Entries in the 'Daily Kabbalah Lesson' Category

Without Exile It Is Impossible To Attain Redemption

laitman_260_01The level of Nefesh Ruach de Ruach (VAK de Ruach) is called exile and Gar de Ruach is redemption. Nefesh is not considered because it is only a motionless state, and Ruach is already the beginning of the work.

VAK de Ruach is our effort to do everything possible. However, in the meantime, there is no contact with the Light, and so this is called exile. It is impossible to feel exile on a level that is less than Nefesh Ruach de Ruach (VAK de Ruach).

A person comes to study and doesn’t understand what exile this is talking about at all. However, if we develop a connection between us correctly in which we discover the Creator, this is called redemption, and the lack of connection between us, because the characteristic of bestowal and love called the Creator is not awakened in us, is called exile.

That is how we can begin to calibrate the relationships between us. If the intensity of the connection between us is more than the level of the still and reaches Nefesh Ruach de Ruach (VAK de Ruach), this is considered exile. However, we already feel that this is exile. We really feel the lack of finding the Ohr HaRuach, meaning the Gar de Ruach that already indicates movement, meaning a feeling of vitality, an internal power.

The main thing is to get used to always speaking about building the ten Sefirot in the connection between us. During the process of this work, we constantly move through all kinds of changes and states, some of which are called exile. To the degree that we make an effort to draw help from above, we advance. This is the work in the Egyptian exile.

If we don’t ask, don’t pray, don’t try to connect, which brings us to prayer, then we don’t work through the exile and don’t advance toward redemption. This is because in spirituality time is the number of operations or changes that we are trying to make.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/26/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Only A Miracle Can Help

laitman_236_02It is possible to feel the exile only on condition that a person wants to reach bestowal, invests much effort in every way possible, and sees that he is not able to attain what is desired with his own powers.

Then, to the degree of his suffering and effort, it is possible to declare that he feels he is in exile as if they are holding him by the hands and feet and won’t let him break through to bestowal. He tries with all his might to break free, yet something stops him and doesn’t let him do this.

He seems to succeed at something, but ultimately it turns out that all of this was for his own sake. He tries again and discovers that he gets the power and the vigor from his ego. He intended to do this and he supposed that his work was for the sake of Heaven, that it was pure bestowal, and suddenly he discovers that all of this was for the sake of his desire for pleasure that deceived him. All of this brings the feeling of the Egyptian servitude and exile.

From Rabash’s article, “What is the blessing, ‘Who Has Made a Miracle for Me in This Place’ in the Work?”: And it must be known that a person is under the control of a desire to receive for himself, it is called the “Egyptian exile.” For when we enter into this work, the magnitude of the dominance of evil in one is gradually revealed.

 As it is written, “…and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage….” (Exodus 2:23), meaning that they began to work on bestowal and saw that they were unable to do this work because the Egyptians dominated them. And then they saw that they didn’t have the ability to leave the Egyptian exile, but the Holy One, blessed be He, could take them out.

This is a great revelation, discovering, first of all, that I am not free. A second thing is that it fills me with the spirit of impurity that dominates me and forces me to act egoistically, only for myself.

This is not even for my own good, for there is me and there is some kind of spirit that enters into me and fills me inside. This evil spirit constantly eats at me and pushes me toward acting for its sake and benefit.

I am separated from the spirit that exists in me, and I hate it, yet I cannot do anything with it. This is like a cancerous tumor inside, and I dream of being freed from it, yet I cannot. After I try with all my might to be freed from it, I discover that only the higher power above me, only a miracle, can help me remove this spirit of impurity that obligates me to work for its benefit at every moment, and I constantly search for how to fill myself. Basically, it is not even for myself, but for it.

This is the feeling of subjugation and the discovery that only the higher power is prepared to release me from it. I am entirely under this control that fills me and shackles my hands. Only one point of observation remains in me from which I can see that this strange force dominates me and surrounds me. It is the only thing that fills my heart and mind.

Precisely from this point that remains, I can connect with the Creator. I don’t have the ability to do anything with this spirit and foreign dominance within me, and so the need to turn to the Creator appears in me in contrast to this evil internal dominance.

It becomes clear to me that there can be another good dominance, and I want to turn toward that. This means that I have located the Creator. This is because what existed before, which I imagined was the higher power, didn’t belong to that at all. Rather, this was the same Pharaoh.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/14, Writing of Rabash

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 05.01.15

Writings of Rabash, “Dargot HaSulam,” Article 927 

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Articles for Shavuot, Parashat, “Tetzaveh,” Item 62 

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 1

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Writings of Rabash “Rungs of the Ladder,” Item 17 

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Letters Of The Higher System

laitman_610_1The Ari, “Shaar HaKavanot” (Gates of Intention): The first Katnut (smallness) of the Tachton (lower one), from NHY de Ima, the Tevuna phase, is called Elohim (א-ל-ה-י-ם), Din (judgment).

