Each of us contains 613 different desires, relating to our connection with one another, which we have to correct. First of all, I have to see that they are all egoistic and that I want to use the neighbor and the Creator.

This direction, “Israel, Torah, and the Creator,” meaning from love for the creatures to love for the Creator, first works in the opposite form: for the sake of using the Creator and the creatures for one’s own benefit. First we have to discern precisely this fact, and it becomes revealed on the condition that both the creatures and the Creator are used correctly.

At the first stage, wishing to achieve the general connection with the entire universe, through the creatures to the Creator, we discover our transgressions and mistakes, and that is how we reveal the evil inclination. This does not happen all at once. As one advances, a small part of egoism is continually revealed. We demand its correction, and in the Light of correction we reveal a greater part of egoism, and then again ask for it to be corrected.

Light comes from the Creator through the group, illuminating and correcting the evil that we discover, and as a result we discover new, stronger, harsher waves of egoism within us. That is how we advance from small mistakes to more serious ones, and then from small transgressions to bigger ones, gradually revealing and correcting ourselves.

But we always aspire to love, unification, the unity of Israel, Torah, and the Creator into one whole. We wish for the Creator to become holy, “separate,” special, meaning for the quality of bestowal to always be the greatest value for us. That is how progress occurs.

And the most important aspect of this work is to understand that all corrections are concentrated outside of a person. His spiritual advancement occurs outside of him. And outside of him there is only the Shechina and the Creator that fills it.

A person imagines that there is an entire world around him: still, vegetative, animate, and human, but all of that is just his illusion, his imagination. In reality, none of this exists. When a person begins to reveal the true reality, he discovers that all of it is devoid of the spirit of life, and it is enlivened only by the upper force of the Creator, who is standing behind all of these images and shadows. By themselves they are just garments, wrappers, not having inner fulfillment.

Let us hope that we will reveal this truth quickly and will begin truly working with the Creator through these garments.
[82496]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
When The Light Is Present But Doesn’t Correct
Loving Unconditionally
Love Will Cover All Sins

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work, Perception, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

If a person understands the nature of his work, he begins to treat his environment differently because he sees that he has no desire of his own and everything comes from the Creator, and that is why it does not allow him to be considered a creature.

He will be called a creature when he turns to the environment and receives the desire from it. Then these desires will be written on his account.

That is, he needs to bow his head and understand that only the desires that he receives from the environment are called Shechina, the place for the revelation of the Creator, who is called Shochen (Dweller). That is why inclusion in the group is absolutely obligatory for spiritual advancement.

It is said that it is necessary to love friends: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” After all, in this connection between everyone, which is called love, a person reveals the spiritual world, the Creator.

In fact, I don’t choose friends. My choice comes later. In the beginning, the Creator brings me to a group, and I don’t have any freedom here. My choice starts later when I really connect with them and must answer the question: Why do I need it and what I want to receive from them?

Thus, I advance, each time choosing friends because I have to see all of them as great, despite the fact that they appear to me more and more insignificant and empty. This means that I choose them because now I choose precisely these friends whom the Creator gave me for spiritual advancement.

In this way, I move forward and build on my own, a new desire. This very desire that I receive from the environment and in which I want to become similar to the Creator, to reveal the force of bestowal, is called a human being.

Everyone is obliged to show his love for the group because we must support each other, which is called mutual guarantee. Everyone becomes a guarantor for the rest that they all will have enough strength to reveal the force of bestowal and achieve similarity with the Creator. That is why, I am responsible for everyone, I signed their guarantee. Their spirituality is in my hands, as well as my spirituality is in their hands.

And if one of us drills a hole in the common boat, then we will all drown in our egoism, our self-serving intentions, and will not be able to reveal the Creator.

That is why, the further we advance towards revealing the Creator, the more stringent and demanding the conditions will become. We need to understand that we are facing the laws of nature of the Light and desire, and there can be no compromises and concessions. Everything is done according to the laws of the relationship between these two forces.
[82278]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/12, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Lift Your Head To See The Friends
The Need To Be Human
The Program Of Creation

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Mutual Guarantee, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

After all the preparation from above, the shattering and the descents, our desire to receive pleasure is divided into three parts: the inner part suitable for correction and the two external parts that can be corrected if we stop using them. These two parts are called the “shell of Noga” and the “serpent’s skin.” But, the inner part is called the “inner body.”

