Shamati #13, “A Pomegranate”: The measure of the filling is as much as one can go above reason, and this is called Romemut.

There is only emptiness in a place where there is no existence, as it is written, “hangeth the earth over nothing.” You find that what is the measure of the filling, of the empty place? The answer is, according to one’s elevation of oneself above reason.

This means that the emptiness should be filled with loftiness, meaning with above reason, and to ask of the Creator to give one that strength. It will mean that all the emptiness was created, meaning it comes to a person to feel thus, that he is empty, only in order to fill it with the Romemut [greatness] of the Creator. In other words, one is to take everything above reason.

We do not know what “faith above reason” is. It is a total separation from all of our calculations. I remember how three or four months after I started studying with Rabash, I asked him, “What is faith above reason, since it is written that a person must always be in it?” At that time, I even wrote down on my hand that one mustn’t forget to think about faith above reason, even though I did not know what this was. As I was sitting in the car behind the wheel next to Rabash, I looked at what was written on my hand and asked him: What is the meaning of this concept?

In reply he gave me an example that is, of course, limited by the boundaries of this world: Suppose that a friend borrowed a thousand dollars from you and later returned the envelope to you as if it had the entire sum inside. But you find only one dollar inside. Your friend says that there is a thousand dollars inside, but according to your calculation there is only one. Where are the other $999?

That is when you can advance by faith above reason. That is, you attain such a correction (rather than just forgiving your friend the debt!) that you perceive this dollar as if you received a thousand instead of one, as if the friend returned everything to you.

But how do you perceive the $999 that are missing? This is called the force of faith above reason. It is impossible to understand what this means ahead of time. Only when this force becomes revealed inside of us as a result of our inner efforts, inside of our desires, when we change, then we see that we really can make up for the knowledge with faith, and this faith is bestowal instead of reception.

In any case this will remain unclear until a person actually acquires this quality.
[41537]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/11, Shamati

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Our main problem is to establish our attitude to the Creator. Clearly, it is subjective and depends entirely on us, on how we think and feel. It does not change depending on the Creator’s attitude, which is unknown to us, but is determined by what we think about Him.

On one hand, we are talking about nature, about the environment in which we develop. Once upon a time man began revealing nature, thus ascending in our world from the animate level to the human level as he researched the nature around him. After that he began to research the spiritual world, once his desire grew to that level. Thus, to the degree his desire grew, a person delved deeper and deeper into nature.

However, a person consists of two parts: one that feels and one that understands, and the two have a specific connection and influence upon one another. Precisely through them, feeling and reason or the heart and mind, he researches what he feels. Anything that does not enter his senses remains unknown to him. He researches only his impressions, whereas the things that are inaccessible to one’s sensations cannot be discussed at all because that would be empty philosophy and fantasy.

Therefore, our ideas of the Creator are not based on how He actually is, but on how we perceive Him. We will never know who He really is! We only know that there is an upper, external force that is perceived as the nature around us.

We call its closest part “this world.” But there is a greater nature which becomes revealed to a person when he undergoes a special development. It is called upper nature. Yet, no one knows who the Creator Himself is.

Therefore, the science of Kabbalah talks about everything in relation to man. It is written, “There is none else besides Him!” That is how a person feels and what he discerns as a result of his research.

Kabbalists tell us about their impressions of this single upper force, and it turns out that the Creator seems to get angry, or to get happy, or to enjoy something. But this is how a person feels. This is how he senses the upper force! However, we do not know what really happens to it.

Nevertheless, it is very important for us to establish our attitude to this upper force so we would know where this form, picture, impression, or sensation comes from, which we receive from Him. Whom do we feel: Himself or ourselves? Or do we perceive ourselves on the background of His Light? Or do we feel something that’s common to both of us, some interaction between us? That is something I have to know!

When I feel good or bad, then whom does this sensation depend on—on me, or does it come from the Creator? Or perhaps it depends on our similarity to each other, on some special connection?

If I perform any action, whether in words, thoughts, or physically, is He forcing me to act that way or do I have some kind of freedom? But where can I get that freedom if I am a result, a product of His work?

That is to say, we must somehow define ourselves in relation to our connection with the Creator. Otherwise we will constantly get confused. This bears great significance for our attitude, our inner work, and our connection with Him. This is also reflected on all of our relationships with one another, inside the family and when a person is one on one with himself.