The second Katnut of the Elyon (upper one), from the HGT de Ima, in Bina, the Dinim are not revealed as they are in Tevuna, so this is called AHDTM (א-כ-ד-ט-ם), which is obtained by replacing the letters with the letters before it.

There is no letter before Aleph, and so it cannot be transformed. But Lamed is replaced by the Kaf before it. Hey is replaced with the Dalet before it. Yod is replaced with Tet before it. The final Mem – is replaced with the open Mem before it. And since it is impossible for it to remain open at the end of a word, it is written as a final Mem.

Imagine that we are in an inquiry and are beginning to differentiate between the forces, between the origins of the forces, the results of the forces that act on us, our participation in these forces reveals the higher system before us. The more we discover the system, the more we can understand how it works and functions. As a result of such an investigation, articles like these appear. Before us is a scientific article that explains the action of the higher system that manages us.

Question: What does the replacement of letters and their combination mean? What are “front” and “back”?

Answer: Front and back are Ohr Yashar (Direct Light) and Ohr Hozer (Reflected Light), a level and its interior. There are various combinations and replacements of letters. Originally, each letter has its character as a complex structure. A letter is a desire to receive that has a Tzimtzum (restriction), Masach (screen) on it and Aviut (thickness/will to receive). The letter is completely enveloped in Light and so it maintains its particular form that indicates its relationship in regard to the Light. So the letter is called a “box,” a letter.

For every letter, meaning for every particular state, there exists a state before it and the next state, the higher and the lower. There are states that happen simultaneously, from right and from left. There are states that are a reflection from the ten Sefirot of the Elyon on the ten Sefirot of the Tachton, so all of the Sefirot of Hochma are connected, all the Sefirot of Bina are connected, and so on.

Even though the Light gradually passes through other Sefirot, through all the letters, all the stations, it passes through a particular wave that is perceived only through the Sefirot of the same name; Ohr Bina is perceived only through the Sefirot of Bina and Ohr Hochma is perceived only through the Sefirot of Hochma.

The connection between a Sefira and all the rest of the Sefirot, and the connection between those types of Sefirot are completely different types of connection. It is just as the health department connects all the doctors in the country. Along with this, doctors have a multitude of other connections, with other departments, with the family, and so forth.

That is how the system is built. In order to express these connections we need symbols to describe them. The combinations of letters make it possible for us to do this. And yet, this is not a sufficient description. Only someone who feels and recognizes these states in himself, when looking at the letters, he can implement, examine, and then understand about what they are talking.

No language, not even all the languages together, can express the integral connection. With the help of a limited language and a “slice” it is impossible to express wholeness. So the Kabbalists don’t describe the entire spiritual system. They only indicate signposts on the way for those who follow them, and so that we will have Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light).
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/14, Writings of the Ari

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The Devious Snake’s Game

laitman_527_03Baal HaSulam, Shamati #86, “And They Built Store – Cities”: There is yet another saying in The Zohar, that the serpent bows its head and strikes with its tail. This means that sometimes it lets one take upon himself the burden of faith above reason, which is the bowing of the head, but it strikes with the tail.

At first, the ego allows a person to advance since the Sitra Achra (other side) needs Light. If a person doesn’t advance, he will not receive anything. Therefore, the evil inclination operates in a devious manner and seems to free a person, allowing him to run ahead in order to attain success, to understand and to feel more.

Then, the ego grabs the person and swallows him again. Then it releases him in order to swallow him once more. This is how the ego plays with us like a cat with a mouse.

This is the meaning of Pharaoh bringing them near. It is explained that he deliberately brought Israel to repentance, so as to afterwards take everything from them into his own authority. This is why the Ari wrote that Pharaoh sucked all the abundance that came down to the lower ones. He sucked from the Oref and from the throat, which is considered the head of the body, meaning it would take everything in its vessels of reception.

The main thing is not to despair. After all, a person sees that he doesn’t attain anything despite his great yearning for connection, understanding, feeling and working in dissemination, and doing everything he was required to. Suddenly, he falls into the ego again and even to a worse state than before.

This reoccurs many times in the duration of 400 years. The main thing here is the support of the group, taking on a regular duties he ties himself tightly. It is better if the group notices his work so that if he falls, the group immediately pays attention to that and begins to take care of him.

