Writings of Rabash, Vol. 2, “Igrot” (Letters), #42: How could they be as one man with one heart? After all, what the sages said is well-known, “Just as their faces are dissimilar, so their opinions are dissimilar” (Talmud Yerushalmi Berachot Chapter 9, Column3, Halachah 1). So how could they be as one man with one heart?

If we are saying that each and every one is concerned about his own needs, we find that it is impossible to be as one man. Certainly they are not like each other. Whereas, if they all nullify their own domains, and all of them are concerned only for the benefit of the Creator, then their opinions are no longer individual, since all individuality has been nullified, and all of them enter into the private domain.

And this is the idea of what was written, “the knowledge of the inhabitants is opposite the knowledge of the Torah.” This is because knowledge of the Torah is the nullification of private domains, as the sages said, “The Torah isn’t sustained except for someone who kills himself over it.” When he kills himself over it, this is for his own good, and everything that he does is only for the sake of heaven. And this is called a preparation for receiving the Torah.

We sense reality within our vessel, which is called the desire for pleasure. Each one serves this vessel that he gets from the start, and he does everything to fill it. I always make a calculation: how much effort to make for the expected benefit, is it worthwhile or not worthwhile for me to do it. How much do I need to invest to see fulfillment within my vessel? That is how we exist from moment to moment.

My dependence upon my vessel can be nullified only if we connect with each other, and if we agree to that, we begin to find new spaces in the connection between us that we didn’t feel before.

After all, we look at everything from the point of view of our egoistic desire that dominates all matter in the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels. In this way, we get impressions from our inner reality, yet it seems to us to be an external reality. In fact, this is my inner world that is stamped into my personal desire for pleasure.

The still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature are the levels—0, 1, 2, 3, 4—the levels of my desire to receive where I feel my reality. My ego is found between me and others, separating us and causing me to feel myself only.

If I try to nullify this tendency so that I can reach connection with the Creator through this nullification, I discover that there is another space that is different from the space of the egoistic desire to receive. I begin to feel that I am in a new space, in a sea of forces of bestowal.

All of these forces that are discovered in the nullification of the ego bring a sense of the Creator to me, and, even though I get a slight impression of this, in order to truly discover Him, I need a stronger means. After all, I can only nullify the ego and use it for the sake of bestowal through the higher force. I discover that I have no chance, no possibility, of reaching self-nullification through my own powers and understanding.

So it is written, “The Torah isn’t sustained except for someone who kills himself over it.” However, in order to kill myself for the sake of Torah, in other words, for the sake of correction, I require a higher force. As it is written, “And the rule of landlords is opposite from the rule of Torah.” When a person begins to get observations through the power of the Light, both his emotions and his intellect are made new and completely different.

Then, he understands that all of the contradictions that he had were only like stimuli for finding solutions. However, to resolve them is really only possible through the Upper Light.

According to branch and root, we are at the beginning of the Shavuot holiday, the holiday of the giving of the Torah. The Shavuot holiday begins in the evening and is divided into day and night. Night symbolizes the days of exile that are gathered for the night of Shavuot, so we learn on the night of Shavuot because we want to finish the exile and reach its end.

After that, we decide that we probably have already invested enough in self-nullification, and then we arrive at the day and that night, the same Kelim transform into Kelim of revelation. That is how we reach the festival of Shavuot, the festival of the giving of the Torah, and from then on we gradually can advance and constantly correct all the defects and learn how much we can be like the Creator when we discover how different we are from Him.

This difference between the truth and the image gives us depth in understanding the Creator, and then from this depth we reach adhesion.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/14

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Question: If every person who leaves us is making a hole in our connection, isn’t our boat full of holes?

Answer: No, these people didn’t participate in the connection and didn’t intend to be integrated into it. So, we throw them away from us; simply throw them into the sea, into our collective egoistic sea called Malchut.

Question: Who is in this boat?

Answer: On the boat are those who want to be on the ship. The ship is the Masach (screen) that connects us, that joins us together. This ship is the beginning of the Kli, the first condition for our being on the ship so as not to drown in the great sea of our impure forces (Sitra Achra).

In the boat are the “points in the heart,” and under it is the great sea of our ego. And the ship is used as a protective Masach, like a raft on which we connect with our points in the heart and don’t sink. And around us the surging waves of the stormy sea of the Sitra Achra rage.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/14 Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Psalms 86:1 – 86:2: A prayer of David. O Lord, incline Your ear; answer me for I am poor and needy.

Watch my soul for I am a pious man; save Your servant-You, my God – who trusts in You.