The entire correction a person has to perform takes place in the thought. If one thinks about it, he is outside his body, which means that he aspires to bestow upon others—the friends, the group, and the world, as it is written, “From the love of man to the love of the Creator; from the love of the creatures to the love of the Creator,”—then he doesn’t nourish his ego, and, as a result, his egoistic desire dies. After all, it cannot exist without food, so it disappears!

However, a person must constantly guard himself since the temptations from the “serpent’s skin” and from the “shell of Noga” constantly will draw him, trying to hold onto him, to hold onto thoughts of envy, ambition, and dominance. They do it cunningly, and, thanks to that, each time a person can decide that he doesn’t want these thoughts, but that he wants to work outside his own interests without any self-benefit, but only in order to bestow.

If he clarifies things enough, through a certain number of such actions, he separates the inner body, the soul of holiness, and the external body in which no intention to bestow can be dressed. If he stops thinking about them, then the soul of holiness is dressed in the inner body about which it is written: “From my flesh shall I see God.” This means that a person begins to discover the Light, the Creator, Divinity, and the revelation of the Creator, in his flesh, in his body, in his skin.

It is all thanks to the fact that he managed to keep himself in thoughts and clarifications that were outside his body, which means outside his self-benefit. He tied himself to the Creator so that he could be sure that everything comes from Him and that there is none else besides Him. The Creator arranged all of this so that he will be able to clarify the three bodies after the sin of the Tree of Knowledge.

As a result of the persistent clarifications, a person gradually deprives his two external bodies, the shell of Noga and the serpent’s skin, of their food, and they depart from him and vanish. When the difference between the internal body and the two external bodies becomes evident enough, the Light on the very first level can be dressed in his inner body, which means being born in the spiritual world.

If a person constantly aspires for bestowal upon others—the friends, the group, and the Creator, which means that he wants to be “outside his skin,” outside his desire to enjoy—then it is in this desire that the upper Light is dressed, as it is written, “From my flesh shall I see God.”
[82272]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/12, Shamati #36

Related Material:
The Space Derivative Of The Soul
Where Everything Is Dark And Confusing
The Protective Shield Of A Person

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam “Article 25” 

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 135

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 87, Lesson 25

“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 28, Lesson 11

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Changes can only take place from the bottom up, and the strong ones of this world will never change—they have built such systems that they cannot make any concessions. The more the world advances, the more mercilessly they will struggle for their own good. The strong will grow tougher, poverty will spread, and the gap between the rich and the poor will only grow.

Even now we can already see that the middle class is gradually being erased. We used to think that the middle class would be the foundation of future society, but this isn’t true any more and never will be. On the contrary, the middle class will become poor and a tiny part of humanity at the top of the pyramid will be rich. All the rest of humanity will be on the verge of poverty.

So those who are at the top will not be able to hear anything. They will behave ruthlessly and the upper Providence will push them to that. They will fight to the death for every penny as if it were important to them. It is a spiritual principle and not a question of money.

There will be a terrible war between the part of humanity that holds the wealth and power and the majority who live in poverty. It is only possible to change this situation by connection and unity among all the poor, not against the rich, but in a connection where the poor mutually support each other and by that reach balance and peace.

They shouldn’t unite in order to fight against the 1% that is on top. This 1% will shrink to the smallest dimension, up to a limited number of people. The correction, however, is not in war, since this is a shell, the force of impurity. The correction is in drawing the force of connection, the Creator’s force. He will fight against “Pharaoh” and all the other enemies.

It says: “A warrior is not delivered by his great strength” (Psalm 33, 16). So we shouldn’t naively count on that. It is thanks to the connection among us that we will be able to correct everything, and we won’t have to fight for the changes above. We will organize a wonderful happy life from the crumbs that we have. We won’t have much; it will only be enough for each one’s basic necessities, but it will suffice because all the other fulfillments will be provided by the general atmosphere among the people in this society.