A person works like a piston: He advances, yearning to reach bestowal, and wants to do anything in order to attain that, but then—boom—everything turns the other way around, and he falls into egoism; the snake strikes with his tail and swallows all the results. Then, a person runs forward once again, full of strength and the spirit of life hoping to feel and to attain everything, and, once again, falls powerlessly, despairing that the desire to enjoy took everything.

A person must go through many such states, and no one knows when they are going to end. After all, the darkness of Egypt awaits us at the end. First, we advance from the seven years of satiety to the seven years of hunger and then to the plagues of Egypt, after which comes pitch darkness. In the darkness, we suddenly and hurriedly come out of Egypt.

We cannot know what is about to happen a moment before the exodus at midnight. Therefore, we must grow stronger. Everything is based on one simple principle: “…that he swallowed riches, and then he vomits them up again…” The desire to enjoy swallows the attributes of bestowal that a person wants to reach time after time. The ego takes all that and pulls a person inward.

Eventually, the ego is suffocated and cannot contain everything that it has swallowed. After all, the desire to bestow reaches a critical point in the desire to enjoy, and then there is an explosion, and a person is freed of the domination of the ego.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/14, Shamati #86

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The Common Work Between The Person And The Creator

laitman_236_01Our work is divided into two parts: clarification and correction. Both the clarification and correction are done by the Light that reforms, but no operation, neither the clarification nor the correction, can be carried out without our demand.

The demand is called prayer, the elevation of MAN, desire. The desire is required so that the Light will influence and implement precisely what we ask for, in other words, that the creature discovers a greater and greater desire to resemble the Creator, to rise level after level.

With the help of more and more precise clarification of all the details, a person can bring himself to accommodation, meaning an even greater closeness to the Creator. So, if there were no changes at every moment within the person, he wouldn’t turn in the right direction with the right request, so he wouldn’t get a response, an answer, a discovery, and a change; that is how it is throughout life.

If his state is not changed, he is found on the animate level. Only if changes happen in him as a result of the previous states in which it was clear to him that he raised MAN (a prayer), is he then called an Adam (man). After all, he builds himself with the help of the Light that Reforms, with the help of the Torah. This is, as it is written, “Torah was not given except to those who eat the manna” (Midrash Tanhuma, BeShalach, section 20).

So, through common effort with the help of the Arvut (mutual guarantee), responsibility and mutual support, we constantly need to help everyone, not just ourselves, and we always must be concerned that the entire world group will be raising MAN, in prayer, with a feeling of the need and the imperative for the right direction and the right form.

To turn correctly, many conditions must be met simultaneously. It is written, “…none might enter within the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth” (Esther 4:2); and we need to precede the request with a blessing, for this opens the person and organizes him correctly toward the upper Light, toward the higher level. It is up to him to arrange his relationships with the group so that his request will be adjusted to the higher level, to what the King is ready to hear from him.

The prayer must go out from the depths of the heart, must rise to be a general prayer for all, full of praise, thanksgiving, and happiness. For any bottleneck and sorrow there must be joy because this unique situation was given to him from above, and he wants to connect even more with the Creator, and all of this is not for his personal benefit, but to be concerned for the collective soul and to make the Creator happy.

Ultimately, our work is concentrated on raising a prayer, MAN, and we prepare the prayer through all the previous processes, through the changes in the human characteristics, beginning from Adam to Abraham. After that, the Avot (Fathers) are awakened in him, even though he doesn’t feel this and, after that, reaches a particular feeling of exile. All of this is so that, ultimately, he will get the method of correction and will know how to turn toward the Creator.

Each time his appeal has to be more precise, right on the same wavelength that the upper one is ready to absorb. All of the conditions are always arranged according to a person’s level; he is required only to perform work he is capable of. It is according to the internal and external conditions that he gets—group, teacher, books and study—that the person is ready to design the right demand. And, in response to the right demand, the MAD (Male waters) comes. If he raises a deficiency, then he gets power from above, Mayin Duchrin (MAD), overcoming clothed in water. That is how the person acquires the power with whose help he will be able to realize himself.

Precisely according to his previous request, according to the raising of MAN, in response, the person receives an answer (MAD), and he knows exactly what to do with it. So, it is written, “…his seed is blessed” (Psalms 37:26). That is how the person advances from the realization of the MAD to clarify an additional, greater deficiency, and he searches for new opportunities to bestow to the Creator, meaning to make it possible for the Creator to bestow to the creatures.

So, the person again searches for how to think about the creatures and not about himself and how to think about the Creator not about himself and about the creatures. That is how he organizes the next MAN.

