No matter how difficult spiritual attainment appears to be, in reality, there is nothing simpler. Imagine a system that is completely unified, wholesome, connected between all its parts, all minor details. Everything operates in absolute harmony and aspires towards a single goal—everything is aimed towards connection, making a common analysis, in other words, the Creator, which exists between us.

We reveal Him as a consequence of the harmony that arises between us through our constant efforts to connect between us harmoniously. As a result of finding harmony inside our desires, we reveal the Light that fulfills them.

The Creator is in us! We are in the world of Infinity, so let us reveal at least the very first, the easiest and smallest degree of this perfect state. To reveal it means to make yourself correspond to it, become equal in qualities, attain balance with the Light that fills it at least on the very first degree—Nefesh de-Nefesh de-Nefesh of the world of Assiya.

For this it is necessary to achieve equality of all parts of the common vessel. But how can it be achieved when equality cannot be measured? The only thing that can be measured is the difference between one and the other, Delta. But when things are identical, we cannot appraise them because we lose the scale for measuring them. How can two absolutely black colors be compared, or how can one compare white to white? We need a certain difference to appraise things.

However, we must verify our equality, because if I am not completely equal to another I cannot consider him my friend—I am not connected to him by a mutual open connection. And this is why we need two qualities: reception and bestowal. I must bestow to the group as someone big in relation to those who are small, giving them the greatness of the goal, the recognition of importance of the Creator and friends. And on the other hand, I must lower myself to the same extent in relation to them in order to receive influence and support from them, as I perceive them as the greatest people of the generation.

In other words, I achieve maximum bestowal and maximum lowering of myself. And these two maximums lead to my equality. I cannot build equality on its own, just by considering myself equal—this equality is not worth anything. Equality is only revealed as a consequence of two extreme states: the highest and the lowest.

And when everyone in the group works this way: in the maximum and the minimum, giving everything to the group and receiving strength, awakening, and inspiration from them, then it is as if they were becoming connected by a single open pipe. Before, we all used to connect to each other through pipes, through which the energy flowed, but now, they all merge together and we get one big lake, one common reservoir is being discovered.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson: Talk About Past Conventions 

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Beresheet (Genesis),” “The Hidden Light,” Item 354

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 7, “Seder Siba U-Mesuvav,” Item 1

“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” (Starting with: “Of course, from that moment”)

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Igrot,” Letter 18

The Book of Zohar — Selected Chapters, “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Bet Resheet,” (Starting with: “‘To water,’ means”), Item 342

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 7

“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 133, Lesson 59

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Question: I have three kids, so I was very worried when you said that our generation is depleting all the natural resources, not leaving anything for our children to live on. How can we correct this situation?

Answer: Our general family includes seven billion people and we have to think about everyone by worrying about what we will leave for the next generation and not only for your three kids or our grandchildren. But in the meantime, I see that we are enjoying life, consuming the vital resources without giving it any thought or feeling, not worrying about those who will come after us. This is just an example of how blind our ego is, and that it doesn’t understand what it is doing.

If we look at the behavior of all the countries and all the governments, we can see that no one is thinking about the future. Our only desire is to pump more resources from the earth, produce more goods, and throw them away. The fact that at the same time we are polluting the air and the water doesn’t stop us. I have traveled around the world a lot and I see that even in countries that are not industrial, the environment is still terribly polluted. There are hardly any places that are still natural and clean, everything is poisoned.

This is a natural process as long as only the force of the ego manages us. If there is no other force to counter the ego, the force of bestowal that can balance it, it will kill us. We will not be able to stop it. Only a moment before the end, having no choice, we will cry, “Help!” and then we will be saved. But it is better not to reach this state; it is better to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah as widely as possible before reaching this state.

We should understand that if we only fight the external pollution of nature as a society for the protection of nature, it won’t help. We are given all the ecological problems in order to push us in the direction of the correction of the soul. If we only deal with improving the environment, we won’t correct anything by so doing.

