Question: If we are egoists, it means that any desire to bestow is an illusion, doesn’t it?

Answer: It’s a total illusion, an absolute lie. If I think about someone, I think about myself, adding to it a pseudo-connection with another person. In truth, it doesn’t exist; there is nobody else. All my perceptions and impressions remain in my desire, and this is the only premise upon which I can make a calculation.

Question: Why, then, do we sit here and hope that we will wish to bestow? How could such a desire emerge in us?

Answer: This occurs because our desire is able to experience itself as such deep within, while on the outside, it can feel as if it isn’t itself, but somebody else. Nothing was broken but the thought, the intention, the idea that we are all fragmented and disconnected. Desire itself cannot break; it was the intention that broke, the awareness of oneness.

Therefore, we fall into the illusion that the one desire created by the Creator is split, fractured, and broken into multiple pieces. This illusion appears within the desire itself.

We have internal Kelim (vessels, desires), the “root,” “soul,” “body,” in which I experience my “self.” In addition, I have external Kelim, a “garment” and a “chamber,” which I perceive as not my “self.” If I tear my clothes, I won’t scream with pain. I don’t feel the surroundings, despite the fact that it is my desire as well. Simply such peculiarities, the lack of sensitivity, appeared in it.

Imagine, if you will, that you could feel all the Kelim in their authentic form. Then, all of reality would be your own “flesh” for you. More than that, somebody would scratch a wall with a nail, and you would scream with pain.

Our difficulty is the lack of intention. The intention became corrupted, and now we don’t see the desires of “others” as relevant to us. It all depends on what is revealed to a person. Our sole job is to integrate desires within. While they remain unchanged, it is the intention that matters: whether it is to receive or to bestow.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You are saying that our desire to give is make-believe.

Answer: Of course, it’s make-believe now. Why would I want something so “otherworldly?” What would I get in return?

For instance, being hungry myself, would I be able to feel another person’s hunger? No, I wouldn’t if such a calculation is not “in sync” with my Kelim (vessels). A person always acts based on desire. How can I want something beyond the reach of my desire? It’s impossible; it’s not instilled in nature.

A tree is a tree, a stone is a stone, and a desire is a desire. The mind is next to it, assisting it to be filled with the desired. There’s nothing else.

Ultimately, we are talking about the very simple “building blocks” of the universe which operate on a binary principle: yes or no. There is no multiplicity nor complication. All that is complex is a sum of these binary components that represent existence or absence. There is no in-between, only total darkness or total light. Then, the very same binary elements generate and build a whole system of nuanced relationships between them.

So, if I want something, I am thinking only about what I want. If I really want something specific, such as a carrot, it means I don’t feel any lack for a banana. The banana doesn’t exist for me at that moment; I am fixated on what I want. This can be seen clearly with children. Computer memory-elements function according to the same principle as do our neurons: yes or no, a “click” or its absence.

Therefore, it simply can’t be that being a receiving desire, I would feel in it a desire to give. I neither understand nor feel what others want. I can feel inside of me only a form called “the other,” but it manifests itself inside my desire.
[33737]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can a person tell that he is acting from the point in the heart, rather than avoiding the suffering of the outside world?

Answer: Does a person act in the group based on the point in the heart rather than his or her egoism? Does he direct himself toward a group instead of the outside world? He does if he puts the desires, goals, means, and efforts of his friends above his own.

What if the friends are wrong? They are always right. Actually, even if they are wrong, what difference does it make to me? What’s most important is that I am part of them. That’s the only choice I’ve got.

Suppose all of them are against my opinion. I’m one hundred percent right, but they are united as one. It means I have to annul myself and go along with them. However, they are wrong, aren’t they? It does not matter. In the spiritual world, the collective, the connection, always prevails.

Approximately two and a half thousand years ago there lived a great sage, Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma. He had, let’s say, a dozen students. Once, he was asked to move to another place, but he replied, “I can’t leave them because then I will lose everything there is within me.” This was despite the fact that he was a great sage of that generation. Who were they compared to him? “They are nobodies,” he said, “but when they are together, I connect to them and receive everything through them. On my own, directly, I cannot receive anything.”

After all, the receiving vessel, the detector, the locator, is the group. Let the group consist of nobodies, beginners; it doesn’t matter whom. If they unite with one another, that’s it; it’s enough. A sage who connects to them adds sensitivity to them and, thus, perceives everything.

