It is really not easy to arrive at the sensation of need of true love. In our world, the only love that exists is love for one’s own self. When I love something, I want to come closer to it, bring it close to me, and fulfill myself with something. In other words, I wish to “get hold of it.” For us “love” is acquisition. “I love” means that I like the fact that it is mine—this is what the desire to receive pleasure says.

Naturally, it brings a good sensation. But we value this quality in man as if it was referring to his good qualities, which is because our entire world is made of “consumers.” We do not love anything in any other way but in our egoistic desires.

Love that Kabbalah speaks of is completely different, and we are not able to understand it well. There is the upper force that does not depend on us and that has existed before we were created, without us, that is, before the Creator had the desire to create the creature. The creature is something that exists outside this upper force, the Creator, and perceives Him.

To perceive Him means to understand, feel, and attain His qualities. To bring the creature to the point of perceiving the Creator, it was necessary to create the creature with the qualities opposite to the Creator’s: in egoistic love. And development must bring the creature to love of the Creator referred to as “love thy neighbor.” After all, no one else exists beside the Creator and the creature.

We must go through this development on our own, that is, we must feel, understand, examine, and evaluate all the details of perceiving the Creator. And at the end, we must change our egoistic love—the desire to enjoy that only allows us to perceive ourselves and encapsulates us within ourselves—to the development of perception of what exists outside of us. This is why the one external to us is called a “neighbor.” And since this perception is given to us by the Creator’s degree, position, it is referred to as the good inclination.

There is nothing beside these two states: either I perceive myself or I perceive the Creator. But this transition is absolutely not clear to us since I am absolutely separated from the second state and am unable to feel it. To help me go from perceiving myself to perceiving Him, the Creator prepared a certain illusion within my egoistic desire, my perception of myself, which gives me the feeling of not being alone.

This is why I feel like I am in an environment that is referred to as my “neighbor” and includes the still, vegetative, and animate world, and the people, that is, different creatures, different parts of creation. And I, a certain regular person, feel how I can use this environment either for my own interests or as an exercise to try to do it for the sake of the environment.

My need to act for the sake of the environment arises when my desire for the Creator awakens. I do not understand this desire yet, I do not know the Creator, and this is why I am given this exercise: Try to treat your neighbor, those who are outside of you, altruistically. This is the place where you will be able to build your love for your neighbor.

When through these exercises you will acquire new qualities and understanding and will perform multiple clarifications, then you will be able to come closer to having a connection with the Creator.
[62041]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: It is very hard to find some connection between the words or the letters in The Book of Zohar and the love of friends. How do you do that?

Answer: We’ve already said that we don’t define the word “love” correctly. Love means connection, equivalence of form, equivalence of attributes. It is not the concept of love that we use in our world: I love what belongs to me, and I don’t love what isn’t mine.

We build love, we actually acquire love: Through the efforts that I make, by changing and correcting my attributes, I attain love. It isn’t a love that is typical to my nature and my character, when I love one thing and not another. I naturally love those who are close to me, and not those who are distant because I want to use them in order to fill my ego. We are not speaking about such relationships. Everything that takes place inside our ego has nothing at all to do with the love the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of.

When I am in the group and try to work on the connection with the friends, I know that it is all depicted only in my imagination. Actually, there is no group or anything else. Only I exist. All of the external images that I see are only a play of my imagination. My ego, that still dominates me, divides me into internality and externality.

If I corrected myself, I would return to the real picture of reality that actually exists right now, but it is hidden from me by the degrees and the worlds (concealments). I would return to the world of Infinity where there is no “I” and no “others.” Everything is my desire, my vessel, where there is the Creator, the fulfillment, and where there is none else besides Him. This is how I should imagine all of reality.

So, what is love? It is the attainment of the attributes of love and bestowal, bestowal upon others, the love of others. Eventually, it is all about overcoming the lie I am in. That is all.

The infinite reality divided by the force of separation into numerous forms that seem to be outside of me. This was done intentionally. This is a false image of reality. If I work on the basis of this false form that I cannot annul, if I rise above it and reunite Infinity into one whole, then even though the false form remains, I attain the feeling of Infinity that is 620 times stronger in my true sensation, understanding, and awareness.
[62045]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/2011, The Zohar

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The Creator is the force of bestowal that dominates all of reality. The force of bestowal can glow from a distance. No matter who we are and of what matter we are made, its bestowal upon us can make us resemble it: turn us into the ones who bestow.

