Question: We need to become imbued with desire from the group, but also to take desire from the masses. What is the difference?

Answer: There is our group, Bnei Baruch (BB), and there are the nations of the world. Even if a unity (∑) of the nations will arise in the future, it will only be able to beget a cry aimed upward. Their unity is good for joining into our unity. And our unity, in turn, will join with the One (1).

Thus, there is unification of the nations, there is unification among us, and there is unification of the nations with us, where masses become included in us like the seven lower Sefirot of Bina. It is necessary to have internal unity below and internal unity above, and then we all unite and merge with the Creator into a single whole.

In this manner, we, as the three upper Sefirot of Bina (GAR de Bina), should provide the correction of its seven lower Sefirot (ZAT de Bina).

Question: So there are two levels of correction: We unite for the sake of bestowal, while the masses need to correct egoism on the material level?

Answer: We don’t correct anything there among the nations. We connect to people and take their desire, which helps us band together even tighter and to establish a connection with the upper force, with the Light. And the Light acts on them through us.

Ultimately, we are the ones who are performing the work, and not the masses. Without being capable of doing it themselves, they give us the strength for correction, and no more than that. It’s true that they also need to try to unite; however, nobody is capable of real unity, not even us. Only the Light realizes it. And this is why the most important thing is for them to understand that without unity between them, there won’t be a good life. And we will take this demand, we’ll penetrate and absorb the depth of its bitter grief and transform it into a prayer.
[75238]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/12, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
An Adapter Between The Creator And The Creature
The Spiritual Division Of Labor
The Difficulty Of Conveying Through Words

Filed under: Body and Soul, Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: If the Torah is the book of instructions telling us about the spiritual path, how can we follow them if we don’t feel anything but this world?

Answer: First we have to rise. The Torah wasn’t written for people who are below the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality). Even when it tells us about different events such as the Egyptian exile, the forefathers, or Babel, the real meaning of what is said there can only be revealed by those who are already engaged in the spiritual work, beyond the Machsom.

Everything depends on the level of revelation of the spiritual concepts. The Book of Zohar, for example, explains the word Beresheet (Genesis) in a way that includes the whole path, from the beginning to the end.
[75326]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/2012, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Book That Connects The Sky And The Earth
The Giving Of The Light
This Isn’t The Torah Yet

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A, Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: What if the group work and studying bring me egoistic pleasure? How should I relate to this?

Answer: A person cannot make a single move without pleasure. We don’t pull anyone into a monastery; we don’t call anyone to live in a barrel like Diogenes, sleeping on the bare ground, limiting our diet to bread and water. We are talking about internal changes, which we can realize in our nature solely by the external force, the Light that sustains the life of the entire universe. Together, through our collective efforts and with correct organization, we can influence this force so that it changes the inclination in us.

Today we are approaching the moment in human development when we do this ourselves, having formed a request, prayer, intention, in advance; otherwise, the Light will do this without our request. Here we have a choice. Having realized it, we will go ahead of the wave of change, desire it, and ask the Creator to give us the force of bestowal. If we do not realize our choice, disasters will come and take it away, systematically sending us series of suffering. Then there again will be a period when we will have to understand that it’s better to head towards bestowal than to remain in reception because here we get blows, and there there will be no blows.

Thus, we begin this path with a very primitive, “cheap” degree: with the calculation of gain. After all, a person lives by egoistic feelings. Later, however, when the second force is added to egoism, something new starts gleaming between them.

Our problem is that we don’t understand the nature of the spiritual vessel, don’t see its brilliance and uniqueness. It sounds as if we just move from one power to another. “It was bad there, and I have chosen something better,” is this a choice? And what is so special if earlier, when I suffered, I cursed the Creator, and now, when I feel good, I praise Him?

We don’t feel the point of freedom hidden in the middle of Tifferet, where we can act based on understanding (Daat). After all, “Man” is the Sefira Daat. We build it on two authorities, and then we begin to understand that the Creator has given us the highest “supernatural” gift that does not relate either to the nature of the receiving desire or to the nature of the bestowing desire.

After all, bestowal, too, is the power that obliges us to obey. But knowledge (Daat), which we form between the two authorities, cancels everything. It cancels the origin of the creature, inherent in the giving desire, and the necessity to go through the receiving desire in order to choose bestowal again and then to use both of these forces….

Daat raises a person to Keter, and thus we seem to soar above the point of creation. It’s true that we act within the parameters oriinally specified by the Light. But in the point of Daat we rise even above them as well.

Thus, a person who strives to the goal discovers that the Creator has created a special opportunity for him to rise above His own creation, ascend above the parameters, conditions, and laws acting between the two desires, between reception and bestowal, between good and evil, which leave him no choice. We rise above all this to a certain point, preceding the Creator’s decision about creation.
[75334]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/2012, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
When The Fuel Runs Out
The Vessel Of Knowledge
The Secret Of The Collective Mind

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - 2 Comments →

Rabash, Dargot HaSulam (The Steps of the Ladder), Article 921, “The Need for the Action from Below”: The power of the influence of pleasure upon us is the rule of the evil inclination that keeps a person in exile. … If a person could give up these pleasures, he wouldn’t be enslaved to it. Therefore, when Pharaoh bestowed his pleasures upon the sons of Israel, they were enslaved to Pharaoh and could not come out of exile.