On their own, they don’t understand or sense a thing. They’ve just huddled together like calves. However, having united with them, he receives the Light that he wouldn’t have received without them. By gradually conducting their unity through him, they, too, begin to grow. That is what is happening in the world. Therefore, only unity brings the right result.

There are a lot of “smart” people in the group, really clever, serious, very intelligent individualists, and their achievements are worth nothing! When I consider the result that we have to achieve as a group, I know for certain: Even if a person is smart, generates great ideas, performs any assignment brilliantly, and achieves amazing results, all that eventually leads nowhere. If he lacks spiritual direction, he won’t grow as a result of his or her efforts, although on the outside, everything may seem perfect.

All things spiritual are achieved only through unity. If beginners gather together, even though they may be small, by uniting, they achieve greater results than individuals who are great, wise, and perhaps Kabbalists already. Rabbi Yossi wouldn’t have achieved anything without his group. That’s why he didn’t leave it.
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From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”

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Question: Why do we need to work on ourselves specifically in a group? Why can we not work on ourselves through interaction with the external world?

Answer: First of all, we need to work among ourselves in a group instead of the external world because Kabbalists recommend it. Why do they recommend this specifically? It is because together, we need to create a common desire which will have similar properties to the properties of the Creator, and then we will be able to reveal Him.

If I were to come up to a person on the street and tell him, “Let’s love one another,” he might think that I am gay. In reality, the property of love is the Creator’s property. It is His main property that is revealed before us. I need to attain this property one way or another. How do I do this? Only by being with people who understand me.

So, this means that we must unite our desires and feel one another as if we all were together, one whole. The common universal egoism is pushing us toward this.

Globalization, the interconnection that is becoming revealed, and the blows of nature, all moves us in one direction and forces us to become closer to “huddle up” like little animals who have nowhere to hide. All the miseries that are about to befall us will force us to become closer. It’s for us to become closer on the inside, instead of simply crowding up in one territory.

Nature will work systematically; it will hit in one place. This is why we need to “huddle up” with the people who understand us, and together create a common desire. As soon as we create it, this will be the group turning into one heart, one desire. Then, to the extent of our unification, we will feel the Creator: the manifestation of the Light of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida between us.

All the souls together are included among them into the entire world, but being a part of them, we have already united and passed this entire Light through us. Now, it gradually flows over to the other souls, and they also begin to awaken. They suddenly begin to feel that we have a special kind of fulfillment. And people will feel drawn to us. We will see them join.

But in order for this to happen, you first need to carry out a special condition so that there would be Light in you. This is why you cannot work with other people who do not have any of this. This flows out of the condition of correction of the worlds, and Kabbalah prescribes this. Why? It’s because this is the law of nature.

We need to begin with the uncorrected desires that are closest to the Light. By correcting them, we can use them to descend to a level below, desires that are less corrected. As we correct them, we descend into the even less corrected desires. We constantly go from easier work to harder work. This is the same way we also develop in our lives. We gradually solve all the problems from simple to complicated. This is a natural law of nature.
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From Lesson 2 in Moscow 1/16/2011, “A Prayer of Many”

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Question: What is the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: A certain influence descends to us from the upper root (the thought of creation) from Above downward through all the worlds and finally reaches the final point, this world. It includes the exterior and the interior parts: the five upper worlds and the created beings.

The entire universe is worlds and souls which exist inside the worlds. The wisdom of Kabbalah examines everything except for the actual root: how it spreads from Above downward and then returns from below upward, which all happens in relation to the person attaining it.

There is someone referred to as “man” inside this system (so far, we do not know who he is). Everything that is being revealed in relation to him is called the wisdom of Kabbalah.

At this moment, I exist in the reality of this world, and I perceive everything through the five senses: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. They help me reveal and perceive whatever happens outside of me, but I do not know what is actually happening there.

Physicists say that we are being influenced by waves and that nothing but waves exist. Chemists say that these are reactions between certain substances, molecules. However, what matters is that I perceive certain influences and react to them. This is my inner perception, and others could react in a different manner.

We are all people, and we all operate the same way. For this reason, we kind of perceive the same things. Another being would feel a different reality. Every being perceives the world according to his properties, character, and informational genes. People, animals, insects, plants, and even rocks perceive themselves and their environment in different ways.

However, Kabbalah only speaks of the way humans perceive the world. Although there are differences even here, we still have a certain common perception. We still kind of understand one another. Our impressions coincide so much on the still, vegetative, and animate levels that we are completely at one with them.