Now scientists are also beginning to see this, saying that if we begin to use alternative energy sources to preserve the environment, it will only lead to other unexpected outcomes. For example, the generators that operate on wind energy that are considered to be very ecology friendly, actually have a strong impact on global warming that it doesn’t justify the energy they produce. After all, they push the air to the ground with great force, thus causing greater harm than benefit.

There is the law of conservation of energy. We can’t produce energy from nothing. Even if we use solar energy, it has a tremendous negative impact on the earth. So we can’t cover the whole planet with solar panels, it won’t help us improve the environment, but actually causes harm.

In nature everything is arranged so that only by advancing towards the goal of creation do we achieve balance with nature. Everything else that we do, no matter how good it may seem, only causes harm. No matter how hard we try to protect nature, nothing will help.

It’s to such an extent that we can stop thinking about saving the Earth’s environment and natural resources, the debris that contaminates it, the plastic that fills the seas and oceans, but rather, we should deal only with our internal correction. Then everything will immediately work out because the higher level corrects all the levels that are below it.

In The Book of Zohar and in the article “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” by Baal HaSulam, it says that everything depends upon the correction of man, whereas the natural levels of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate rise and descend with him, without any account of their own. So the protection of ecology will not help us. Instead, the main thing is to care about our soul.
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From the New Jersey Convention 5/09/12, Shamati #25

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Shamati #98 “Spirituality Is Called that Which Will Never Be Lost,” Shamati #188 “Freedom,” Shamati #206 “Faith and Pleasure”

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Shamati #208 “Labor,” Shamati #69 “First Will Be the Correction of the World”

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Shamati #25 “Things that Come from the Heart”

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In fact, the whole Torah talks about intentions as well as the direction people should orient their desires to, working, shaping and organizing them in such a way that they gradually achieve a higher level of similarity with the Light. The Light doesn’t descend to us in its original simple and abstract form; it’s already “pre-shaped.” After the Light enters desire, it transforms it in accordance with Its own qualities so that they start matching each other.

In our world, we see how water easily enters the vessel and takes its form. However, in spirituality it’s different: Merging doesn’t happen until the shape of the filler and the vessels completely coincide. This state is called “merging” or “full similarity of properties” that should be adequate to conditions which are different at each particular level of advancement. At a higher level, a stronger similarity of properties is expected; each subsequent step requires a much higher degree of matching until we achieve a phase when the vessel acquires the shape of the Light and they finally unite. This is the reason we constantly search for the correct form that will allow us to correspond to the Light’s shape.

The Light is always kind and makes good. It’s always the same; it permanently stays in absolute calmness, as it is said: “I, HaVaYaH, do not change Myself.” It means that His intention is always the same. All changes happen within us, and that’s why we have to constantly search for a form that we should acquire in order to be “appropriate” for the Light, the Creator.

Similarly, when people fall in love and try to gain reciprocal feelings, they think about how they should look, what to talk about, and how to behave so that it’s right and acceptable to the other party. When it comes to the Light, we should act likewise.

The Light brings forth certain conditions that are called “spiritual steps.” Each of them is associated with a specific type of Light that is “dressed” in a particular shape and stays within an adequate vessel. Our task is to bring our “garments” to similarity with Him. Then, the contact between the Light, Its “clothing” at a higher level, and desire (altruistic clothing of the Light at a lower step) will occur. Only under such circumstances will they unite.

The entire Torah is dedicated to this process; there is nothing except it. At each level, from the worst and the lowest up to the loftiest and highest, everything is defined only by similarity between the vessel and the Light. Correspondence of the vessel and the Light is called “intention.” It’s about what the vessel is oriented towards and what it strives to achieve. There is nothing else in this realm.

It only seems that there are material objects around us in this world that confuse us and hide the real essence of our activities from us. Whatever we deal with in this world, we still interact with levels of our adequacy to the Light.

