Preparation to the Lesson

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

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Aza and Azael,” Item 464, Lesson 110

Preface to the Book of Zohar, Item 34, Lesson 20

“The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Topic: “What Does the Wisdom Revolve Around?” Lesson 2

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Baal HaSulam: “The Arvut, (Mutual Guarantee)”: And once the whole nation unanimously agreed and said, “We shall do and we shall hear,” each member of Israel became responsible that nothing shall be missing from any other member of the nation. Only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, and not before.

We are demanded to correct the general vessel, the desires that now feel that they are detached, foreign, and even opposite to one another. Before, the Light advanced them to connection and to unity, but now, because of the shattering, it separates them, leads them to oppositeness, to quarrels, violence, etc. We need the Light to come and to correct and connect these desires.

We don’t know how to correct them, how to put the parts of the broken vessel together, because we don’t know in advance what the vessel should be like and any assumption we make is only a guess. So what should we do? The point is that we don’t correct anything by ourselves. We ask, demand, and evoke the upper One so that He will perform the correction.

There is no way a person can correct himself. Each time we rise to a higher level, but can a baby be smarter than his mother? So every ascent is accompanied by a request and the upper in response performs the necessary work on it and moves us to the next state.

There is a request on our part and the work on the part of the upper. This is why it is called “God’s work.” It is He who works, and my work is to request.

If we are constantly careful in dividing this work, we save a lot of energy and are not confused. We must make sure that we do that and do not forget about it. We as a rule want to operate on our own, while the actual action on our part is to prepare ourselves for His work, to exert ourselves, and then to discover our helplessness. Baal HaSulam says: “There isn’t a happier state in a person’s work than when he is despaired of his own powers.” A person should understand that only the Creator, the upper Force, can correct him, and that’s the way it is all the time.

It isn’t by chance that our mission seems so difficult: to become “as one man in one heart,” to unite completely; how is that possible? These are illusions that can only lead to crisis and disappointment, to an even greater collapse than the one we’ve seen in the USSR for example. It is really so if we use the wrong means, the wrong program. But the method of Kabbalah provides us with a natural plan that is led by nature itself: Your life doesn’t have to be bad, you only need to discover, to identify that you are in a bad state. This is enough so that you will demand a change and you will receive the next state.

Thus our work is simple. If we all gather and work according to the law of mutual guarantee, the mission becomes much easier: We discover the evil and at the same time we discover the good, which means the source and the means for the changes. The tension between these two poles advances us to correction; we summon the Reforming Light and it performs the work. This arrangement repeats time after time.

The real life, the real ascent, will be revealed in the permanent closeness of people, in common circles, in discussions, in impressions, in excitement, and in mutual help. Thus we will discover more deficiencies in us in comparison to the corrected state of the general unity; we will discover the effectiveness of the greatness of the state of mutual bestowal, and we will activate the upper Force that performs the whole work. It says: “He that makes peace in Heaven, will make peace on us.” This is the order of the actions.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/12, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Baal HaSulam, “Preface to The Book of Zohar,” Item 33: So is the matter before us: All these images and changes begin and end only with the impression of the souls. Yet, by the will of God, they appear as though they are in him himself. He does that to enhance and expand the attainment of the souls to the utmost, in accordance with the Thought of Creation, to delight His creatures.”

The gap between me and the desired picture, which I imagine, should be filled with knowledge. We must make efforts to understand and clarify and thus expand our vessels.

Eventually we attain a reality that is 620 times greater than the initial reality, and this addition comes from the head of the Partzuf. The desire that was created by the Creator stays the same, but it receives an additional understanding and recognition, and by that it grows qualitatively. Thus I attain not what I have received from the Creator but the Creator Himself.

Question: If I fill this gap with knowledge, what is the role of the feeling?

Answer: The Creator wants only one thing from us, that we will build a mind above the feeling so that we will understand, attain, and reveal Him. By that our vessels of feeling expand as well, because the mind operates on feeling; if I know whom I receive pleasure from, then it is 620 times greater.

Before I was offered a candy, but I didn’t want to taste it. Suddenly I discover that someone I respect gave it to me and so the candy immediately tastes differently.

