the correct desire to bestow. If he gets an awakening every time, this is the sign that the Creator wants him and his duty is to fulfill this desire!

If a person does not use the received awakening once, twice, or the third time, then he is left alone for some time, perhaps until the end of this life or even for several life cycles, until finally, he is given a chance from Above to become awakened.

That is why we must be very wary of losing even a moment, a desire, a gift from Above, because no one knows when it is manifested again. The problem is that 99% of the people who get an awakening from Above simply do not pay attention at it and do not realize it. They treat this unique chance presented from Above as something ordinary in this world that it will not disappear and can wait until tomorrow, a few hours or a few days, another time.

They do not look at themselves from aside in order to relate to this awakening in a spiritual way and not in a material one, and do not begin to work on the entire common vessel, on connection with others, on dissemination of this knowledge, and correction of the world. That is, they do not start acting to reveal the Creator, the only thing that we lack in this world, the panacea for all our problems.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/12, Writings of Rabash

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