The moment the force of connection and unity begins to control the 99%, the masses, the 1% that controls everything will lose its power and its ability to govern. All the 99%, all the seven billion people, will be able to organize a normal life by providing everyone with the basic necessities, while the spiritual force that resides among them fills all their other needs. This means that the animal body will receive the filling it needs and the soul will receive its filling. This will be enough for a person to live a life of happiness.
[82333]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” 6/29/12

Related Material:
Jumping Over The War
Everybody Needs Integral Knowledge
The Force That Changes The Human

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education, Integral Upbringing, Society - 1 Comment →

We can speak about many reasons for creation: the Creator’s desire to bring pleasure to the created beings, thanks to which He created us, and His desire to be revealed and to show His greatness. But considering all the reasons for the goal of creation, one thing is clear, that a person has to reach the feeling and the mind of the attribute of receiving and the attribute of bestowal, so that he’ll understand and feel the Creator to the fullest and become like Him according to the condition of equivalence of form—to rise up to the same height and status.

But how is it possible to reach this if a person doesn’t feel a need for it? If he were given such a need by nature, it wouldn’t be his own need. So the Creator has to create a system in which a person will be able to acquire the desire to reveal the Creator and to resemble Him by using his own powers. Then the desire will be on the person’s account.

This desire is what we call “human.” After all, everything he had up until the moment he reached wanting to resemble the Creator was not considered the “human” level, but only the “animal” level, the initial natural level. Therefore it says, “They are all like animals,” meaning until the moment they acquire a desire to resemble the Creator, a desire to bestow.

In order to do that, the desire that the Creator created was shattered. And within the shattered state a person discovers different forms, deficiencies, and corrupt desires. In the meantime, all this is part of instinctive nature and there is no independent action that a person performs.

A person starts to advance by being awakened from Above, being brought to a group, and being given the opportunity to develop through ascents and descents. Thanks to the environment, a new desire begins to grow in him when he clarifies whether he wants to be part of the environment or not, and if he wants that, then for what purpose: in order to benefit from it or to bestow upon the friends? Thus a person can clarify his desires.

He rises and descends alternately, and thereby the conditions for molding his new desire to receive are created for him. If he’s ready to be in the lowest state only in order to have a chance to bestow, then he will undoubtedly gain nothing for his own benefit. On the contrary, he’ll be happy that he’s in such a low state, since by that, he can be sure that he’s not using it egoistically, since there is nothing to enjoy.

A person is ready to feel that his desire to receive pleasure will always remain empty only in order to acquire the desire to bestow, the opportunity to perform some altruistic action. From now on, he begins to acquire a vessel, a new desire, and can thereby advance.

This means that he develops a new desire that will be his own desire without being attracted to greatness but by agreeing to remain on the same level, in a state of smallness in Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), in desires to bestow. It’s in this desire that he discovers the force of bestowal and begins to know the Creator.
[82282]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/12, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
I Choose You, Brothers!
The Program Of Creation
Lift Your Head To See The Friends

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

The Writings of Rabash, Volume 3, “The Matter of Afflictions”: So, when a person studies the Torah and doesn’t find life in the Torah, he feels sorrow, and this is called “a life of suffering.” This means that he feels sorrow since he cannot find the Light of the Creator’s face. In any case, he doesn’t stop studying the Torah, as it is written, “by your labor in the Torah,” although you don’t find it. So, according to how much he studies the Torah and intends to find it, the afflictions soften to a certain extent called, “You have labored and found,” which is the matter of the Light of the King’s face in the Torah. So, through the afflictions, a true desire if formed in him to receive the Light of the King’s face, and this is called “pangs of love” in which there is no annulment of the Torah.

And the most important thing is that the afflictions will be pangs of love and will not annul the Torah, the Light, which means that, when a person feels that he is evil, he understands that the evil is in his ego, and if he worked above the ego, it wouldn’t happen. There are usually physical afflictions in all the religions and beliefs while according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person draws away from the body through afflictions that help him do that as he rises above them.
[82275]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/12

Related Material:
Turning Fear Into Advancement
As We Ascend, The Fear Will Defuse
Primordial Fear

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: Is my stubbornness worth anything? If everything depends on the Creator and tomorrow He can throw me off-track, where is my work here?

Answer: It doesn’t matter whether the Creator throws me off or not; I have to be stubborn. I have to make sure that even when I feel as if the Creator is throwing me, I don’t leave. I receive such support from the environment that it enables me to stay and not run away.