Every time, he will understand, feel, and adjust himself more and more to the higher form. The person and the Creator become partners, and they work together to benefit the souls. The person asks for their sake, and the Creator implements his request. The request, the deficiency, comes from the side of the person, and the fulfillment comes for all of the souls from the side of the Creator.

Therefore, the person adheres to the Creator with his point in the heart, thanks to their common work. After all, all of the intentions of both of them are directed only toward the benefit of one soul that they see as a place for common concern, connection, and love. All of this is revealed within all of the souls.

So, it seems that a man, the Creator and Divinity, the entire community of souls are found in adhesion with each other.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/14, Writing of Rabash

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Four Angels

laitman_281_02Baal HaSulam, from the article, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 14: Now we have found the opening to the above study regarding the four sects, Mercy, Righteousness, Truth, and Peace, which negotiated with the Creator regarding man’s creation. These angels are servants of man’s soul; hence, He negotiated with them, since the whole act of Creation was created according to them, as each and every soul consists of ten Sefirot in Ohr Pnimi and Ohr Makif.

  • Mercy is the Inner Light (Ohr Pnimi) of the first nine of the soul.
  • Righteousness is the Ohr Pnimi of the Malchut of the soul.
  • Truth is the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) of the soul.

And Peace is the integration between the three previous characteristics that are impossible to attain. Peace claims that the person “is all strife.” In other words, the opposition between Ohr Pnimi (Inner Light) and Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) is so great that it is impossible to overcome it.

The four angels are four parts of the Kli that want to receive in order to bestow and resemble the Creator in this way. The Ohr Pnimi and the Ohr Makif act within the first nine Sefirot and within the Malchut of the internal and external.

With the completion of correction, all of these angels will become absolutely satisfied and until then, all of them will not be pleased. This is because the Kelim are not filled with their intended Lights. Ohr Pnimi and Ohr Makif oppose each other and come to beat each other.

The angel of peace is intended to assemble the entire structure with the help of all the components, but he cannot understand how to do this. There is no way to solve this problem. This is our situation. All of the states described in the books of the Kabbalists are about the relationships between Zeir Anpin and Malchut, the ascent of Malchut and its descent, the seven periods of the Nukva, the states of Katnut (Smallness), Gadlut (Adulthood), and so on; all of these are states of the yearning of the person for connection with others.

We go through states like these, and the book says what we must do with our inner characteristics to connect with others with their help. With connection, we reach the ten, complete Sefirot and attain divinity.

The angels are the forces that are active within us. There are forces by means of which I can connect slightly, and they are called mercy and righteousness. There is a force with which I cannot connect between them, and its name is truth. I am not prepared to reach truth because I am living an absolute lie. It is impossible for all of the Ohr Makif to enter into me.

Even with the angel of Peace, I don’t know what to do. What kind of peace can there be in me if there is no completion and wholeness within me? These states are discovered in my relationships with the group or with all of humanity. To the degree of the discovery of the right relationship, I clarify that the group is only the wrapping in which I discover the higher power, the power of bestowal, the Creator.

All of The Study of the Ten Sefirot talks about what is happening within us, within our desires and in relationships with others, but in terms of a high psychology. We don’t feel what is happening with us inside, and the Kabbalists want to explain this to us to help reveal our inner characteristics and forces and begin to work with them.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/14, Writing of Baal HaSulam

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.30.15

Writings of Rabash “Letter 59” 

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A Limousine As A Gift To A Sworn Enemy

Laitman_733From an article by Rabash, “What Is the Blessing, ‘…who has made for me a miracle in this place’ in the work?”: As it is written, “We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt” (Deuteronomy 6:21), being that they endured suffering in Egypt and it also says, “…and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage….” (Exodus 2:23), so the idea of the Mitzvah (commandment) “Remembrance of Egypt” was given to us, as it is written, “…that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life” (Deuteronomy 16:3).

This is not saying that the slavery in Egypt was difficult; rather, the difficulty was in the inability to bestow. I am ready to work and do everything necessary, but I don’t see that in some way I will at least bestow to the Creator through this. This is called, “exile” and “slavery.”

Pharaoh siphons all the results of my labor from me; everything goes to him. This doesn’t speak about the difficulty of the work, but about its result. After all, I cannot give the Creator any satisfaction. “The children of Israel sighed” because of that, and not because their work was difficult.

Without any connection to the difficulty of the work, it is difficult for me to see that I am not ready to bestow to the Creator in at least some way. This is a very important discernment. The cry was not from fatigue and exhaustion from the work; rather, this is only speaking about the relationship with the Creator. After all, I see that my sworn hater takes all of my effort.

