Each hour of the day I must feel I am being governed by the timeless, perfect management as if it has been already revealed to me. If I do, Kabbalists mandate that I spend a half-hour a day analyzing and examining myself as in the beginning of every new week.

Ideally, if I constantly manage to hold myself “above reason,” then I have to examine my starting point “within reason.” Thereby, I renew my work and make it more and more meaningful.

For example, I have succeeded in working with a certain Reshimo (informational gene). Now, I have an opportunity to descend and examine what Reshimo it was and to resume my work later on. I do so over and over again, until from Hesed, I finally reach Malchut, Saturday.

Working in HGT (Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet), I create the three lines. In NHY (Netzah, Hod, Yesod), I build them into the will to enjoy where Yesod becomes the sum (Σ) of all days.

I measure each of these days by a more exalted desire with a better quality Aviut (coarseness), but, in total, they constitute the ten Sefirot. Their “head,” HBD (Hochma, Bina, Daat), we attain further on.

On the scale of creation, we are talking about the six “millennia” of corrections followed by the seventh millennium of rest. This process is divided into corresponding parts, each of which is similar to the whole.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, “He Who did not Toil on Shabbat Eve, What will He Eat on Shabbat?”

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The sages said: “One who did not toil on the eve of Shabbat (Saturday), what will he eat on Shabbat?” In our world, time flows on its own. We grow, mature, get old, and die. Time controls everything. The same could be said about other laws governing our life.

We are governed without our participation which makes us the still, vegetative, and animate degrees of evolution. In the drawing, they are marked as number one (1) and colored black. Man arranges his life against “others” or anything outside of himself.

Further on, we start drawing the Light that Reforms by working in the group, thereby receiving a vessel of the soul from it. Then, we turn to the Creator, raise MAN (Mayin Nukvin, Female Waters), and receive help, MAD (Mayin Duchrin, Male Waters), from Him.

Finally, after all the events, troubles, thoughts, and desires in us and the world, we begin to realize that they come from the Creator, the singular Cause. This Cause sends them to us through “another” so that by rising above him, we could establish a connection and make decisions with the Creator.

Thus, we move onto the second type of governance and rise above the reason by which we had lived before. We work against our intelligence and desire and justify the Upper Governance since we realize that all its actions are designated to elevate us to adhesion with the Creator. In that case, all things unpleasant for our egoism help us ascend and build an attitude to the Creator above reason.

We do this work during the “week,” in all the properties of the soul. By the sixth day, we reach Yesod which includes all the previous stages, and we feel how the others and the Creator merge as one whole. Thereby, the third type of governance unfolds.

Finally, on Sabbath (Saturday) eve, we enter the fourth stage. We see for ourselves that the upper governance includes us as well. As a result, when Sabbath comes, we are one with the Creator due to everything that we went through during the week.

Thus, in small seven-day doses, we undergo the total transformation of our soul. Each week becomes the foundation for the next, until we arrive at the final Sabbath (Sabbath Sabbathon).
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, “He Who did not Toil on Shabbat Eve, What will He Eat on Shabbat?”

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The Zohar is written in such seemingly earthly language on purpose, unlike The Study of the Ten Sefirot, The Tree of Life, and “The Preface to the Science of Kabbalah” (Pticha), which are written in the language of Partzufim and Sefirot. For beginners, it is very challenging, but as soon as a person immerses himself in “work for the Creator,” meaning that he wishes to see all that The Zohar describes as transformations within the soul, he clearly sees that this language is helpful to him and obliges him to keep visualizing spiritual actions and attributes.

One can examine himself: “Am I present in spirituality or not? Do I see only spiritual properties rather than faces and events, or am I still “falling” into some corporeal movie which means that I am clearly not present in spirituality?”

If any words from our corporeal world evoke earthly images in us, it is a sign that we reside in the material desire. If they awaken spiritual properties and sensations, it means we are present in the spiritual one. Quite simply, each of us judges either by the degree of his corrupted nature or his corrected state.

Hence, it is a very useful analysis to verify where we are. Moreover, when you are in spirituality, you will have difficulty talking about corporeal notions since all of them derive from spirituality. You will struggle to understand what another person is talking about because you will be seeing only the spiritual picture.

There could be many arguments as to why Kabbalists chose the language of the branches to write The Book of Zohar, and all of them will be correct.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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Question: I think that in all his articles, Rabash is trying to describe spiritual work in sensory terms for us.

Answer: Everything takes place in our sensations. Kabbalists do not discuss anything else. Even mathematics and all other phenomena that may seem irrational to us are still sensory even though we don’t realize that we use our mind to evaluate the connection between our feelings.

We measure, weigh, and attach some numeric value to them, but all of this work still occurs in our senses. Even when I determine the shades of the colors, “This is more yellow, and that is whiter,” I evaluate the sensations that they trigger in me. This goes for everything, including the most rational meanings seemingly stripped of any emotions. Either way, we always work only in our sensations.

When I came to the wisdom of Kabbalah, I was shocked, “What feelings? What is this, a romance novel? What kind of science is this?” until I started to really comprehend that man is made solely of desire, and all the others around us are desires as well. Still objects, plants, and animals are all desires that look this way in our collective will to enjoy.

I see animals, still objects, people, and the sky. This is how I experience these phenomena in my desire to enjoy. I explore still matter: what force to apply to affect it so it would get hot, split into components, or merge. I study animals, plants, myself, and human relations within a society. In any case, I analyze, weigh, evaluate, and study only relationships between desires.