In order to connect to this force, those who have attained it describe the different revelations of the force of bestowal, the Creator. They tell us about the mechanism of His system of bestowal upon us, and thus we can connect to Him. Indeed, we can never say anything about a person himself. We can speak only about how his actions are revealed to us. Baal HaSulam writes that we never can know the “essence,” but only the actions of the essence.

It is the same with the Creator. It is written: “By Your actions, we will know You.” By His actions, we gradually perceive His correct image. This is because His actions are imprinted within us in different forms. From them we begin to understand, ponder about, clarify, and arrange the Creator’s actions, and then we can create His image. It all stems from our impressions, and this is how we reach recognition.

The revelation, recognition, and understanding that we reach is called “imaginative cognition.” It is imaginative because on one hand, our matter remains the same: the desire to enjoy. There is no other matter. On the other hand, the form that dresses in this matter is the desire to bestow, the attribute of the one Who bestows, His image, by which I am impressed.

In order to be impressed by that image, by the Creator, I am impressed by the group. Thus, I come closer to perceiving Him. Reading The Book of Zohar is special because while we read it, we want to be impressed by the different forms of the Creator’s bestowal that were revealed to those who were able to attain His forms. These forms come to us, but they are hidden, and we don’t feel them, we cannot describe how we sense them. We don’t have a clear feeling of the forms, of their various types, manifestations, or attributes, whereby I would feel any inner changes.

Kabbalists describe all these forms and give us a whole picture as to how this understanding is formed within a person, how it changes and develops in him from a very small form: the point in the heart. Starting from this tiny point, every stage develops first in a negative direction that is opposite to the Creator, and then in a positive direction that resembles Him. Then again, development is in a negative direction, in another attribute that is opposite to the Creator, and then in a positive direction that is like Him. Thus it continues: left, right, left, right. This is how our understanding develops, from the smallest to the greatest.

The states where we are opposite to the Creator are called the “evil inclination,” and the states where we receive attributes like His are called the “good inclination.” In other words, the “inclination,” the desire, remains, but we call it “bad” if it is opposite in form to the Creator, and we call it “good” if we receive attributes that resemble Him.

We are actually talking about ourselves in relation to the attribute of love. This is the Creator’s attitude toward the created beings. So, in every step that we take, we advance from hatred to love, then again from hatred to love. When we feel hatred, in some way, we feel the notion of “Mount Sinai,” a mountain of hatred. Then, when we feel love, we feel the Light that Reforms, the revelation of the Torah.

When we read The Book of Zohar that tells us about all the states, good and bad, the negative forces and the positive ones that operate mutually and equally in order to attain the goal, we have to try and connect to the great Kabbalists who felt all these states and adhered to them. Now, I want to be part of Rabbi Shimon’s group that includes Baal HaSulam, Rabash, and all the great Kabbalists.

This is all one mechanism, one system, the corrected part of the whole vessel of the soul that has been corrected. There, in these desires, are the great souls that feel and have attained the Creator, that have the same attributes that He has. They talk to us about this mechanism just as parents talk to their children. Although the child doesn’t understand everything he is told, he still has to try to.
[62053]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/2011, The Zohar

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Question: Each time after an intensive day, the morning lessons seem to “heal all the wounds,” opening a new page and giving us a new urge.

Answer: That’s right, throughout the day you do many things, prepare yourselves, and do your internal work so that the next morning we can make a breakthrough.

Question: How can we keep this trend from slowing down before the convention?

Answer: We will not slow down. After all, we’ve become a great global vessel, world Kli, and we have the power to unite and not to lose the deficiency. Besides, we should understand that we have to do only half the work: to create a deficiency, a vessel. The filling will come from Above, the Light that Reforms will do the work. We have to recognize evil, our lack of power, and this will be our greatest accomplishment. At the same time, we need hope, readiness, and confidence that the Surrounding Light will do its job.

So in order to raise a request for correction (MAN), we need two things: a feeling of helplessness and confidence in the power that comes from Above. You believe in Bina, which is called “faith,” “bestowal,” and at the same time you also see that you, meaning Malchut, cannot do anything.