The difficulties in perception only begin on the human degree where psychology, individual characteristics, perceptions, and sensations begin. If we examine solely the influence on the five senses which has not yet been deformed by the factors of psychological perception, then everything we perceive in them is referred to as the perception of this world, so far without your nerves and thoughts layered upon it.

When we attain the entire five spiritual worlds this way, this is called the wisdom of Kabbalah: the entire descent from Above downward, from beginning to end and back from the end to the beginning, all the objectives and systems, causes and consequences, everything until the very last detail. Thus, Kabbalah explains who man is, his purpose, the reasons for the need to descend from Above downward, and what awaits us at the end of the ascent.

This wisdom incorporates everything. It incorporates physics, chemistry, and a person’s life in this world. Everything is inside there. Kabbalah is the revelation of the entire reality inside the person attaining it.

Man ascends through the spiritual worlds and attains the reality in one of its sections: the first, second, third degree, and so forth. When he ascends to the next degree, it becomes clear that all the previous degrees are included in this degree.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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The Light that Reforms is the Light used to correct the desires, Kelim (vessels), and it fills the entire reality of a created being. It’s the same very Light, but you utilize it to transform the Kelim.

Suppose I am standing before a beautifully set table filled with fine delicacies, but I don’t have much desire to eat. I am told: “You should still eat something! True, you are sick and have no appetite, but at least try, little by little!” And I eat without any desire, just to give my health a boost. As a result, I recover and start eating the same meal enjoying it immensely.

The recipes haven’t changed, my attitude to them has. Previously, I used them to get better, and it is called “the Light that Reforms,” the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), “repentance from fear,” the degree of Bina. Later, I transformed myself and started to employ these desires by receiving in order to bestow. Then, this Light transformed into the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) for me.

Who made alterations in the Light? I did. Which Light is this? It all depends on how I relate to it: It’s Hassadim for correction of desires, and it’s Hochma for their fulfillment. If I wish to transform my attitude to the others, I need to perform the correction first, and it means that I use the same Light as “Hafetz Hesed” (desiring nothing for self gratification). The Light is bestowal. And then, I can employ the same Light, bestowal, enjoying the fact that I bestow.

Bestowal, the Creator, the Light, fills our reality. We reside within it, and everything depends on our attitude. Our relation to the Light determines where we are: either in this world or in the upper one, at various degrees and different states.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Two Points”

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“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Two Points,” Item 121: Over all the locks, we receive a special degree in His Providence, and they become openings, degrees of attainment of the Creator. And those degrees that we receive on the openings become halls of wisdom.

Thus, the locks, the doors, and the halls are three forms that come upon our substance, the desire to receive in us. Before we turn it into reception in order to bestow upon our Maker, that substance turns the light to darkness and the sweet to bitter, according to our taste, since all the conducts of His Providence remove us from Him.

At that time, locks are made from the desire to receive in us, and after we repent, we are rewarded with receiving in order to bestow, all the locks become doors, and then the doors become halls.

All of our obstacles become transformed into desires filled with the Light, attainment, understanding, and awareness of the force of bestowal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Two Points”

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If I truly wish for the Light to come to me, I have to ask for transformation of my entire spiritual vessel (Kli): from Keter to Malchut. In spirituality there cannot be any partial decisions, when I am “almost willing” but not completely. I must demand this correction for all my “10 Sefirot” for all the four levels of desire: the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

Once I know my evil at all the four levels, then I can draw the Light that Reforms. My desire for this to occur has to be so intense that I will feel it with every fiber of my being, “to my very bones.”

However, if I awaken on my own right now and start demanding the Surrounding Light, scream, and ask for correction, it’s great, but it won’t help. Desire to which the Light responds must reside between the souls, in their relationships with one another.

In other words, I need to inspire myself to sing with the others, dance, and perform certain actions so that all of this would help me engage in the group: bond with the environment and demand from it to tune me to bestowal. Let it give me the desire to be in bestowal and become one with the others.

In the degree of my eagerness to bond with the environment, I will receive a reaction, a desire from it. And if I use this new desire to appeal to the Surrounding Light, then I have a chance to have it work on me.

Therefore, I must motivate myself to appeal to the group and in return receive inspiration from it, which would impress me. Then I can turn to the Surrounding Light. After all, if I appeal to the group, it is a sign of the following:

1. I realized that I cannot achieve anything on my own,
2. I desire to bestow more than to receive,
3. I value them more than myself.