The more a person advances towards spirituality, the weaker he becomes. This is called being enslaved to Pharaoh—a person becomes weaker in resisting pleasures. He used to be a hero and could overcome his desires, control and oblige himself. But as he advances, he seems to grow weaker and can no longer oblige himself to overcome, to “step on himself.”

The whole point is that previously he worked on himself egoistically, in order to gain more and to succeed. He responded to the calls of receiving and his efforts justified it. But now, when the spiritual work deprives him of the egoistic bait in the form of a clear, “burning” fulfillment, when there is nothing attractive ahead anymore, a person loses strength, runs out of fuel, and becomes a “wimp.”

This is sign of advancement. We look at other people who are strong and self confident, but they receive fulfillment in the vessels they are working with. For us the filling should come in the vessels that are opposite our “working” vessels. How can it be: I exert myself and someone else gets the pay? Try to offer this to any man in the world and you will have to oblige him to work the way it used to be in the USSR, where it was necessary to put supervisors and policemen next to every worker so that the productivity would not decline….

Therefore, we mustn’t agree with the weakness we feel. In fact it indicates that we are advancing toward bestowal.
[75338]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/2012, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
To The Summit And Even Higher
It’s All About The Converter
Deceive The Ego Or It Will Deceive You

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

Question: What indicators will let us know that humanity has started to realize the integrality of the world?

Answer: The awareness of an integral and interconnected world has started in the last few years. Scientists were first to note it, and today the mass media is talking about it as something natural and self-evident. It turns out that the crisis is really global and really caused by human egoism, and the world is indeed a single system.

And as for scientists, they are already talking about a program inherent in nature and about different dimensions of existence. Leading quantum physicists speak of it in particular, and some of them are no longer afraid to declare that matter as we understood it previously doesn’t actually exist, and the world is built on quantum effects. At first we knew about certain substances, then we discovered atoms and believed they were indivisible until we revealed the world of subatomic particles. And now even these particles are making room for a certain “cloud,” which condenses into a picture of the world only under our gaze. There are no waves even, everything is “smeared.” It’s a scientific fact and nothing can be done about it.

As a result, scientists are talking about a single unified force, which in our perception appears as particles, waves, and all sorts of individual forces. It sounds almost the same as the section on perception of reality in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Essentially, traditional science has almost reached the limit of its capabilities, and this is why it’s in a state of crisis. There’s simply nowhere to develop further with the exception of the military field, which traditionally bathes in abundance.
[75243]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2012, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Not An Experiment On Lab Mice
Why Should We Quote Scientists?
Kabbalah And Other Sciences, Philosophy, and Religion

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Science - No Comments →

Question: What are our first steps of coming closer to the Creator, which is the goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: In spirituality, coming closer is not determined by time or space, or by mechanical motions, but by changes in properties, by quality. I need to develop additional sensations within me, a whole new feeling called bestowal. Right now I perceive all of creation only in the egoistic property, in pursuit to constantly receive fulfillment and enjoy whatever is good for me, while pushing away whatever I find unpleasant.

I behold the world only through these categories of good and evil. It’s like a dog that perceives the entire world just through scents and who can tell one thing from the other only based on how it smells. It sees virtually nothing and receives 99% of its information from olfaction. In the same manner, today we differentiate everything around us only relative to our egoistic desire: black and white, different colors, tall and short, distant and proximal, pleasant and unpleasant—thousands of different properties that I perceive in this world.

I do not even realize that I make judgments only based on how good or bad I feel personally. There is a grid inside me which discerns all impressions depending on whether they benefit or harm me, and this is how I determine all the colors, distances, times, movements, as well as various objects and their behaviors—I discern everything according to one egoistic principle.

I don’t even understand this because this egoistic sensation is the only thing that I have, and I cannot recognize its presence within me since I was born with it. Everything is perceived on the grid of the detector called my desire to enjoy. Like in photography, which requires a light-sensitive plate or film, within us there is a certain screen that is sensitive to what brings us benefit or harm.

In accordance with this I distinguish various forms and objects, even inanimate things: a glass of water standing on a table, different colors, people, cold and warmth, or distances. I evaluate everything from the perspective of what is better and what is worse for me. These are such refined differences that they paint me the pictures of this world, which I see in front of me. But all of it exists only in perception of the egoistic desire to enjoy.

In order to not depend on it wholly, the wisdom of Kabbalah is leading us towards desire to bestow. And within that desire I begin to see a “reverse world.” That is, I see all of reality through the eyes of bestowal, meaning to what extent each thing is useful for my bestowal towards others.

It is written: “The Creator made one against the other,” and in revealing both of these paradigms I can rise above these two principles of perception. Thanks to this, it’s as though I rise above the entire creation.
[75255]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/2012, Shamati #190

Related Material:
A Black Box Sailing In The Waves Of Light
The Choice Is Yours
The Path To A Perfect Reality

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Perception, Q&A - 1 Comment →

Preparation to the Lesson
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 10
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Zohar for All – Passover “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” “Matzot (Unleavened Bread) of Din,” Item 169
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, Chapter 15
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Writings of Rabash “Come Unto Pharaoh-2“
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

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

In exile (Galut) only the letter Aleph is missing to reach redemption (Geula). This letter symbolizes the appearance of the Creator, the actual sensation of the manifestation of the attribute of bestowal and love, which we sense it the same place where, being in exile, we craved to see it and to feel how it takes control over and fills us.

Therefore, all our work is to yearn for redemption in a true sense of the word. The moment we will picture it to ourselves as realistically as possible, as much as we can in our egoism that is so opposite to bestowal, and to the extent that we will come closer to what is called love, bestowal, connection, mutuality, and one collective heart instead of many people, to this extent we will approach redemption.

We should imagine this structure, form, desire, deficiency, and all of its details and components as clearly as we can. Everyone should think in this direction. This is all the work by which we will hasten time and reach redemption—the revelation of the Creator—soon.

We have to prepare a spiritual vessel that will enable us to reach a great desire in it and almost picture to ourselves a desirable form, a future picture, by yearning for it.
[75323]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/2012

Related Material:
A Black Box Sailing In The Waves Of Light
A Leap To Freedom
The Staff Will Help Us Not Trip Along The Path

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

Question: How can I check that my actions are actually in order to bestow, and not an illusion?

Answer: If it truly were an action of bestowal, you would have no doubts because the Creator would be revealed in it, participating in it to the same extent that you want to bestow upon Him.

The goal of an action of bestowal is to bestow upon the Creator. It is impossible to do that without the ultimate addressee. If such action takes place, you will discover to what extent you actually bestow upon the Creator, meaning you will discover Him.

At first the revelation will be in concealment, to bestow in order to bestow. It is hard for us to understand what it is because the intention to bestow in order to bestow is Bina, an action that is detached from our desire to receive. We can somehow imagine the intention to receive in order to bestow as something opposite to us. But if it is only in order to bestow, it is impossible to understand how you can live without any connection to your desire, as if you are hanging in the air.
[75329]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/2012, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
To Grow From A Capricious Request To A Valid Demand
Asking To Love
Polishing The Request For Bestowal

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Awareness is the new category born out of the lack of equivalence of form. I begin to perceive who I am when I feel bad and try to clarify: What it is that I don’t like and why do I feel bad? Then I begin to search for the source of all this evil, from whom does it come?

All the 125 steps are based on the lack of equivalence of form, which constantly gives rise to the questions: What is this work and who is the Creator that I should listen to Him? Pharaoh is constantly asking us these questions and we are trying to find the answer. This is how the Creator plays with us on both sides, teaching us to be more sensitive to the intention of in order to bestow.

From one degree to the next, the Creator gives us a more qualitative sensation of the lack of equivalence of form. If at first I felt good and bad only with regards to corporeal criteria, by judging to what extent I succeeded in stealing from someone, now I judge the good and bad according to my intentions regarding the Creator or the person from whom I once stole.

At first I stole without anyone noticing and didn’t think about what I was doing. Then I continued to do the same thing, but I began to feel that I’m taking from someone. Later I began to feel ashamed of stealing, that I take something from a stranger for myself. Then my awareness grows so that I don’t need to take anything that is not mine, but when I look at it I feel like stealing it, and I don’t agree to that either.

Later I continue to correct myself; I don’t allow myself to steal or even to think about stealing, and this thought occurs to me only rarely. Different spiritual discernments are becoming more and more accurate inside me regarding this. Here the Creator confuses us and creates different interruptions, and all of it is being clarified only in thought.

Eventually I reach a point when even a single thought about using others makes me feel bad: If I suddenly think that another will be ill instead of me, or that he will feel bad instead of me. I am shocked by the thought that I may profit at another’s expense.

This thought remains but it becomes more tricky, fine, and internal. The evil towards others remains until the end of correction, but it becomes more qualitative because we are correcting the shattering. We rise from the simple, petty, and coarse exploitation of others to the cunning, sophisticated exploitation that harms the roots themselves. As it says, “he who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than his friend’s,” which means that the ego is of a higher quality.

You have a slight egoistic intention, but it seems to be huge, not like “a hairsbreadth” but like “a cart’s ropes.” The correction is in rising above your ego, but the desire to use others is renewed on every degree and becomes more and more internal and cunning. This is what we should work on, and the main lab for that is the group, where you can quickly clarify your attitude to others.
[75184]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2012, “The Gate of Intentions”

Related Material:
125 Steps From Me To The Creator
Rising Above Our Egoism
Our Friend, Egoism

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Inner Work - 1 Comment →