Preparation to the Lesson
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Writings of Rabash “What Are the Two Discernments Before Lishma”
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Zohar for All – Passover “Shemot (Exodus),” “Why Exile and Why Egypt,” Item 246
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 15, Item 41
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam,” “Go to Pharaoh”
| [media 9] | [media 10] |
Question: I will be connected to the North American convention virtually, together with other friends. How can we create a powerful unity on the path to the convention? How can we raise its importance so we all disconnect from corporeality and feel the single world Kli?
Answer: First of all, I would advise you to attend the New York convention after all. This is necessary without a doubt.
Secondly, I suggest you read all of Rabash’s and Baal HaSulam’s articles about the group. Unification, the change in a person’s attitude toward the group are what’s important.
Thirdly, dissemination also plays a big role in the preparation.
Thus, we are trying to help the Convention, to prepare and bring several more people to it who are in doubt as to whether or not they should attend. We should bring together as many people as possible to take part in it.
Besides, North America will be preparing with the help of South America, thanks to our meetings in Columbia, Chile, and Brazil. This will be real, practical preparation, including not only lessons and lectures, but also participation in seminars.
[75973]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/12, Writings of Rabash
Related Material:
The Waves Of The Convention Are Washing Away All The Dirt
Convention As A Pressing Necessity
Three Days Before The Convention
Question: How can we measure our advancement, in comparison to what?
Answer: I measure my advancement by checking to what extent I justify the friends, value them, and see them as the greatest in our generation, as special people, and to what extent I see the Creator’s image in them and want their attributes to become part of me.
I want to become the result of their influence because this is called the internal perception of the environment. What they imprint in me will be the form of the Creator, the human part in me.
I understand that this is how I should treat them, but at the same time I don’t see them that way. These are two feelings that don’t connect at all. On the one hand, I feel that the friends are great and special and that they are no different from the Creator. On the other hand, I understand that I treat them in a totally different way. This determines my attitude towards the Creator. If I disrespect the society, to the same extent I disrespect the Creator, it’s absolutely the same. If I want to change by the environment, it’s as if I place myself under the influence of the Creator.
If I can combine these two discernments, meaning hating and disrespecting the friends while at the same time respecting and valuing them, I attain these two polar opposite points. One becomes my Keter and the other becomes my Malchut and together they build my spiritual vessel.
By attaining such a vessel, I understand that this is my nature and I can determine that I am in “exile” because now I see the cause that requires my connection with the group and that I should place myself under its influence. On the other hand, I discover how far I am from connection, how I always forget it. I discover the difficulty in attaining it and how reluctant I am to do it.
Thus I see how harmful my ego is by not letting me be included in my environment in harmony, which means to be included and to melt in it as an integral part. This means that I transcend the Machsom (barrier) that separates me from the spiritual work.
[75729]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 4/19/12, Writings of Rabash
Related Material:
Examination Of Spiritual Advancement
The Principles of Spiritual Orientation In Emptiness
Receiving The Light To Enlighten Myself
Other than personal informational genes (Reshimot) that influence the inner condition of an individual, there is another factor that has a big impact. This is the general awakening from Above (Etaaruta DeLaila), which is called “weekdays,” “Shabbats” (Saturdays), and Holidays, all of which denote perpetual relative “ups” and “downs.”
There are “seconds,” “minutes,” “hours,” “days,” “nights,” “special days of the week,” “extraordinary days of the month,” “special months of the year,” and “leap years” all inside one another. They play a tremendous role in our lives since our path includes these states.
Even the smallest state contains all others like a holographic picture. We’re connected with a special Light that shines for us and thus modifies the Surrounding Light so that on various days we get different types of the Surrounding Light even though we continue applying the same level of effort.
Our work stays unchanged, but by the mere fact that it’s a Monday, the Surrounding Light differs from the Light that we had on Sunday. We alter our labor “from below;” at the same time, conditions “from Above” also get modified in order to “meet” our work and equate it with the external conditions that are called “the world, a year, a soul.”
This applies particularly to various time segments such as “seconds and minutes,” etc. since it brings us in compliance with them. The awakening from Above is of great help to us. Changes in the upper worlds happen perpetually, every single second. It provides us with additional sets of changes that shorten our path to spirituality.
The system is built in an exceptionally wise way. Concurrent to our personal growth, we correct the whole system on a large scale because the awakening from Above originates an exceptional state within us. Thus, a microscopic change that we achieve impacts the whole system and improves other people’s condition by bringing them a lot of happiness.