This is a very strong feeling. Imagine that everything that you earned in this world went to your most hated enemy. Let’s say that you saved up some money for a period of time; you dreamed of buying a limousine and suddenly you see that there is no money and your neighbor is driving a new limousine.

Comment: The greatest frustration in the seven years of famine is that you continue to do the same work; you invest in the group and in dissemination as in the seven years of plenty, and you know that Pharaoh will get all the results and you will be even more discouraged.

Answer: No, you think that you are working “for the sake of bestowal.” And in the end, when you vigorously did all of this work with love and devotion, it suddenly turns out that all of this was for your sake and the Creator didn’t get anything. Nothing is considered to be bestowal and you are an even worse egoist than before. This is the slavery in exile.

And the problem is not that this cost you a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, but rather that the result didn’t reach the right destination, that the Creator didn’t get any satisfaction. And I am not sorry because He didn’t get any pleasure from me; rather, it is because through my action I didn’t succeed in giving Him satisfaction (even though I am in concealment from Him). A person climbs the ladder of detachment from himself and sees how much Pharaoh doesn’t let him bestow.

Question: I can’t imagine how it is possible to be detached from Pharaoh so that all the fruits of my labor will go to the Creator.

Answer: If part of your heart is found with the Creator, then you will feel this, like with your children and people who are close to you. Therefore it is said, “As one person with one heart.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/14, Writings of Rabash

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Looking For Someone To Bestow Upon

laitman_938_01Question: Why is it important to participate in dissemination and to be incorporated in the desires of the public? You say that if a person misses an opportunity he is given, he actually steals his own chance to advance.

Answer: One cannot be a serious student if he does not “continue” in the public. If he doesn’t, he has no spiritual vessel. I have to be connected to the upper, to the Creator, and also to the lower level in order to have someone who can receive from me and someone I can bestow upon. I am in the middle, the level of Bina, and below is my Malchut.

It is impossible to work without this lower level. The more massive it is compared to me, the more attractive it is and the more it obliges me—like little chicks with open mouths or children who are crying and demanding from mom—the better. I need to feel the pressure from them; I need them to come to me and demand.

First I come to them, but then they come to me and unbalance me. Then I have no choice but to raise their deficiencies to the Creator. They ask for food and peace in the family, and I ask the Creator for the Surrounding Light.

I need them because otherwise with what can I turn to the Creator? I mustn’t ask for myself because I am the level of Bina and cannot worry about myself. If I don’t receive deficiencies from the outside, I will have no opportunity to turn to the Creator.

Therefore, dissemination is important for a person’s well being. Otherwise, he will not raise MAN (a prayer) and will not receive anything from above. The level of Bina is absolutely neutral. It doesn’t want anything; it is absolute bestowal, Hafetz Hesed. Therefore we must go out to the public.

Our world is absolutely managed from Above, and we could easily pull it behind us even with the spiritual power we have now. But this heaviness is intentional so that we will ask the upper Light for the people. This is the reason that so much pain was sent to them and this is the reason that all the nations blame Israel for their problems.

We have to be incorporated in everyone’s desires and to ask the Creator for them and pass on His response to the people so that they will feel good. Then they will depend on us since we convey the upper Light to them, the filling, the force, the way. Unless we connect this whole chain in which we are the central part while the Creator is from Above and the created beings are from below, things will be bad for us and for the world.

This is the reason that dissemination is so important and without it there is nothing we can do and no way we can advance. I turn to all my students all over the world: You must understand this simple drawing!

Everyone must disseminate, as it says: “I have learned much from my teachers, more from my friends, and most of all from my students.” To learn means to receive a deficiency and to ask for a filling for it from Above. Everything is received only from Above.

When I go out to the public I feel that I must fill them since I have promised them. These are not promises of politicians before the elections that are usually forgotten the next day. Here you cannot forget your promises because you absorb their deficiencies inside you and have to process them into the demand for the Light.

You feel fear and awe because nothing can help them but the Surrounding Light. You cannot give them what they want by yourself. You have nothing, and this forces you to raise a prayer. It is impossible to connect to the Creator otherwise.

This is called from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator. The love of the created beings is aimed downward toward the people and the love of the Creator is aimed upward, and there cannot be one without the other. There is nothing you can turn to the Creator with other than the deficiency of others.

Dissemination is a gift from Above. We are suddenly given such an opportunity. When we go out to the public and explain to people that we have to be united, we receive from them the need to turn to the Creator even though their desires are totally corporeal.
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From 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/14, Writings of Rabash

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