It all depends on our evaluation. Suppose you were served fine, vintage wine from special reserves, and you are also told about its history, of course you will pour it and enjoy every sip. But what if suddenly it will turned out to be a mistake and that the wine was actually from a barrel that was intended for an ordinary supermarket?

Our tastes and preferences depend on our values, it all depends on our evaluation. If I value something, I feel its taste. Then according to this taste, I evaluate other things. However, without any initial evaluation, I am like a computer without software, just a piece of metal. Of course there are genetic discernments of tastes, but the filling of my desire is what determines the set of values.

Therefore, the addition of 620 times provides me with a mental evaluation, recognition, of the one who brings me the pleasure.

Question: How should I establish the right evaluation if I see before me a picture that is totally opposite from the right order of priorities?

Answer: This picture was given to you on purpose so that you would correct it. I have to see the importance of the one who sent me this corrupt form that allows me to be corrected. Without the broken puzzle I wouldn’t put the separated parts together and wouldn’t acquire the mind of the artist through this process.

I exert myself in order to put the pieces together and eventually, by completing the original picture, I discover its message: “I love you.” What is more, now I know who is saying this to me and what His words mean.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, Baal HaSulam “600,000 Souls”

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A ladder, which divides the worlds into levels and the Light into portions, descends from Above, from the whole state, all the way to our world, until the total concealment. The concealments were created so that we will grow and fill them with our recognition, our work, with our exertion and efforts.

Instead of working with the vessels of receiving, we should begin to work with the vessels of bestowal, which means with the desire to receive in the intention of in order to bestow and not with the intention of in order to receive. Thanks to that, a person acquires freedom and independence, knowledge and the feeling that he’s in the Creator’s world, in the upper world.

In order to bring a person to this state, he’s shown concealments from a certain point in his development, which is happening in our times. For selected individuals this already happened in previous centuries, but today the whole world feels the concealment, a kind of obscurity, confusion, helplessness, and disorientation. There’s a feeling that we can no longer advance with the old attributes and forces to calculate our exertion and our desires to make plans and achieve results.

There is nothing to yearn for since the world is covered by a shadow. But this shadow is the same concealment, which we have to balance and to fill with our exertion. We know that this concealment was given to us on purpose, not in order to divert us from the good goal, but on the contrary, in order to bring us to the good but consciously, by understanding and feeling it as grown-ups.

Accordingly we have to determine the right way to advance, by clarifying what is required from us and how to organize all the means we have and our vessel, so that they will raise us above the concealment. We don’t annul the concealment, but we rise above it.

Everything depends upon how a person accepts these states. It says: “and each man shall help his friend,” the group has to give each one the powers as well as to constantly remind him that “there is none else besides Him,” and that we must ascend the levels of bestowal in “faith above reason.”

Then all the concealments will turn into a shade of Holiness by which we acquire vessels of bestowal, which are called “holy.” If we forget that, both we and the group, it’s a serious problem because we no longer exert ourselves in order to rise above the concealment; we are not thankful for the concealment and don’t accept it as something that’s desirable, as a springboard to ascent. Instead, we are angry about the concealment and ask for it and all the unpleasantness in life to be removed.

The concealment can be very strong, but a person should remember that there is none else besides Him. A person is only required to determine his relationship with the group correctly in order to raise a request and to draw the Reforming Light, and then he will attain adhesion above the concealment. This is how he will advance.

Otherwise it will turn into a shade of the Sitra Achra, of the egoistic forces, which will lead to a greater fall, which won’t allow him to fulfill himself correctly. No matter what happens, he should rise again and start everything anew. The main thing is to determine a framework for himself: a schedule for studying and for working in the group, which will remind him in every state that his obligation is to differentiate between the shade of Holiness and the shade of the Sitra Achra.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/12, Shamati #8

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Question: How can we maintain unity with a friend when he denies it?

Answer: We cannot enter into contract between us if the Creator is not used as a guarantor for this agreement. How can we commit to each other if we aren’t in control, but are completely managed from Above? How can I seriously promise something for tomorrow and expect something from you? This is completely naive.

We need to call the Creator, so that He will be a witness to our agreement, and only then will the agreement exist.

