Question: Is it possible to feel at least a tiny fraction of the spiritual world through the point in the heart?

Answer: How is it possible to feel anything in a point with no volume? To do that, you must add a desire and intention to it. The point in itself is formless; it has neither intentions nor desires. It is just a point.

What desire can I attach to it? Kabbalists answer this: Besides the point, you have bodily desires (food, sex, and family) and human desires (money, honor, and knowledge). Can you combine them with the point in the heart? Give it a try, but be aware that all of them belong to this world.

Where can you get the desires, the aspiration for the spiritual world? You can get them only from the environment if you value and praise it. You have no other opportunity. You will not be able to reach the point in the heart and enter the spiritual world with your material desires. Your only chance is to join a good environment and get from the friends their desire, their aspiration for this important goal.

Then, you will begin to advance toward it, to form a spiritual vessel. The point becomes the base, and the desire that you have received becomes the vessel. You ask the Light to come. It will influence you and give you a screen. Then, you will have the Reflected Light. In this way, you will have all the necessary components.

The Light is waiting, the environment is present, the point has awakened, and the bodily and human desires are inherent. Everything is ready. Go ahead!

Question: Are there milestones on this path? Is there any possibility to check the direction? How can I press only this point, to boost it and not egoistic desires?

Answer: To do this, you turn to the environment that influences you. This appeal increases your point in the heart, and in response, you receive a new desire, the only desire with which you can make a request upward.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: It is written, “Bless you in all your actions.” What does it mean to be “blessed”?

Answer: “Blessed” means that I am granted the property of bestowal into my will to receive. I find its flaw and work hard to prepare myself, after which I receive the Creator’s “blessing,” the intention to bestow over all my desire.

Blessing is Bina. What else can a person be blessed with? What can we lack but the Light that Reforms? There is nothing. The entire creation is made of desire, and if it gains the intention to bestow, it is already blessed since there is no state as perfect as this. That’s all we need.

It is said that a person should receive one hundred blessings daily. In other words, one has to reform his or her entire vessel to fit bestowal, the ten Sefirot, each of which divides into ten. These one hundred blessings become the one hundred gates (Shaarim) because in his present state, a person evaluates (Meshaher) the Creator with his corrected vessel that becomes filled with the Light.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: The point in the heart stirs up doubt in a person: “Who and what am I? What am I living for?” Is there a point on the spiritual path when a person stops doubting the Creator and His plan, or does it accompany him until the end?

Answer: Doubts will surely continue since without them, it’s impossible to advance and examine oneself. Doubting is a state when anything is possible in any direction, when you can’t tell the angel of death from the angel of life, good from evil, and the Creator from His opposite.

On every new degree, in every state, you are supposed to pass through the states that reflect the entire path, including the worst and the best in mind and heart. Without doubting as an intermediate state, we won’t succeed.

As it is written: “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” Each new degree begins with an evening, meaning from the blending of things that I can’t tell apart: “It looks like light, but it isn’t anymore…. It looks like I am in the dark, but it’s not that dark.” Everything is blurry before my eyes.

Hence, when you fall into confusion and doubt, you should know that a new state is approaching you: “Everything is foggy again, I forgot even the simplest things I learned, or there is nothing I can hold on to.” This is how you pass from one degree to the next. Enjoy this passage.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The worst and most painful state experienced by Malchut is the state of total fulfillment by the Light in the world of Infinity since it has nothing to cover itself with. All of this forces Malchut to undergo multiple transformations that we call movements, actions.

This chain of reactions that Malchut has to go through is regarded as motion on its part. Hence, it is all about the inner sensations, inner wisdom, inner movement, and about the fact that everything is done solely by the desire and the intention accompanying it. Nothing else is real but this!

Our world that we observe around us is imaginary. Everything is taking place inside Malchut of the world of Infinity until it completes itself and starts receiving in order to bestow, meaning abandons the feeling of receiving for self-gratification it used to have before the First Restriction. That’s so even though this first sensation didn’t qualify as egoistic since Malchut didn’t commit it consciously and didn’t know what state it was entering.

Thus, spiritual motion isn’t measured and evaluated by the number of corporeal actions, but only by the inner states a person is going through. This is why it is so difficult to measure. Everybody keeps asking: How can I know how far I have advanced? In fact, this can only be measured when you’ve entered the spiritual world and can count precisely how many spiritual actions you have performed.

Watching a little child, we see that he doesn’t have any idea where he is and what he is doing. Only as he continues to grow, he perfects the quality of his mind and starts counting what happened yesterday, today, and what will be happen tomorrow. He learns to sense time and later on, motion. He is taught: Do this and do not do that. In other words, he starts attaining certain things and the connection between them; he learns how to transition from one state to the other consciously, to listen to and follow what grown-ups recommend.

It is similar in the spiritual world, and we come to perform the spiritual acts. But all of them take place solely within a person. On the outside, nothing is going on, and nothing depends on the external actions. And yet, our external deeds can influence our internal state since it has to do with human psychology.