[75816]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/2012, The Study of the Ten Sefirot
Related Material:
The “Awakening From Above” On The Sabbath
The Spiritual Calendar
A Spiritual Week: Preparing For A Saturday Feast
Question: Why is the Creator concealed from me? What is He afraid of?
Answer: During the preparation period a person sometimes feels that the Creator is concealed from him, and sometimes he doesn’t feel anything. As a person advances he feels how much he needs the revelation of the Creator so that he will be able to bestow.
A person understands that without this revelation he will never be able to bestow. Only the revelation of the Creator in contrasts to my ego will provide me with the attribute of bestowal above receiving, “faith above reason.” Then I will be able to restrict myself, and will receive a Masach, (screen) and the Returning Light, and will be able to bestow, but it all depends on the level of the Creator’s revelation to me.
I am waiting for His revelation, not in order to receive pleasure from Him, but so that I will be able to work above my desire to receive. This is the state we should reach and we are almost there. We have to feel that the revelation of the Creator is essential, so that we will be able to attain bestowal and connect among us and bestow upon Him.
First different thoughts come up, searches and then feelings. It is the state of the “posterior,” which is a state of deficiency, of necessity. The “face” is already the filling, the revelation. But in spirituality the filling and the revelation symbolize the ability to bestow by which I am filled.
I am not filled in my vessels of receiving as I previously thought. New vessels are depicted in me and by them I feel a deficiency for connection, for bestowal, a yearning to see everyone and all of reality as one. By trying to actually implement this I suddenly understand that I can’t do that and that I want to do something else, but I don’t have the “hands” to do so.
I cannot perform an action of bestowal. It is like wanting to do something in this world but not having the tools to do it, and so I feel totally helpless and powerless, lacking the understanding and the resources to carry it out. I feel like a fish that has no fins that cannot do anything and cannot change anything.
I understand that I need a certain force, in order to discover all three discernments: right, left and the middle. Then I will discover how to work with the right and left lines in order to build the “head” between them, the mind. My fulfillment is when I will be able to fulfill this action of bestowal above myself. I have to imagine exactly how to put all the components together, in order to feel the importance of bestowal, who I bestow upon, what do I bestow, and by what do I bestow. This means that I clearly understand this action.
[75389]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/12, Writings of Rabash
Related Material:
When All Doubts Will Dissipate
The Protective Shield Of The Concealment
Being Grateful For The Concealment
Preparation to the Lesson
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Writings of Rabash “What Is the Blessing that He Made a Miracle for Me in this Place in the Work”
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Zohar for All – Passover “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” “The Passover Sacrifice,” Item 186
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 15, Item 37
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam.” Talk About the Preparations for the Conventions and About the Dissemination
| [media 9] | [media 10] |
Question: Which part of the world do the non-Jewish people who study Kabbalah belong to?
Answer: Today they belong to the category of “Israel.”
If before the term “Israel” referred to the actual people, today it refers to those who aspire “straight to the Creator” (Yashar–El), that is, to the spiritual idea. Today it makes no difference any more who your parents were. What’s important is whether you accept the method of correction, whether you have the “point in the heart” (•). According to this point you are called “Israel.” If you don’t have this point, you belong to the part called “the nations.” So it follows today you can belong to “the nations,” and tomorrow you can become “Israel.” Eventually everyone has to reach the goal.
Whoever has received this spark must disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah and at the same time take care of their own advancement, the group, and the means necessary for that so that the general pyramid of humanity will not turn upside down and land on its head, thus placing all the harmful parts of “the nations” at the head of the pyramid.
Moreover, Baal HaSulam emphasizes that these categories exist in every person, and today the entire world has to identify and correct them because we are now at the final phase of the correction. This is the reason that today “Israel” are people who yearn for the Creator and not anything else.
[75737]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/2012 on Holocaust Memorial Day
Related Material:
Serving The World
The Spiritual Division Of Labor
Bring Your Half Of Infinity
Question: If the Creator manages all the opposing forces that appear during this time, why is the transition between two degrees so dangerous?
Answer: Our main work is concentrated specifically in the transition between the degrees, not in the fixed state. When I am on a certain degree, I work only in order to delve into these states, to understand and examine them.
In our world, we think that the main thing is the achieved state, not the transition to it. However, in the spiritual world, what matters is the transition, not the state itself.
We remain in a certain state only for the period of time required for us to discover it. It could last for a second, then the transition, again, a state lasting a second and again, the transition. There was a Kabbalist who told his students that he went through 400 ascents and descents in a few minutes’ time.