In other words, it is a correct request; it forms me in the spiritual direction correctly. If I am willing to accept everything they give me by faith above reason and emotion, as if from the most spiritual source, it means I am prepared to be transformed. This means I have risen above my egoism, have become aware that I am a total zero, and now desire correction. And the only correction I want is to be able to bestow.

Such a request will definitely be answered by the Surrounding Light since it corresponds with its nature, “the reforming Light, precisely. And I ask to bring me back to it!
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: Virtual space (the Internet network) is made of people’s desires which populate it. Is there an analogy between the Internet and the spiritual world?

Answer: So far, we can’t analyze spiritual analogs of the Internet because this network lacks any order, even an egoistic one. It is ruled by “egoistic anarchy” where everyone is doing whatever they please.

On one hand, it is good since it helps this system to get organized as quickly as it may. But on the other, in this transitional period, there is no order whatsoever. Yet we should fear a possibility of any restriction on it. The Internet should evolve absolutely freely in this mess until it straightens itself out.

Humanity will get more and deeper engaged in this system in hope to receive fulfillment there. After all, the Internet seems to have it all! We are approaching a state when a person will not want to go anywhere and travel anymore: Why hassle when the Internet has everything I need? Why get out of the house when I have the Internet? Why study and learn something if I can always search the Internet and get all the answers?

The Internet system will respond to all personal needs: We will work, socialize, live, place food orders, and do everything else there. The Internet will give us everything except one thing: We will not get fulfillment in it. This is what it will eventually reveal.

And that’s when we will have to do something with the system itself since this is a system that connects people. Above it, there is nothing else left! This is the last and the highest degree of humanity’s material evolution. Therefore, this system will have to assume a form which will, indeed, respond correctly to all personal needs, that is, will teach how to work for the sake of bestowal.

A person who lost faith in this world withdraws into the virtual one. But when he loses faith in it too, we have to ensure that he or she finds the wisdom of Kabbalah there and from it, through the virtual world, arrives to the spiritual world. Being present in this virtual space ourselves, we have to demonstrate that there is no way out: One can search the entire Internet, but he won’t find happiness there.

The problem is not in lack of connection, but rather that it is a wrong type of connection. Connection has to be based on bestowal. And since a person who lives in the virtual world is a regular Internet user and to a certain degree feels this interconnection between people, then it should be even easier to explain to him or her that it is the type of communication that determines everything for us. All we need to do is to just find simple enough words for such explanations and create a Kabbalistic Internet society which everyone can link to.

It doesn’t obligate a person to anything: He or she may come in whenever they’d like and look at anything they are interested in. The person is not required to disclose their name, go some place, drive somewhere, spend money, or enter a new group – just click a button and he is there.

If we can build such networks that will make a person feel that he bestows to others on the Internet, he or she will gain a special fulfillment. In the virtual space, it can be arranged very fast because it is very flexible. The realization of the evil inclination can occur just as quickly and develop an awareness of what egoism we live in. The Internet is a marvelous instrument for the kind of revolution that we need to make in order to switch a person from the tracks of reception to the tracks of bestowal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: How do I feel joy when evil gets revealed?

Answer: You can’t feel joy. When you receive a blow, you have to feel through it, and only afterward will you work with it. It is impossible to protect yourself beforehand in order to feel an embrace instead of a blow.

Evil unfolds not as evil per se but as an ability to become aware of it, and it’s something totally different. To become conscious of evil means that you disclose your ego as evil when you receive greatest pleasure, when you are in the most wonderful and ravishing states that your ego can possibly imagine, in the states which nothing can supersede.

The blow is not when today, for example, you receive something unpleasant so as to force you to know your evil. It won’t be the realization of evil, but rather some evil being revealed. Becoming aware of one’s evil means that while being in the greatest states I feel my ego as evil. And then, I start feeling hatred toward these specific states which make me feel so good.

In other words, the awareness of evil and evil itself are two opposites. That is why this process is regarded as learning to know your evil since I engage my mind which helps me to expose evil within good. To the degree that I reveal it, I discover the blow that comes from it, but I don’t experience the blow itself. After all, evil doesn’t manifest clearly; it is always perceived as good.

A serpent unfolds mainly when you are feeling the most pleased. And only thanks to the Light that descends to you, as well as to your environment, do you get to know that this evil is the “angel of death.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, Baal HaSulam, Letter No.5

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