Therefore, this is not an abstract question for us. Establishing our state, connection, and attitude to the Creator influences all the layers of our lives. This is the most fundamental thing there is. That is why Baal HaSulam’s opinion is so important to us in this regard, which he lays out in the article, “There Is None Else Besides Him,” the very first article in the book Shamati.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/11, Shamati

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati #1 “There’s None Else Besides Him,” Lesson 2
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Mishpatim (Ordinances),” “These Are the Ordinances,” Item 1

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 1, Item 3, Lesson 2
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Baal HaSulam, “Disclosing A Portion, Covering Two,” Start with: “I should add…”
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The upper Light leads a person through many ascents and descents, continuously giving him the sensation that only the Creator can help him. After all, He’s the one who sent me all of the troubles in order to finally teach me to pray for redemption.

The redemption is the revelation of the Creator; I ask precisely in order to live under His single power, which is the only thing that exists. I don’t want to get confused any longer or to feel any other forces. Even though I understand that all forces come from Him, yet I want to be controlled just by this single force—the force of bestowal and love for the neighbor.

I want to reveal Him because this is the truth! All my other states are a lie. Only then a demand and outcry is born in a person to which the upper force brings him. This force had always played with him, confusing him to increase his self-assurance, creating difficulties for him so he would become stronger.

That is how a person reaches a prayer and reveals the Creator. Now he does not search for the Creator in order to get rid of all his troubles and searches, but wants to be under the power of “There is none else besides Him.” This means
coming out of Pharaoh’s slavery and becoming a slave of the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/11, Shamati #1

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Question: What can we rely on in our spiritual advancement if it’s already clear that knowledge doesn’t matter?

Answer: You can only rely on the environment. Knowledge is worthless. I am willing to forget everything. As the Talmud says, people used to pray to forget what they have already learned. I want to start from a clean slate, like a baby who does not have anything to his name.

Let everything I knew until now vanish from my mind. Let even my heart be empty. I don’t need anything. I want to start from zero, to lose all my possessions. That is the only way we can continue the path, by beginning every day anew.

It would seem like there is so much written in the books, “Remember this, know that, don’t forget about that.” That’s true, but in reality, a person advances when he is ready to become “zero,” when he does not listen to the voice of the present moment.

Therefore, only the environment remains our unchanging source of support.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/11, Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”

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Question: What does the concept of “secrets of the Torah” mean?

Answer: A “secret” is something I cannot reveal even though it’s clear to me that it exists. I experience the sensation of a “secret” when standing at the threshold of something new, before opening up the door.

Besides, irrelative of me, “secrets of the Torah” are the Lights that are concealed by Atik. They are in the head of Arich Anpin in the form of a concealed wisdom. These Lights are hidden because right now we do not have a covering for them which would enable us to discern them. However, for me they are not a secret because I do not feel them.

The real secret is the curtain that I feel. For example, exile is the anticipation of redemption, which is felt as extremely necessary but not yet acquired. Inside the very sensation of the emptiness, I already outline the contours of the future fulfillment. This means experiencing oneself in exile: I understand and feel what I want, and all I lack is the implementation.

The same is true for a “secret”: I feel that I lack the quality of bestowal so that inside of its Light of Hassadim I would reveal the Light of Hochma. The knowledge that brings this Light is hidden from me.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/11, “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”

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Pharaoh and all of his ministers are the Creator’s loyal slaves, meaning “angels” or the forces that realize the program of creation. They carry out the orders of the upper force, the Creator, since besides Him, nothing else exists. But for now, the Creator is placing Pharaoh with all his loyalty as a ruler to work for the Creator and rule over man in this world instead of Him, in order to give us the sensation of darkness and bring us to the need to reveal the opposite force, that of love and bestowal.

Right now, Pharaoh himself is being revealed in our world. Before, only his helpers, his ministers, were being revealed to us. We did not hear about Pharaoh himself until the actual end of the “Egyptian exile,” when it suddenly became announced that “a new king has risen over Egypt.” Until then, certain directors and ministers were in control.

The same also happened in the history of mankind. We were influenced by different smaller forces which pushed the development of human society: new inventions, the discovery of new continents, new technologies, until we reached a global world. And here Pharaoh is beginning to reveal himself: He is the force that prevents and does not let us unite.

Many people around the world already feel that salvation lies only in connection. We see that, given such a degree of interdependence, we are not left with any other choice since the world has become so global. The only way to improve life is to come together. We don’t have any other choice when we depend on each other so much. We won’t be able to divorce one another like in a failed marriage and go our own way. We are living on a single, tiny globe, and we have nowhere to go: We are locked up, like in a cage.

But we are unable to agree with one another in this world, create a common world government, or achieve somewhat of a single opinion, and we constantly argue. And these disagreements will not end; they will only keep growing.