By signing on an agreement, we, first of all, clarify if you are the full owner of this property. If this land, the property, and the bank account, are under someone’s authorization, and that owner doesn’t participate in the signing of this contract, then what is the point of signing it?
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can the desire to receive bestow?

Answer: A person has a chance to work with his desire to receive in order to bestow for the good of others. In our world, there are situations in which I feel that I depend on someone, and then I try to make him happy either for my own benefit or to avoid troubles.

I also may perceive the other as part of myself if it is my child or a beloved person. Then, by making him happy, it is as if I make myself happy and even more.

This is one of the forms of the influence of the upper Light, which brings us the right feeling. On the other hand, if the Light disappears, a person sinks to the bottom of his existence, losing all contact, and any sense of belonging even to people who are closest to him.

When the feeling of closeness is taken from us, we are left with the desire to receive by itself without any sentiments. Then, I don’t take anything into account except for any possible damage that I may cause myself. At the same time, the upper Light can influence me in such a way that I suddenly will feel a quantum leap and will want the other to feel good, not because I will benefit from it, not egoistically, but I simply want him to feel good.

How can that be? We don’t know, but Kabbalists tell us about this. They also say that we all should reach this feeling: “You have no other choice, and, if you don’t listen to us, you will experience great suffering, so you will want it one way or the other.”

Only the upper Light can provide me with a new, altruistic attitude toward others. I can never acquire it by myself.

– “So let the Light influence me!” I am told.

– “No, it will influence only if you want it to.”

– “But how can I want it if I am an egoist?”

This is why you were given a “point in the heart” in addition to your desire to receive, a grain of understanding. I admit that bestowal is special, and this candle, which you didn’t light by yourself, burns within you and evokes you.

Besides that, the upper Light flows upon this point or this candle, bringing you to the group, to the study, and placing you in such an environment that enables you to resemble the actions of bestowal, the forms of bestowal. Like a small child who imitates the grown ups, you were given a bit of a desire, so use it.

By that, you will summon the Light that will influence you more strongly, and you will suddenly acquire new attributes. Then, the other, which is the friends, humanity, nature, and the Creator, will become more important that your own self.

The Light does all that if we raise a request for correction and do “good deeds,” which means that we play together in bestowal as if we want it and, by that, reach a prayer, a demand: “We have done so much, and where is the result?” Then, we begin to pray, understanding that only the Light can give us the form of bestowal, and so we advance.

Today, you have no connection to bestowal except for this game. In order to bestow upon the Light, we must resemble it, which is possible only by connection and unity in the group. This is the only form of bestowal that you can express and exhibit in our world in order to resemble the Light and to summon its influence upon you.

– “Okay, we are holding hands. We really want to unite. What’s next?”

This isn’t enough. You don’t connect like a football team; you want to feel the need for bestowal. You lower your heads before one another and unite. What is this for? It is in order to reach the One who bestows.

In order to do that, you should know that you must have the right attitude toward Him. So, please, take a book and read about how to do that. If you want to be big, read what the big ones have written, what they do, and how they prepare their actions of bestowal upon the Creator.

If you really want that, play at it like a child who wishes to resemble a grown-up. Unite with the friends equally by wanting to reach mutual guarantee and as an expression of mutual bestowal. Yearn upward for bestowal upon the Creator, use the sources, and advance together toward the goal.

Then, you will be influenced by the Reforming Light and will reach your goal. Without the Light, nothing will happen. You only evoke a desire that is as correct, as efficient, and as intensive as possible, to the fullest.

You will reach the desirable measure of exertion so that the Light will turn from the Surrounding Light into the Inner Light. In other words, it will bring the attribute of bestowal into your desire, and you will perceive this feeling as the Light itself, as life and vitality.

If you were given the feeling of bestowal now, it would seem to you as hell. The only difference is that, by correcting yourself, you will be prepared for bestowal and be happy with it, whereas now it only will cause you pain and make the darkness seem like death since the Light of Hochma that isn’t dressed in the Light of Hassadim will be like a knife that cuts your whole life.

A small portion of this Light brings about our descents by evoking us to look for the way to rise to Hassadim. You are drawn upward, asking the friends and the Light for a bit of the attribute of bestowal that will pull you out of the descent. By that, you are begging for Hesed (mercy), for the dressing of the Light of Hassadim. When it comes, you receive a little vitality and come out of the abyss.