Hence, all Kabbalistic books speak solely about the correction of desire so that you can elevate yours to such an exalted degree where you will unveil the Creator, the integral force of Nature, the outermost, broadest, and all-inclusive circle. This is what you must achieve in your desires.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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Question: How should a person measure his spiritual progress: by the growth of egoism or the magnitude of bestowal?

Answer: Bestowal can never be measured. It’s boundless, formless, and shapeless until it clothes into the receiving desire.

We are always submerged into our egoistic thoughts and impulses. But if we overcome them and begin to aim ourselves at the Creator above them, we impart height and form to our bestowing desire.

Its height equals that of the receiving desire, above which we want to live in bestowal. We turn to the Creator in exact correspondence with our egoistic impulse, above it.
After all, it is He who formed this egoistic desire, this foreign thought within me.

Hence, by rising above it and turning back to Him, I as though make a mask of the face, a copy, and acquire His form. The Creator copied His form onto my will to enjoy, while I make a reverse copy from this desire and return to the Creator’s initial form and begin to bestow.

In this way, I come to know, understand, and perceive the Creator: from a stamp to its imprint and back to a stamp.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/4/2011, “What Does It Mean That if the Good Grows Also the Evil Grows at Work”

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Does It Mean that the Ladder Stands Diagonally in the Work”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Yitro (Jethro), “And You Behold the Secret of the Eyes,” Item 115, Lesson 6
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 48, Lesson 28
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy,” Lesson 9
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Writings of Rabash, “What Are the Misfortunes that Come to the Wicked…”: The sages said: Misfortune comes into the world only when there are sinners in it, and it starts with the righteous…”

It is impossible to advance alone. A series of descents causes such great egoism to surface in a person that he asks himself, “Is it possible to come out of it at all?” That’s when a persistent need for coming out of it causes him to turn to the group. Only there, together with others, can he summon the force that will lead him to the outside.

All attempts to climb out independently will fail. You cannot do anything here alone. That’s because a person has to correct the breaking, the shame, and prepare the exit out of himself toward his neighbor.

Therefore, all the descents are intended to bring us to the realization of our own powerlessness so we would turn to the group, having no other choice. Then, with the group’s help we must acquire the realization of the Creator’s importance. This importance will force us to look for a way out and will bring us to the right decision: Only in the environment will we find the forces to advance.

The environment as we understand it is an artificial image. It only seems like some foreign element to a person, and that is done deliberately so he would be able to reject his egoism, his desire to enjoy.

Therefore, misfortunes come to us in order to reveal the “sinners” in us more and more, but at the same time they come down on the states called “righteous.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If I don’t have any study questions, do I nevertheless advance?

Answer: A person himself has to check whether he is advancing or not. How can he do it? By examining if during the study he experiences ascents and descents in his connection with the others and rejection thereof. Now I only need to know whether I am connected with the others and try to reveal the images that we study in The Zohar, the images of the Creator, within this connection.

Do I aspire for it? Yes, I do. How strong is my aspiration? How many times during the lesson did I leave and come back to these thoughts? How many times during this work did I feel concerned about the others so that they, too, hold this intention? Then, their collective thought will also act upon me so that even if I leave these thoughts, I will immediately return to them. It is actually good to have as many of these quick exits and entries as possible.

For this reason I need the support of the group, and I have to constantly hold the thought about the connection. This is my entire work. These signs help me evaluate my progress. If I stop thinking about the connection and never return to these thoughts again, I don’t advance.

Hence, don’t ask, but rather examine yourself.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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The will to enjoy is our matter, while the intention is its form. However, you don’t have the intention or form until the will to enjoy meets with the Upper Light and builds the form at the time of this encounter.

You cannot acquire the intention for the Creator yourself. You only turn to the Upper One with your plea (raise MAN), and then MAD, NHY of the Upper One together with its Reflected Light, descends from Above. And when the Reflected Light of the Upper One clothes into your matter, it thereby gives you a form.

The lower part (NHY) of the Upper One that clothes into the lower one creates its form. Meanwhile, the lower one by itself cannot do anything but plea: “Endow me with the form of bestowal!” But it is the Upper One that decides what form it will be, and for this reason we need to annul ourselves.

Therefore, the group can supply me with the desire to receive the form of the Upper One, however, the group does not determine that form for me; it only arouses this need within me. And when I ask the Upper One, raise MAN, I don’t dictate my will to it. If I insisted on having a certain form, it wouldn’t be bestowal.

In addition, the Reshimo (informational gene) that determines my plea is already in me. By raising MAN, I raise that Reshimo, that gene, so that the Upper One could perform a Zivug: a union of male and female parts as if when conceiving a child. This union occurs Above, while I already receive a ready-made form that it begot.

All of my forms are already inscribed within me, in the chain of my Reshimot. I do not determine my fate, but only establish for myself the form of transition from one form to the other: either by the path of Light or by the path of suffering. However, the forms themselves are fixed; they are defined by the root of my soul and its descent into this world. I have to rise back following exactly the same path.

I only determine how I will transition from one stage to another: being pushed by the blows or driven by the Light ahead of me. I also decide whether I will advance quickly or slowly, that is, whether I will seek to learn from the Creator or He will have to teach me with a stick.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/5/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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