We get involved in the surrounding society by way of our personal participation, by certain corporeal actions, and thanks to that, we unify with it internally. And this inner bond impacts us and gets counted as our spiritual work.

Hence, it all depends on our awareness of the evil—that’s why we study and do spiritual work. The instant a person feels his egoism, he is ready to take spiritual action, meaning to change within, in order to get rid of this evil. And then the question is what kind of evil it is: how big it is in quality and quantity regarding bestowal or reception.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Shamati (I Heard) No. 161, “The Matter of the Giving of the Torah”: Concerning the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai: It does not mean that the Torah was given then and that now it is not. Rather, the giving of the Torah is an eternal thing—the Creator always gives. However, we are unfit to receive. But then, on Mount Sinai, we were the receivers of the Torah. And the only merit that we had then was that we were as “one man in one heart.” This means that we all had but one thought—the reception of the Torah.

However, from the Creator’s perspective, He always gives, as it is written…, “Man must hear the ten commandments on Mount Sinai every day.”

This means that the Torah is being given to us now and always has been, but then we were like one man with one heart. That is why we could receive the Torah, but now we cannot because we are separated. Once we become united, the giving will take place again.

The ten commandments received from the Creator are always before the person, and there is always the possibility to use the Light called the Torah for benefit or detriment. The correct work and yearning to achieve a more advanced state attract the Surrounding Light to us. This is called studying the Torah: aspiring to learn what is written in it, to feel what it says about us, about our states, and our qualities. I have to feel them when I am studying and become similar to them.

I want to enter this picture that talks about me and begin to live there, to let this story that I am reading now be realized inside me. These are the efforts we have to put forth, to wish to become adults. If we accept these conditions and use them correctly, this means that we have made the efforts, as it is written: “I labored and I found.”

Then, my reality changes because my desire changes. It begins to build itself from the Surrounding Light and perceives in itself the image of the Giver of the Torah, the image of the Creator. The Light corrects my desire, and thus I start realizing the property of bestowal; I come from the giving of the Torah to the receiving of the Torah and from there, to the Giver of the Torah.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/2011, Shamati #161

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Question: Today, a lot of people will come to us for the holiday of Shavuot. Some of them are not connected with Kabbalah in any way. How should we treat them?

Answer: It is very important to ignite them with inspiration through songs, dances, and the warmth of open hearts. My talk with them is not that important since people have a hard time feeling the difference through hearing. You may think that my lecture is the most important thing in all of this, but this is not so. People need to take home a good mood from such gatherings.

As much as I would like to, I won’t be able to give them a good mood or inspiration. All of this is “spirit without an ascent.” You have to bring your spirit there. Besides, among the people, there will be a lot of our friends with the same “baggage.”

The most important thing is the inner sensation which will stay with people when they leave, even if it is not clothed in any words. If a person is unable to sit still, it means the result has been accomplished.

Question: Will this influence them spiritually?

Answer: Yes, since they nevertheless want to join us and be part of this. This is the way it works. Nothing will go through the mind anyway.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How do we move faster before the Moscow convention so as to not be content with the inertia of the previous conventions?

Answer: This convention is taking place in a very important region. Many people look down upon Eastern Europe; however, this is exactly where the method of correction received a new push to develop. Special conditions of time and place that materialized there gave rise to the modern form of the method which we strive to realize now.

At least half of the people who actively study with us come from there. And this is not accidental: Secretly and openly, Kabbalists acted there over the centuries, supplying the nation with solid education and drawing it closer to spirituality.

And this is why it is vital to prepare ourselves for the forthcoming convention. A great force is hidden there as well as in entire Russian-speaking world. Let us hope that we will be able to unite strongly and turn the convention into a powerful event.

We will have three intensive days, seven lectures, various happenings, meetings of friends, and so on. We have to try to be together with all our might. If someone connects to us virtually, try to connect live as much as possible.

Conventions greatly accelerate our progress. Yesterday, for instance, we had a wonderful evening dedicated to the holiday of Shavuot. We felt that it didn’t pass in vain, that people are becoming imbued with our message. And it doesn’t matter that we invested a lot of efforts and means; it was worth it. There was a feeling of unity, cohesion, a desire to bond, to change toward spirituality. We heard excerpts from the works of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, and their melodies. It all makes a great impact on the people.

In our world, no other means are more powerful and effective than that. Now, we talk more openly, too; we use simpler language. New words are coming to the surface, while previously the conditions weren’t right for this yet. They appear as a response to the inner need of the people.

All of it gladdens the heart. I hope that it will bring about big, real changes in our world, and we will see the crisis as a springboard to the future of humanity. Today we stand at the threshold of the new paradigm of our entire life. Baal HaSulam writes that this is already obvious and it is backed by research.

So let us do our best.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What’s the difference between Malchut of the world of Infinity before the restriction and after the correction?

Answer: Malchut of the world of Infinity before the restriction is the initial state created by the upper force. This is the creature that was formed as the upper Light acted upon the desire to receive that was created “from absence.” The Light developed this desire in four phases and brought it to a state called Malchut of the world of Infinity.