In the spiritual world, we feel an inverted and different dimension into which we break within the framework of time, movement, and space. It is specifically by this that we penetrate the space between the seconds of our world. In our world, the seconds move directly one after another. Spirituality is found between them because spiritual life takes place specifically in the transitions, not in the states themselves.
A static state is a dead one, and it doesn’t count in spirituality. It exists only in order to complete the degree, which includes in its sub-degrees a great many internal transitions. This is why a person, who is in the spiritual world, is constantly going through changes and has no rest.
The spiritual concepts do not exist within our coordinates of time, movement, and space because in our world, there are no breaks between the seconds, there are no gaps either in time or space. Whereas spirituality indicates that you find an interruption between one second and the next, and penetrate its depth, thus entering the spiritual dimension.
[75516]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/2012, Writings of Baal HaSulam
Related Material:
The Expanding World
A Prayer About A Successful Birth
In Spirituality, Every Moment Is Unique
Question: How can we increase the importance of the goal before the coming conventions in South and North America? There are many serious interferences now; how can we rise above them?
Answer: It is good that there are many interruptions. A person needs two discernments. On the one hand, he feels the interruptions: how he disrespects everyone and how much he hates to be with them as his pride raises him above everyone else and he draws away from them.
This can happen both to an individual and to a whole group and by that actually destroys it. The question is whether a group can recover. The convention gives such a chance to groups that are in a difficult situation and that hardly have any positive forces that can connect them.
There are groups that connect only on a negative basis: against the teacher and against what he says, or against another part of the group. This is the only thing that keeps them together. The convention is an opportunity to enter a bigger and stronger environment that is above the individual group. In it the problematic group can be corrected, if they are ready to annul themselves: each member individually and the group as a whole.
They will come to the convention like to a Mikveh (ritual purifying pool), but in order to do that they have to “make a sacrifice,” to bring their ego as their sacrifice. If they are ready for that, the convention will heal that group.
If not, we will see how as a result of the convention, they will draw away even further and they may even go their own way. I believe that the convention should be strong enough, so that everyone will have clear discernments: that he either annuls himself and advances towards the goal with the help of the environment, which we build together as a factor in its development and as the representative of the Creator, or he leaves the way by clarifying that it is not for him.
Let’s hope that this is what will happen. Enough of the childish games and the struggles over control and honor that are tearing up the groups. It is time for serious advancement and time to stop acting like kids who are fighting in the sand box. It is time for important actions and the responsibility that humanity demands from us.
If you are ready for that, that’s great, let’s work. If not, it is better if you just disappear. It is one or the other. So the convention should help everyone clarify where he is and to what he is prepared to dedicate the rest of his life.
When the whole global group connects during the convention, it is a very strong environment, which is most efficient for advancement. Therefore, it is a good idea to be included in it these days and to take part fully in what is going on: both physically and internally with all of one’s soul. By that a person puts himself under the strongest possible influence for advancement in our world.
[75726]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/12, Writings of Rabash
Related Material:
To Brazil With The Whole World
There Are No Second-Rate Conventions
The Guiding Thread Of Conventions
Baal HaSulam, “The Last Generation”: The world erroneously considers Nazism a particular upshot of Germany. In truth, it is the upshot of a democracy and socialism that were left without manners, religion and justice. Thus, all nations are equal in that; there is no hope at all that Nazism will perish with the victory of the allies. Tomorrow, the British will adopt Nazism, since they too live in a world of democracy and Nazism.
If democracy and socialism are not corrected, if they aren’t included properly in the process of correction, Nazism stems from them. And this could happen anywhere in the world. In the 20th century, Germany was the most progressive country with advanced science and rich culture; however, the development of society there took the Nazi form.
Therefore, Baal HaSulam continues: What happened to the Germans is one of nature’s wonders. They were considered among the most civilized nations, and all of a sudden, overnight, they became savages, the worst among the most primitive nations in history. Moreover, Hitler was elected by the majority’s vote.
All this is the result of the power of evil that comes into the world if we don’t bring good into it. After all, in general good and evil are revealed equally. First, the evil inclination is revealed, and if we don’t attract to it the Reforming Light, it acquires the worst forms. And since this is the strongest desire, it absorbs culture, education, science, and everything else, and is manifested as the greatest evil, arrogance, pride, and lust for power over others. Everything is mixed in this egoistic desire. And if we don’t hurry to bring the Reforming Light, this evil will break out of us.
[75743]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/12, “Holocaust Memorial Day”
Related Material:
The Danger Has Not Passed
To Be A Model For The Nations
The Nation Possessing Nothing But An Idea
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