Question: We are riding on a certain wave now. How can we not feel “drunk with success”?

Answer: Everything will be alright. We don’t have to be absolutely sure of ourselves, and at the same time we shouldn’t worry. There are always two opposites that operate here: How can I be worried if I believe in the upper force? I have to worry that we will all connect in one desire. We don’t need anything except for that. Only mutual guarantee will enable us, by the prayer of many, to demand the upper force to be revealed. The more we connect, the more we will reveal its Light.

Question: How can I fine-tune this yearning and not be satisfied with the natural joy from the gathering?

Answer: You cannot avoid the ups and downs. Someone my feel emptiness now, and someone else may be dancing with joy. This is how we complement each other. Thus, the shattering of the vessels manifests: By working on themselves, they connect and actually incorporate into each other.

We have to increase our efforts. The main thing is to reach the prayer of many that will burst out of our unified heart.
[62070]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Writings of Rabash “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend-1,” (To: “It turns out that if one sees”)
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Question: I am trying to imagine 72 hours at the convention. How will this process bring me to the One, Unique, and Unified?

Answer: I enter the convention hall like a holy pool (Mikveh), a place that will purify and correct me. This is a place filled with holy water, the quality of Bina, the mother’s womb that I become included in and grow in. I don’t need to do anything besides settling in there like a drop of semen inside the womb. I must only cleave to it, and everything else will be done by others. I must simply become part of what is happening.

It is written, “The Creator dwells inside of his nation,” where “inside of the nation” means the place where everyone gathers and each person annuls his egoism as much as he can for the sake of uniting together. Then we reveal that there, inside of this unity, the upper one is present—Malchut, the Shechina. And inside of it—the Shochen, the Creator.

We don’t need anything else! Just come there and don’t be a smart alec. Lose your “I”: You come in and dissolve. Someone asks you to do something, so do it. Just connect to it, without any clarifications. The most important thing is to go with the common flow.

That is why the convention is appropriate for everyone, for every person. If a person can just come there, then a powerful force will arise there that will take us over and will spin us all in one whirlpool, like one whole. And we don’t need anything else. We won’t need a special mind or lengthy studies, but just that force. With it, you will already receive an impression of the upper one, of the upper level. So come!

You came there and you’re singing, dancing, eating, and preparing food, and you annul yourself before what is happening as much as you can. This will bring you to the upper level because it is there, inside, in the connection between people.

The tradition to hold mutual meals, to sing songs, and dance was established by Kabbalists. All of this leads to unity, and without unity, it’s impossible. Abraham once invited guests to his tent and first of all, he sat them down at a common meal, while explaining that it is necessary to unite and love the neighbor.

We won’t manage anything without unity. I understand that our egoism, our nature is against it. I was also opposed to unity once, and even more than you are. But that doesn’t scare me: For any egoism, there is a force capable of defeating it. Most importantly, try to be as determined as you can and set your mind to coming there and losing yourself.

Get lost in some unknown place, like a wallet that you had and is now gone. There’s just nothing you can do about it: It was there, and now it’s gone! Try it!
[62141]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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In order to imagine what is love of friends and the Creator, we have to detach from this entire world and from ourselves, as if nothing exists besides one force. It’s as if there is no one observing it, seeing it, or feeling it. And this force has a goal: to create something equal to itself.

We do not know why this thought suddenly emerged. This occurred even before the first action occurred, aimed at our creation. We do not attain what preceded this. This is a boundary in our attainment because it takes place in our vessels—desires that did not exist before. We begin from the plan to delight the creatures—the program and thought contained in this single upper force, which decided, “I want to create creatures that are equal to me in order to delight them.”

That is how the upper force begins to implement the program, to create creatures and promote them to bring them to its own height. That is, the form of creation was set initially and must be the same as the form of the Creator. There is no creation without the Creator or Creator without creation. One exists opposite the other.

This condition of equality to one another determines the entire process. It’s like a mathematical equation where the unknown that is being sought out exists by itself, but it has to be equal to the upper force, its eternity, perfection, understanding, sensation, and qualities—to everything that is present in the Creator.

We do not know the Creator’s qualities exactly. We only know that creation must replicate them while remaining a separate creation. That is, in the end there is the Creator – #1, and the creation – #2. This is the difference between them: The Creator is first, and creation is second, but this does not get in the way of their equality.