The language of Kabbalah talks about this openly and clearly; it explains the kind of inner changes we have to achieve in order to reveal the general Light. Our duty while learning Kabbalah is to “try on” everything we learn and see if the “dress” fits us and at this point figure out what our unity should look like.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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“Joseph” stands for a point within a person that can grow only when it’s positioned in the Pharaoh’s kingdom (egoistic desire). The tiny spark of Light is called a “ thin candle” (Ner Dakik). The “thin candle” deliberately places itself inside the ego since it grows within the ego and eventually transforms it into bestowal. Thus, Joseph got to Egypt, grew (expanded) there (meaning that his brothers joined him). He represents a spark that develops only inside a human ego.

Egoism is built in a way that it can only value something that it regards as “lucrative” (beneficial). It identifies “profits” only in the type of fulfillment, which is called “women’s work” as opposed to overpowering fulfillment which is called “men’s work.” This is why it’s said that Pharaoh ordered every single Jewish boy killed and left the girls alive.

We give birth to “sons” and then kill them because we have no idea how to work with intentions for the sake of bestowal. Then, they are re-born through our attempts to bestow at least minimally, but our ego yet again kills those efforts. Our intellect recognizes that that we have to bestow and we even manage to generate such intentions, but then again nullify them with our ego.

Our work is to recognize through our desires that we happen to give birth to our “sons” and then destroy them again. We are terrified by what we did, and by the fact that we have nothing else left. After going through torture and realizing that we are incapable of doing anything about the state of affairs, step by step, we acquire a new desire: a new informational Reshimo that is called “Moshe” (Moses).

“Moshe” begins to grow and develop in the Pharaoh’s house. It looks as if he comes from Pharaoh’s side. Pharaoh develops and elevates him, teaches him wisdom, empowers him. After 40 years spent in Pharaoh’s palace, Moshe got everything except that he wasn’t exposed to knowledge about the Creator.

Moshe continued to grow within his desires, which underwent correction and felt that in spite of all his efforts, he cannot convert them into bestowal. At this point gradually his desires acquired the “point of Moshe” meaning the spark that at first was hidden to the extent that it was totally elusive. However, the spark continued to grow. Because of it we carry on giving birth to our “sons” meaning intentions to bestow. We believe that we are able to give and again-and-again we “kill” our efforts.

A person continues to exterminate his “sons” until with a huge regret he starts to realize that all attempts to bestow do not lead anywhere. We give birth to a “son” (intention to bestow), which is in fact our next level that directs us to “depart” from Egypt. This step is a result of our effort in the group work; it stems from our actual deeds. At some point, we really acquire a desire to bestow, but later on we cool down and act egoistically once again. It means that Pharaoh “swallows” our newborn children.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/12, Writings of Rabash

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In Mitzvot and transgressions, only the intention is what bestows on our general system, on the revelation of the upper Light, on the ability to resemble the Creator. Of course, it also includes the simple relations of the corporeal world relating to others, the world, humanity, nature, and ecology, since your attitude includes all of your feelings. But the Mitzvot and transgressions exist only in relation to the connection and resemblance or lack of resemblance to the Creator.

This is so at each level, inanimate, vegetative, and animate, whereas the last level, the speaking, is the one that executes all the transgressions. If the desire to receive at the level of speaking that is going to connect to the Creator, to resemble Him, does something that is opposed to connection, then that is called a transgression.

“Israel” who longs for the Creator, is the one who makes the transgressions, whereas the “nations of the world” don’t make transgressions. With them there exists only seven Mitzvot of the sons of Noah. The man who in the meantime does not enter the path of direct ascent to the Creator, which is called, “Israel” (direct to the Creator), also needs to relate kindly to others: to maintain nature, its balance and ecology, to have court houses, provide for justice at the level of humanity, not to eat meat of a still living animal, etc.

But the spiritual Mitzvot and transgressions belong only to the ladder of the spiritual levels, to the right and left lines. Without any feeling of a transgression, you won’t be able to discover your evil inclination and won’t feel your need for the Light that Reforms. Thereby you arrive at the middle line.

Thus it is said,” There is no righteous in the land who hasn’t sinned.” We need to discover all the transgressions of our ego, since without that we won’t have a need for correction. If it is written that “the righteous is as full of Mitzvot as a pomegranate,” this means that in the beginning he discovered within him that same number of transgressions.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/02/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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