The more we advance, the more the Creator will reject us. I will feel greater disrespect for Him, and the relationship between us will become worse. I will not understand why the Creator repays me with such ingratitude. This is the work, and this is its reward? Is this fair?

New, corrupt, egoistic desires constantly will be revealed, and as a result, our relationships with the Creator will become worse; they will be unpleasant and illogical. The friends also will seem worse and lower, and the way will seem meaningless. I will not find the powers inside me nor the logical explanation to respect the Creator, the group, and the way.

In the meantime, we are in a state where everything seems sublime and important in our corporeal beastly mind, in our ego. We see that the corporeal world isn’t worth much compared to this great goal and that we have a foundation that is above everything else.

However, this is how we see it today, and tomorrow, if we are stronger, we will be shown a totally different picture that there is nothing to hold onto along the way. The Creator will seem as a foolish illusion that doesn’t really exist; the group will seem like a gathering of empty, useless people, and the study as a meaningless occupation that hasn’t led anyone to success so far.

There is a kind of “eye opening,” and it is a miracle that a person can hold onto the way and continue. It is only in the meantime that, considering our weakness, we are given such a feeling that the group is important, and the friends, the teacher, and the books are important.

However, imagine that the teacher has left you, the group has become unimportant, and the books just stand on the shelf covered with dust, and that’s it. That’s the end. So, we should prepare ourselves for the advanced states that may be very difficult.

I see that people escape minor unpleasant situations and cannot justify their exertion. Even before they are confused from above and rejected from spirituality, they already escape.

We must understand that the Creator is behind the whole picture that we perceive, and behind the way we feel ourselves and the world. The picture of this world not only is what I see before me, but everything that I feel. After having accepted this picture and trying to feel it to its full depth and in every direction in the mind and in the heart, I have to say that there is none else besides Him and that it is He who depicts this picture for me on purpose so that I will respond to it correctly.

As it is written, “From Your actions, I will know You.” His actions are me and this world. I know Him since through all this, I want to reach Him and to know Him as the force of bestowal, as the good and the benevolent.
[82207]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
A Tuning Fork For David’s Violin
Persistence In Valuable Trifles
A Step Forward

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Mutual Guarantee, My Similarity to the Creator - 1 Comment →

Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1” (To: “And we should also interpret”) 

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 134

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 79, Lesson 24

“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 26, Lesson 10

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Our major work is persistence. Do not neglect any moment or the smallest opportunity in which the principle of “I have labored and I found” is based.

A person usually begins to weigh things and to make egoistic calculations, just like in everyday life: Is it worth it to get up and go to work now? And he decides that for 200 dollars he is ready to get up, but for 50 dollars there is no point in getting up and making an effort.

Perhaps from the ego’s perspective this is a right calculation, but if we speak about working in order to bestow, then we have to take into account that our profit is in how much we give, in how much we advance towards the Creator! And here, even one penny can be worth not a penny but billions of dollars. It all depends on how great the one we bestow to is.

So the account should be an account of bestowal and not an account of receiving. In the account of bestowal, the more insignificant and unimportant the work may seem, the more rewarding it can be. This is because our exertion and overcoming the disrespect makes this minor work many times more important.

What seems as minor and unimportant in my egoistic perspective becomes a great opportunity that I receive in return for a little effort, but this is if I switch it all to bestowal. After all everything will be cleared in the thought. I have to make a little effort in order to overcome my doubts; should I deal with something that seems unimportant? But if I do it and start working on what seems to my corporeal eyes as unimportant, I already perform a spiritual action.

So although on the egoistic level it seems that I did something small and unimportant, on the spiritual level it has great value. If I start thinking about to whom I bestow, I will be able to value my profit. The main thing is the Creator’s greatness. My yearning is not to attain Him, but rather His greatness. This reveals Him and allows me to attain revelation.

The difference between the concealment of the Creator and His revelation is determined by one thing only: Do we disrespect Him or do we try to feel His greatness. This is the only thing that changes our vessel and brings us to revelation.
[82139]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Kind Of Persistence Needed On The Path
Your Efforts Do Not Vanish Into Thin Air
The Simple Law Of Mutual Guarantee

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →