Question: What does it mean to feel the suffering of the whole world? How does one join in it?

Answer: Let’s say, I am close to a person who works the land and does not know anything else in life except his cows, his field, and farm. On the other hand, there is the opportunity to get to know the big world, to multiply one’s knowledge and pleasure, to attain the eternity of nature.

The difference between what he has and what he could have reached is the shortage, the suffering. He does not feel it by himself. As if he is mentally sick and does not know about his ailment, but I know; I see it looking at him and I feel sorry about it.

It is not important that he is not sorry about it by himself. It is possible to make a pain-killing injection and people will not suffer from the pain. However, suffering exists in the world for a purpose, so that by the means of suffering, by the means of one’s simple actions, we can reach correction.

In order to feel the whole world on our shoulders, I need to feel how much everyone is missing—the difference between their current state and the end of correction. This is a perfect desire, which a person must reach.

The suffering from feeling this empty vessel is simply unimaginable. But we connect the beginning and the end, understanding that “the end of the action lies in the initial thought” and that everything is originally derived from the benevolent desire of the Creator to give pleasure to the creation, and we arrive at this good end, and a person feels the suffering only to the extent of how much he is connected to his desire to enjoy.

However, at the moment when he rises above this desire, he will no longer feel the suffering, but only inspiration and excitement. In this form, we can endure suffering from what is seen as another person suffering in his personal life as a result of being immersed in his self-interest. But when we see how much is prepared for him after he rises above his egoism, how the vessel is full of light—it helps us, suffering together with him, to endure this pain for everyone.

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Question: How can I awaken myself from hibernation and not wait for the awakening to come by itself? After all, you said after the convention that we have to make sure our friends don’t fall?

Answer: If we look at ourselves and at the states we go through objectively, from the side, we’ll acquire experience for all the future “generations,” meaning future states. Then we’ll know that after an ascent there is a descent, and satiation is followed by the fog and the dullness of senses.

It’s okay, this way you will learn the process. You will get to know it gradually, in a balanced way. The wisdom of Kabbalah is self-attainment, nothing more. Indeed, there is no one besides me. The more I know myself from within, the more I will reveal the Creator who created me.

There is no humanity, this world, or upper worlds.… Allow me to know myself and the states I experience! This is a hazy state, but it’s all right. And before that there was some other state, and it is great too. Meanwhile, we immediately want to shade, correct, turn, and break it, but what for?

First of all, we have to perform a clarification. The Light that clarifies comes separately, and so does the Light that reforms, and you cannot instantly reject it by saying that you don’t want this state. First you should examine what you are rejecting!

If you still are at the state of the convention, try not to fall out of it. But if you nevertheless fell, look how you are falling. By examining this state you will later know how to use it in a right way.

If I don’t experience these states, don’t know their pros and cons, why and where they come from, how will I know myself? Have I ever said that I should wipe off the state before examining it? To overcome a descent and to accelerate time means to end the clarification rapidly, to allow the correction, meaning the ascent, come straight away.

Still, this is another type of ascent. We know that Malchut of the upper one transforms into Keter of the lower one. It means that what I regarded as the ascent in the previous state becomes a descent currently, in my present state.

I have to rise qualitatively, by conscious decision and deep analysis so that my previous ascent would now be regarded as a descent. What I used to see as bestowal, after the clarification proves to be reception! Earlier it was for me Keter, but now I see that this is Malchut.

Yet, I will not be able to do that if I don’t perform a clear analysis of my ascent and descent, the haze. I analyze how I satiated myself, how tired I became, and how unwilling I am to do anything, and I do it like a scientist who is observing and testing his dog or experimental rabbit.

I have a precise scientific method, and the only thing I have to know is what it means to me “to bestow” and “to receive,” who I and my society are—and the Creator above. I use my feeling and reason as measuring devices, working with them to reveal every state.

To be in the middle line, I analyze: What comes from the side of reception and what from the side of bestowal, what comes from me and what from the environment, as well as where all these factors are in relation to the goal. Our measuring device is the three lines.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/2011, TES

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Each time I connect more strongly with the friends, I actually connect not to corporeal people, not to the friends I see before me, but with their internal desire. The Creator inserted this desire into them and prepared it for us on the ladder of spiritual degrees so that we will always have the means to ascend.

If I connect to my friends, I can rise with their help. When I connect to them again, I rise again. The first state is me at my present level, and in order to rise from it, I need to have a greater desire. Also, I need to draw the Light to this desire so that it will correct me. There are two important factors on my way: the group that increases my desire, and the Light that corrects this desire. Thus I rise to the next level.

The first preliminary condition is “make yourself a Rav (a teacher),” meaning to raise the goal in my eyes. Without the greatness of the goal I cannot start working with the friends.

But in order to increase the goal, I also need the friends. By myself, I cannot exalt the goal and want to attain bestowal and equivalence to the general force of bestowal that governs all of creation. In order to do that I must be impressed by the environment. Thus the environment is a preliminary requirement.

Then, I have to receive a greater desire from them in order to attain that goal since the fact that the goal is important doesn’t necessarily mean that I would yearn for it. I envy the friends who yearn for this goal, and I take this desire from them. Then I have to work on my connection with them, “to buy them,” by investing my powers in them so that I can the draw the Light that reforms through them.

Thus, all the work, on every level, is possible only within the group! It is only with the help of our powerful connection that we can go through all these levels and attain the goal. From the beginning to the end, what determines the interaction between the environment and me is my work in the group.

Therefore, the condition “make yourself a teacher and buy yourself a friend” is essential for all our actions at every level until the actual end of correction. All our work is around that, all of our internal, personal, and social life, and our study and dissemination is devoted to that. It is all meant only in order to reinforce the environment and its effect on me, to bring me closer to the environment so that I can invest more in it.

So when we assemble without being on the spiritual levels where there is no distance between us, when we connect, see, and feel each other with our ordinary senses, we have to try to be impressed by the desires of the friends, by their stature, great efforts, seriousness, and devotion to the cause.

The higher we perceive these attributes, the greater the opportunity we will have to connect and to demand the upper Light to correct our connection and become revealed in it in the form of the Inner Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The creature must have a long journey in order to achieve its purpose and rise to the level of the Creator, the Light, and become equal to Him in its essence and height. Initially, the desire develops according to the four phases of the Direct Light, revealing how opposite it is to the Creator. It goes through the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) and acquires the screen (Masach), beginning to build the system of concealment in the relationship between itself and the Light.

They are connected to the extent of the ability of the desire to enjoy to become like the Light, and they are concealed to the extent of the lack of its ability to do it. This is called the condition of balance, the correspondence of the form of the Light and the desire. This serves as the foundation for the building of the ladder of degrees. At its very height, the vessel, the desire, is absolutely one-hundred percent similar to the Light. The further we descend down this ladder from the very topmost state, the stronger the concealment becomes.

At the top, there is zero concealment and one-hundred percent desire. At the bottom, there is zero desire and one-hundred percent concealment. If you pick a point along the path from above downward, it will be partially revealed and partially concealed. A certain part of the Light becomes revealed, and the rest remains concealed. This is how the spiritual degrees and the worlds are formed, namely Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya.

Everything is built on the basis of correspondence, that is, to the degree of similarity between the desire and the Light. In this way, the ladder descends to the level of our world where the desire completely separates from the Light in order to become independent.

We seem to live a life that is completely independent from the Light because we do not know anything about it. This is exactly why we can begin to rise from this independent point that is separate from the Light and bring ourselves to the state of correspondence with it: We can change ourselves and become more like it. This is what it means to rise up the rungs of the ladder all the way to full correspondence. This is called the final correction (Gmar Tikkun).

The universe is made in such a way that at first, the system of concealment is built, from Above downward. As we rise from below upward, we need to use this concealment to discover ourselves as similar to the Light. The law of correspondence of qualities always remains. After all, the reason that the Creator created the creature was to please it, that is, to bring the creature to a state of absolute correspondence with Him and adhesion.

We must realize our similarity to the Creator in every state, on every degree. To do this, one first needs to value it: to wish to become like the Light and make this appear incredibly important to him. The quality of the Light, the quality of bestowal, must become the most honorable and elevated quality in our eyes. We must strive to correspond with it to the extent of all our strengths and abilities, as much as we can.

Accepting this condition and becoming like the Light, bestowal, as much as possible is called “make yourself a Rav” (important, big). This means that this quality of bestowal must become bigger (Rav) than all my egoistic qualities.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Many agree with the uniqueness of the Creator, with determinism, with an existence of a script, yet they still attempt to “read” their fate through esotericism, fortune-tellers, and so on. They don’t want to use it, but to adapt to it….

Answer: The thing is that on the basis of all these investigations they don’t feel a need to ask a question about the underlying cause. In general, we have long left behind the exalted science associated with the perception of reality, the philosophy of worldview. Today’s Nobel Prizes are awarded for discoveries that are purely technical, practical, and profitable. In this way, science too is in a state of crisis: For decades now, it hasn’t revealed any fundamental principles laid down in nature.

People have other needs; they are not drawn to exalted matters. Previously, a researcher would strive to get to the very essence of things, to discover the why, not the how. He wasn’t satisfied with a formula describing a newly-observed phenomenon, but sought its logic, its pattern: Where does it spring from? Where is it flowing? And then he would get to the exalted factor: What is the reason that it is created in this particular way? Why is nature arranged specifically thus? We should always ask this question, but unfortunately there is no demand for it today.

Question: That is the reason why they don’t hear us. How do we change that?

Answer: You can’t change that. If people merely seek to add more convenience and comfort to their lives, then they don’t care about the rest. In the grand scheme of things, who cares about science these days? Today, a good scientist is someone who can provide us with superior strength and weapons. We are not drawn at all to understanding the inner essence of things. Such is the outcome of the general crisis, and thus there isn’t yet anybody to turn to.

These days, however, people are starting to feel bad due to this very crisis. No kind of science will help them anymore. In anticipation of a collapse, a person will have to find out who is knocking him down and why. There is no other choice; it will be necessary to discover that because there is nowhere left to run. Formerly some loopholes could be found: “Let’s secure our life, build a sturdier house with heating and air conditioning, let’s ensure that food supplies don’t depend on weather conditions, let’s extract the earth’s treasures from its depths….” We fled from misfortunes with the aid of technology.

In their time, Aristotle and Plato warned against this. They didn’t want to reveal scientific knowledge to the masses because they knew that in such event people would start to use science for personal gain. Why reveal a path that in a few millennia will bring them to a dead end? Better they sense right away that they are in trouble and rush towards the purpose of creation.

The ancient Greek philosophers knew about the science of Kabbalah, so it is no coincidence that they were against the disclosure of scientific knowledge. After all, humanity uses it only to sweeten their sorrows, which are deliberately sent by the Creator so as to bring us towards the purpose of creation. We flaunt and take pride in our achievements while in truth, we’re merely engaged in a never-ending race, which brought us to this crisis all the same. And yet, it was possible to overcome this even two thousand years ago.

Only today, nearing the conclusion of their race, are people finally asking the questions: “Where do these misfortunes come from? What do they mean? When will they end? What should we do?” A person is incapable of simply tolerating suffering—he will have to embark on a search. Today the dead end is already evident, and now, because of the hopelessness, humanity must identify the cause of its misfortunes.

Those in power, however, don’t want to reveal the whole truth about what is taking place. If that were to happen, those endowed with wealth and power would have to share and to reorganize the human society according to the principle of mutual guarantee. This topic is still taboo, no one speaks about it, and therefore, there is no solution to the crisis.

But sooner or later the suffering will melt the ice, and these problems will have to be confronted. And then in seeking out the causes of its misfortunes and ways to salvation, humanity will come to the revelation of the Creator. We are doing this artificially, by gathering in a group and building the necessary conditions according to the Kabbalistic methodology. We too are pressured by misfortunes, but we add our own efforts on top of them in order that they advance us on the way towards the goal. In this manner we are using the positive force, which gives us acceleration, while the rest are accelerated with prods and kicks from behind.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/11, Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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Writings of Rabash, Igrot, “Letter 48”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Let the Earth Put Forth Grass,” Item 91, Lesson 24
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“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 17, Lesson 11
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom,” “Two Forces in the Will to Receive: Attracting Force and Rejecting Force,” Lesson 14
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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Therefore, we must understand that in every emergence in the world there are four factors where from the four of them together arises that emergence. They are called by the names:

A. The source;
B. The unchanging conduct of cause and effect, related to the source’s own attribute;
C. Its internal conduits of cause and effect, which change by contact with external forces;
D. The conducts of cause and effect of external things, which affect it from the outside.

The repeating influence of these four factors and their interaction with each other eventually results in a “product,” meaning a human being or any other kind of being. “There is nothing new under the sun.” Anything we observe has stripped off its former shape that grew up under the influence of the four above-mentioned factors.

Why is it so important to know about them? It’s because we won’t identify what we are dealing with without having an understanding of them. Who am I? What do I see? What influences me? I understand nothing about my thoughts, desires, or actions.

The simple question “what is it?” forces me to consider the four factors that created the object I am studying. Having studied them, I get to know the object, be it a phenomenon or a property, something active or subordinate, something spiritual or corporeal.… My original perception of reality is built in a way that things that do not undergo the four factors do not exist for me. I am unable to know them.

Whatever I see has already gone through a certain developmental process, and as a consequence, it’s revealed in me. By asking “what is it?”, I in fact question the origin of the object. Hence, there always are the four factors that lie between the source of the object and my perception of it. Without them, I am unable to recognize objects and phenomena. The question about the essence of any object is an inquiry about the difference between its prior stage when this phenomenon was not yet known to me and my current sensation of it.

In this case, can we call each prior stage “the source”? What is it? Does a primary (original) condition called a primary source exist?

In spirituality, at all times there is a beginning (a root) followed by the development by four stages and completion. This entity represents a standard “unit” in which the root stage is named “the source” that initiates the whole process.

It is an entity that has stripped off its former shape and taken on another form, different from the original. And that entity, which shed its previous form, is defined as “the source.” In it lies the potential destined to be revealed and determined at the end of the formation of that emergence. Therefore, it is clearly considered its primary cause.

The source contains potential force that further turns into an action and acquires a final shape at the last stage.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: What actions should a person make in order to move from a standstill in regards to connection with friends or dissemination?

Answer: It is said: “Do everything in your power!” The opportunity is always give to you. It’s impossible that you were given a state where you can’t do anything at all.

If you have no desire or no thoughts, then this is what you were given from Above. Even if you feel confused, weak, or like you can’t do anything, there are still actions which you are capable of doing.

For example, my rule is that I don’t stray from my routine. There’s a book that I have to write, work that I must do. Today we have the opportunity to work with groups, to disseminate, to work on the Internet, and to prepare materials.

We have the opportunity to widely disseminate and teach this knowledge. This has to be everyone’s great concern. After all, the whole world is on our shoulders, only we don’t feel it.

We must take this very seriously. Here, action really does precede the desire and thought, as it is said: “We shall do and we shall hear!” This also works in the physical form.

Even action without the desired intention corrects a person.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/11, Shamati

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“The Greeks have gathered against me during the days of the Hasmoneans, they broke the walls of my fortress, and have defiled the holy oils…” (Excerpt from a song, sung during Hanukkah)

The Greeks in me are fighting against studying the Torah, against the knowledge that was left to us by Kabbalists who reached spiritual attainment so we are able to correct ourselves and also reveal the upper force. After all, the Creator’s desire is to reveal Himself to the creatures, and the wisdom of Kabbalah is the method of revealing the Creator to the creatures in this world.

The revelation of the Creator is the revelation of the quality of bestowal. And when man studies with this specific goal in mind, disseminates this wisdom, and strives to connect with his friends for the sake of attaining the quality to bestow, then he studies the Torah and comes closer to revealing the Creator in him. After all, the only purpose of the Torah is to create a common vessel through loving thy neighbor as thyself and to reveal the Creator in it, to become so attached to Him that this quality would clothe inside us.

But those who only study for the sake of knowledge or use it for to take pride in it before the others, to despise them, which is even worse, turn it into a deadly poison. This is the difference between people who wish to correct themselves and return to the Creator and those who have no aspiration to return, who only wish to acquire knowledge, which naturally is not the purpose of creation, the purpose of man and the Creator.

When man aspires towards a true goal, he strives to raise his faith above reason, to make the quality to bestow his most important objective. After all, he understands that by acquiring the quality to bestow, he enters a higher dimension than the world where he now exists.

And then he begins to perceive the entire system of creation, which descends from above, from the Giver, the governing force, instead of feeling like he is locked in a limited world without the understanding of being fully controlled from above. Or maybe he did feel that he depends on nature, but he did not reveal the system through which he is being controlled, or the actual governing force.

The quality of bestowal, which man now acquires, opens a new vision for him “in the reflected Light,” the Light of Hassadim, to acquaint him with the system that governs the entire universe, and thus become closer to the revelation of the force which governs the entire reality.

This is what the war inside man is about—it is between his desire which compels him to attain everything inside the mind as it is a custom in our world and the understanding that it is necessary to develop new senses inside. The philosopher in him is fighting the Kabbalist. The philosopher says that the only way to advance is through science and knowledge, the external mind. And this requires some money, good fortune, or a sharp mind, and special external actions.

When man deems these things important, then the Greeks in him are victorious. But when he resists all these disturbances attacking him, feels that he is unable to defeat them, and needs the help of the upper force, the Creator, he understands that it is impossible to defeat them on his own, only the power of the Upper can do it, and this is why we must merit meeting Him and attaching ourselves to Him.

This is why we must value this inner war, because it helps us experience a strong desire and the need for the Creator’s help. Revealing Him is what saves man and what is called a miracle! This is how we rise above the Greeks in us.

These two forces: the Greeks and the Maccabees are equal when one is revealed against the other, and they are unable to defeat each other. Only a third power from above can conduct a middle line between them.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How will I, being broken and having only egoistic requests, be able to bestow?

Answer: You are not able to bestow, and no one expects it from you. You are expected to do what you are capable of—which is demanding correction.

Naturally it will be false and you are lying when you say that you want real correction. But the more you want this fake correction, keep asking for it as if you really want it! This is called a game through which we grow, learn, become wiser and advance.

Of course I do not want it, but I act as if I do. There is no choice—how else am I to wish to be in this state without being in it? And this is why you are given this transition through “as if”—an opportunity.

We will later understand why this world was created in this specific way without being in the spiritual space, with us having to rise from it. Attaining the perception of the upper world is a game. And it is clear that everything is a lie if we were to look at it in a sane manner.

But how is a child playing with a plastic car not a scam? But this is how he grows. Our world was created this way for a reason, and it precisely reflects the fact that the creature was intentionally created opposite to the Creator, and it must distance itself from Him in order to feel like a creature. But on the other hand it must become similar to the Creator.

And this transition of someone who is separated but at the same time becomes similar can only be done in this form—act as if you are in a state of similarity, while you start out separated.

This helps you discover how much you “supposedly” want it! And this “supposed” desire attracts the surrounding Light to you. And this Light is not even the real Light, it is the “supposed” Light! In this way we establish a connection with it.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/11, “Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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