So, the Reforming Light is different from the Light that does not reform by giving you a Masach (screen), which means the readiness to stand bestowal and even to accept it as the real life.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot“

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Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #50 “Two States“

The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet (Genesis),” And the Serpent Was Cunning,” Item 448, Lesson 109

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 1, Chapter 2, Item 5, “Ohr Pnimi,” Item 90, Lesson 3

“The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)“

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Everything that the authors of The Book Of Zohar wrote, they sensed and uncovered in their desires, in their properties of perception (Kelim.) We should envy them, desiring to reach their state to reveal the world about which they’re writing. We don’t even understand what they see there, as if they landed in an unknown jungle, some unfamiliar place, they see whatever is happening there, and they tell us about it in various forms. They don’t even have enough words to describe everything since it’s something new, not existing in our world. Sometimes they’re able to find a certain analogy to our world, but other times they can’t.

In order to reveal the same thing, we don’t need to travel to that same place, to climb some mountain, or enter a jungle—we simply need to change our inner properties, to turn each property a little, to make an overall calibration—and then we will obtain the picture about which they spoke. Then with every word, with every letter, we will be able to slightly calibrate one property after another, and thus we’ll go through the text that they wrote.

Ultimately, the text of The Zohar contains instructions about how we can change every detail in ourselves, every property of perception so as to constantly hold onto the picture that the authors of The Book are forming for us. In this manner, we are going through the path following their footsteps.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, The Zohar

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A spiritual action differs from a material one in that it always proceeds through the upper one. Therefore, I cannot connect with others on my own. I exert efforts in order to ask the upper to connect me with others.

If I want to raise a prayer, how is it possible to accomplish since I cannot send the Creator a postcard or a message? This is why I ask the upper to help me reach a state of prayer.

Everything goes through the upper; I don’t perform any actions on my own. I only need to prepare my “half a coin.” And advancement lies precisely in seeing each and every time that a person does everything only through the upper one. It’s as if there is an intermediate dispatch station in front of me through which I pass along all of my actions.

Only if my action goes through the upper does He add force into it and returns a response. I must act through Him. And this pertains to any action or thought, “for” or “against.” Only through this will we come to adhesion.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, The Zohar

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Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”: In my opinion, there is indeed only one soul in the world. … Yet, saying that there are 600,000 souls and sparks of souls appears as though it is divided by the force of the body of each person. In other words, first, the body divides and completely denies him of the radiance of the soul, and by the force of the Torah and the Mitzva, the body is cleansed, and to the extent of its cleansing, the common soul shines upon him.

You have to make an effort in order to collect all the shattered parts. The number of the particles is 600,000, but actually I collect them not by quantity but by their intensity. It isn’t about numbers, but about how tightly we “cling” to one another—this level of attachment is called 600,000, since by the connection and the power of unity we rise from the level of ZON to the level of Arich Anpin.

Today we cannot imagine this state in the true light, and so we describe it in different ways. Actually Baal HaSulam writes about it, in order to direct us correctly in several ways, I feel 600,000 souls because I am shattered, but if I weren’t everything would seem to me as one whole formation. I feel the intensity of my current existence in this world and not in the eternal life, because I don’t reach the level of 600,000 souls, I don’t evoke the ZON in order to reach my Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction), the level of Arich Anpin.

On the one hand I follow the right track to correction, and on the other hand I still don’t perceive the reality in which there is only one soul with the intensity of 600,000, which means that it is attained 620 times more than the Creator has given it. If the created being feels that he is bestowing upon the Creator while receiving, then the intensity of the filling, his understanding and his feeling grow: “How much do I receive, from whom am I receiving, how great is the love between us.” Thus the vessel is evoked in the created being, which is 600,000 times greater than the previous one and in which the intensity of the Light is 620 times greater than before.

Thus, in order to reach the right discernment of the reality in Gmar Tikkun we have to see our present state as divided into 600,000 parts and under 6,000 years—levels, in the intensity of a “very thin candle” instead of the full Light of NRNHY, which is 620 times greater than the initial state.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, Baal HaSulam “600,000 Souls”

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