According to this condition, the universe begins to develop like by a mathematical formula. We have to observe the condition that creation exists independently, having its own understanding, attainment, and sensation of itself, its freedom of choice—everything that belongs to the notion of “I.” And at the same time, this “I” must be completely equal to the Creator.

After that, this condition begins to come to life, like a person who planned to build a house and imagines its future form, and then begins to implement it: to build a detailed plan, to create the specifications, to determine the number of necessary materials and people who will work on it. But all of this results from the final form, which already exists in the Creator. And a lower form exists only in the creation for the time being, which is why it has to go through various changes.

These changes do not take place in creation itself, but in its consciousness, understanding, and perception of itself: who it is in relation to the Creator.
[62167]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Can I bring my body to the convention, even if I have no desire or intention…?

Answer: At least I lack the desire, I have a negative intention. Coming without any intentions isn’t good. You should at least feel: “I don’t want to, but I am doing it.” Then you should do everything that is required. When you cannot dissolve in your friends, doing what needs to be done is also a wonderful state.

One way or the other, you should be aware of what you are going through in the convention: I incorporate myself into them with all my thoughts and desires, and I put everything else aside. Only my point in the heart enters the convention, and besides it, I have nothing else with me.

Question: But I have no control over that.

Answer: This is precisely why we need the preparation that will enable you to be free of the unnecessary load. You come in order to expand the point in your heart, that is, to connect it with all the other points. No one needs the extra “load” that you have. Only our sparks, which connect into one, should glow in the space of the convention hall. I don’t bring the load of all my problems there.

Question: How can you lose yourself among the friends, dissolve in them?

Answer: You should do everything that they do, everything they want you to do, and try to add your desire to these actions. In other words, you try to “clothe” in the group.

Question: Will these physical actions influence my thoughts?

Answer: Of course, the hearts follow the actions.
[61962]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: What should we do if a friend is no longer imbued with an aspiration to spirituality? Should we pressure him or should we wait?

Answer: The convention is such a special thing that we must wake the friend up. In other cases it could be possible to wait, but now we have a very special and rare opportunity. Therefore, if we see that a friend doesn’t intend to come to the convention, we must do our best to convince him.

Of course, we do not use force, but persuasion because if we don’t do so, he will miss this great, once in a lifetime opportunity. We should leave him alone only if he finally says: “Leave me alone, I am not going.”

There should be two attempts. Imagine that your friend is leading his donkey along the road (this example is brought in the Babylonian Talmud that was written in exile, at the time between the first and the second Temples). And even if he isn’t your friend but your enemy with whom your relations are bad, if his donkey falls under his load, you must help him.

You take the load off the donkey, put it back on its feet, give it food and water, and then put the load back. If the donkey falls again, you repeat the whole process: You take the load off its back and strengthen the donkey with food and water, meaning with the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) and the Light of Hassadim (Mercy). After all, the “donkey” (“Hamor” in Hebrew) is the human matter (Homer), egoism. And then you put the load back on it. If he falls again, you are allowed not to help him any more.
[61965]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: Can you advance in spirituality only by suffering?

Answer: No. Advance by goodness, it depends on you. Sufferings come from Above according to the plan, and you, on your part, can move forward with the help of the Light. Raise MAN (a request for correction), and then the Light will come and draw you forward in goodness. If you don’t ask for it, you will advance by suffering.

There is the force of evil and the force of goodness. The question is do I ask to receive the good force that will draw me forward more strongly than the evil force that will push me from behind? The negative force operates according to the plan (in its time), and the positive force acts according to the desires and the connections in mutual guarantee. My role is to do my best so that the evil force won’t reach me and to place the good ahead of the bad.

Question: How can we do that if we all suffer?

Answer: All the friends are happy every moment of their lives, except for you. We feel that we are inside the Creator who fills and envelops us. We feel eternity and perfection; we swim in the growing abundance. So join us and so that you will place the good ahead of the bad.

Question: How?

Answer: Do what we want.

Question: What do you want?

Answer: We want you to dive inside and detach yourself from your egoism. A “friend” is someone who forgets himself. Why should you worry about yourself if there, inside, you feel bad? Leave the desires and the thoughts that make you feel bad and come empty. Here, you will get new thoughts and desires from us. The choice is in your hands.
[61968]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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