And here He finished His task, that’s it! From this moment onwards, an awakening develops inside Malchut itself. It starts slowly realizing that apart from the will to receive, a will to bestow also exists. This will to bestow was introduced into it in the first phase as the sensation of the root, meaning a sensation of the Giver. This starts developing inside of it resulting in the second phase in which it wants to become like the Giver, resisting His bestowal and overcoming its own desire to receive.

That’s why it starts restricting itself and building screens on top of itself, and then it breaks. Serious work begins with this breaking, when the desire to bestow penetrates every desire to receive.

The qualities of reception and bestowal aren’t next to each other anymore, meaning one above the other, separated by a screen, working like You and I, the Creator and the creature. After the breaking, the qualities of the Host penetrate the qualities of the guest, the qualities of bestowal penetrate the qualities of reception and intermix with them.

And then, working from the bottom up and climbing the spiritual ladder, we perform specifically these clarifications because every detail now contains both these forces, bestowal and reception. We separate them from each other into two lines, while we stay in the middle. And now we want to command them and connect with each other in the correct form, the middle line.

This is the way that we start working, trying to become like the Creator. But how can I do this if I don’t know Him? This is what the environment is for, in relation to which I start working on this.

Now I have both the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, the qualities of the Creator and of the creature. I have the Light that Reforms and a state that I can study by analyzing my relationship with the environment and connecting all these forces. This is the field of my work, my “laboratory.” Everything is in front of me!
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: Today we will be holding a convention to celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. But when I imagine what will happen there, I don’t want to go. Does that mean I have to rise above reason?

Answer: People will dance there, but you don’t like to dance. There will be delicious food there, but you won’t like it. There will be many children there, and you are not too excited about that. It turns out that there really is no reason for you to go.

Or you can imagine the situation differently: What do I care about the food, the movements people make with their bodies, the songs, the screaming children, and all the people who are there? All of this is the external form of the desire that is being awakened by the Creator. He puts people together who wish to come closer to Him. Out of the entire Malchut of the world of Infinity, He has gathered a group of separate desires in order to unite them in the future. That is why He now gives them this necessity. They don’t even know why things turned out that way. Every person has his own reasons for coming and every person imagines why he is there differently. But I came there in order to join the Creator’s desire, which is hidden inside of them.

You can sit quietly in the corner and constantly try to keep an intention of being connected with their desire. I don’t look for their inner urges, but precisely for the desire that the Creator awakens in them. This is what I need. This need is my soul. After all, I have just the point in the heart and I have to attach these desires to myself, which will give me the volume of the spiritual vessel. Then I will be able to advance.

However, if I don’t make a connection with them, then where will I get the desire, where will I find my soul? Into what will I receive the revelation of the Creator? By myself I don’t and won’t have anything besides the initial point. So should I not go to the convention? Should I let the opportunity go by?

Question: Can’t I watch the broadcast on TV and join in people’s desire that way? Is it really necessary to be physically present?

Answer: This depends on what makes it easier for me to be permeated by their desire and its outburst, and on how many efforts I will make for it. Maybe if I watch it from home, I will receive 50 pounds of desire from them, but if I go there, then even while sitting in the corner, I will experience such great repulsion that I will barely acquire 2 pounds. However, if I prepare ahead of time, and if I start dancing together with them even though I absolutely hate doing anything like that, if I hold the intention inside—why am I doing this?—then it will be very beneficial.

We all work above the desire even though we don’t talk about this all the time. All spiritual work is done above the desire, so the mind will rule over the heart.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/11, Writings of Rabash

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We mustn’t enjoy bad news. Why shouldn’t we come to final correction positively? All we have to do is find the “one bad apple in the barrel of apples,” the 1% of evil in the 99% of good—and start working. It all depends on our realization of evil, our sensitivity to it. And that is the purpose of the wisdom of Kabbalah: for us to develop sensitivity for the realization of evil.

We have to discover evil by milligrams, “under the microscope,” which will be enough to see how enormous and unbearable it is. The sages said that the righteous view the evil inclination as an enormous mountain. In other words, the last drop of evil still seems monstrous to them. Meanwhile, the wicked think their evil is as thick as a strand of hair: “What is there to talk about?”

Thus, everything depends on how conscious you are and what enlargement factor your “magnifying glass” has. Hence, we must never feel good about unrest, hunger, and other problems of the world that keep flooding in. We have to cultivate the realization of evil, and that is what our dissemination of Kabbalah is supposed to awaken in humanity.

What are we disseminating? Our authority? No. The authority of Baal HaSulam? No. The authority of the Creator? Not this either. We want people to learn the authority of the evil inclination, the ego, which runs the show and is the cause of all misfortunes. And if they are calling for overthrowing their governments, they may at least try to understand that we have to shake off the power of this “foolish, old king” in ourselves.

That’s what we are supposed to demonstrate, in order for man to better understand who holds the grip on him and who must be charged for all misfortunes and problems. Our escape from evil is determined by how conscious of it we become. Rejection of evil is the force driving our growth. This is all we need.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/2011, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

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