It will be very strange seeing it because everyone really depends on one another: Europe, America, the Arab countries, Asia, Russia, Japan, China. Is it really that difficult to gather in one place, have another “G-50,” and come to some kind of a common agreement? Otherwise, the world will simply go back to the initial “chaos and darkness.”

But people will not manage to come to an agreement. The force of evil will keep getting in the way and stand between them, and they will not be able to understand how they can connect. They will only reveal their inability to connect and will not learn how to attain it. This is because revealing the “means” of connection is the same as revealing the upper force, the only thing that can connect us. This is the state we are heading towards.

This will not be a simple time. So far, people are somehow managing to continue living as before, as if the world has not become global and they can continue to exist without taking the interests of everyone else into consideration. But our development must absolutely lead us to unification. Yet there will be no strength to unite. This is where Pharaoh, who is separating us, will be revealed.

And then, as it is written in the story of Egyptian bondage, “they will cry out (this time it will be the sons of the entire world),” not knowing what to do. And here they will reveal that there is a method, the wisdom of Kabbalah, which reveals the Creator to the creatures in this world.

After all, we won’t be able to have even a very ordinary life in this world without revealing this force. We simply will not be able to exist: We will consume one another. It is in this way that the need for Kabbalah, as the means of revealing the Creator, will be revealed. And we will learn that the world was created this way and has undergone this development only to become like the Creator and unite with Him while striving to reveal Him. The entire program of creation will be realized thereby.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You said that when we read The Book of Zohar we should focus on unity. But how is it expressed? What action should I be thinking about? After all, the very word “unity” doesn’t strike a chord in me.

Answer: A feeling of unity builds up in a person very gradually, over the course of many months, until he begins to sense a certain “taste” in unification with the friends and finds some type of reality in it.

We experience on ourselves all the actions in the process of which, during millions of years of evolution, the vegetative degree formed from the inanimate one, the animate from the vegetative, and the human from the animate. But we undergo similar states at an enormous speed.

You ask about the state you haven’t obtained yet. You are trying to tap where this sensation of oneness may unfold, the feeling of unity and bestowal, when you step out of yourself, your ego. But nothing is really clear to you.

This is a sign of attainment. You start approaching the state which you seek and don’t know how to find: “I am looking for my brothers.” I seek unity and don’t find it. Does it even exist? What is it? How do I get hold of it?!

This is “the void before the revelation.” You are already standing at the threshold of it. And so it is, always. The question about the state you don’t possess is the very state that precedes it. You must simply go on, give the Light time to do its work. If you are present in the group, at the lessons, disseminate, and do everything you can, give the Light a chance to do the job.

As described in the “Introduction to The Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 133: “ And only the heroes among them, whose patience endured, defeated the guards and opened the gate. And they were instantly awarded seeing the King’s face, who appointed each of them in his right place.” Just be patient! If it takes ten years, so be it. Another ten, big deal.

And those who think they are smart “jump off the carriage,” and in ten years you see that they don’t have anything. You can say: “But I don’t have anything either, do I?!” You possess great desire, an understanding that you are lacking unity.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: What can we learn from Pharaoh?

Answer: We can learn from Pharaoh loyalty to the Creator. He carries out his task to the letter, faithfully and diligently. He is a true Creator’s serf like no other.

In fact, we are dealing with a mechanical force hidden in nature. On each path and at each degree, in every molecule and atom, in every combination and relation, it calculates how to take possession of everything it can possibly have. It is a unique internal program that works in every particle of creation, every system, and every combination.

That’s what “Pharaoh” is: something common, omnipotent, and present in every desire, in all of created reality. It doesn’t leave any particle of creation alone for a second. Amid the stars and galaxies, in our world and all others, there is this universal, integral program. And this is what we have to learn from Pharaoh: a persistent, compromise-free approach to our responsibilities.

Moreover, instead of the old program, we must make sure to install the new one. Besides, this upgrade pertains to Pharaoh: We employ him and by no means delete him for uselessness. Spiritual upgrades are always installed over the already existent program support. We work on Pharaoh, on our receiving desire, replacing the egoistic intention with the altruistic one, while Pharaoh’s desire as such remains.

We have the intention and desire to receive, which is a pre-set, active system; that is what exists. And then, we switch this intention to bestowal, while keeping the desire to receive. Thus, we come out into the spiritual reality, the one that will be.

Below there is Pharaoh, above there is the Creator, and they oppose each other. And the transition is made by way of the Light.
[41235]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/2011, Writings of Rabash

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