A pious (Hassid) is one  who asks for one thing: not to be separated from the Creator. So all the songs of Psalms, all the requests and prayers speak only about this—not losing confidence that the Creator is the only power that manages and sustains a person and everything that is found within him, but which is portrayed for him as an external world and changing reality that passes through incarnations in front of him and within him.

All of this comes from the one higher power, and the person wants to permanently adhere to this fact until he discovers this with all of his strength, thus attaining constant adhesion with the Creator in all desires and thoughts, in heart and mind. He becomes a Hassid who wants only to adhere to the higher guidance above all disturbances and problems. So he awakens the disturbances in himself to bring to light all of his abilities and be in adhesion with the Creator.

The person asks for only one thing: help for him not to be separated from the thought that “There is none else beside Him” and the recognition he must be involved only with the one Higher Power. And this is not because he is concerned about himself and wants to feel better but because through this he wants to give contentment to the Creator.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/14

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Writings of Rabash, “Steps of the Ladder,” “Concerning Above Reason”

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The Book of Zohar, Selected Excerpts — “Middle Line,” Item 777

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We need to construct a line between the Light and the Kli, between the desire and the Creator. We do this gradually, according to 125 levels, building the right intention to realize ourselves only in order to bestow to others or the Creator.

To do this, I receive the power of correction from the Light that Reforms. It corrects me and gives me all that is necessary. But it is up to me to find a yearning for the goal within myself. I must be the initiating factor; otherwise, there is no creation. After all, if I want the Light to do everything for me, it is as if I don’t really exist.

Initially the Creator created the desire. It belongs to Him. I am that desire that rushes for Light according to the way it shines. A game is conducted with me from above, as was said allegorically by the Kabbalists , the Creator plays with the Leviathan that He created. With the Light, He plays—wherever it shines, that is where the Leviathan turns. But this still doesn’t mean that I truly exist, since for now I am completely managed.

Even though I understand and feel that my entire life is like a chase after bait, this awareness did not come on my account as a result of my efforts. I’m given the feeling that I am running after bait and that I’m not different from the still, vegetative, and animate nature.

But in addition, I am given a Reshimo (reminiscence) that arouses questions in me: “Why am I running? What is the benefit? What is the goal?” And then they give me one additional question, which is “What is the purpose of life?” And this is done so that I will now begin to work on my own.

As long as I haven’t asked the question, “What for?” I could run after various pleasures all my life, which is what the whole world does. We consider people who are prominent experts or famous scientists to be smart, even though they are chasing the lures like everyone else. This is not their addition since they really aren’t doing anything and have no freedom of choice. Look at the world through the filter of intentions and you will see emptiness. There is no nature of the still, vegetative, and animate and there aren’t seven billion people, instead everything is pure. There is no additional place that a creature must make by himself. Only in a few, in whom the true question about the meaning of life has awakened can produce an independent desire. Even this desire was given to them from above, but they need to “work” with it through working in a group.

So where do we get the power for this? Where do we find the method? How do we even know what is required of us?

That is why there was the Shevira HaKelim (shattering of the vessels). If there had been one creature, he would have had nothing to do; he would not have been able to do anything. It is no accident that Adam HaRishon (the First Man) was called an “angel,” because he belonged to the animate level. But when there are other people beside myself who ask the same question, then we can support each other through the connection of our questions. If we overcome our ego, then each one of us inserts his yearnings into everyone, his addition, the meaning of a life directed towards giving. And this makes it possible for us to advance.

That is how I use the desires that the Creator awakens in my friends. Even though these desires are not ours, we internalize them within each one in the group and this already becomes our work thanks to which we build an even greater desire, an “added value” in each one. Essentially, this is the way we realize the work of the Creator. It is clear that the Light is what realizes it, but we organize it.

That is how we reproduce the operation that the Creator was doing in Ein Sof (Infinity), producing a desire. Even though this is not a new and unusual creative act, in spite of it all, it is a true addition. The Creator began the creation and ultimately we complete it….
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/13, The Zohar

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Question: It says that “the desire is in the hearts of the children of Israel at any moment, and if they had really asked, they would have been rewarded with the presence of Divinity.” What does it mean, “If they had really asked”?

Answer: A strong desire means that we only want a certain thing and nothing else: only to be incorporated in one another and in everyone so that there will be no room for anyone in the connection among us, and actually a spiritual vacuum is formed. We have a great passion that only the Creator will be able to appear in that empty space.

Such a place is revealed among us, which doesn’t belong to any of us and at the same time belongs to everyone. There is nothing of our ego there. We discover an upper dimension in the connection between us.

Our ego is on the outside and we gather inside so that in the center there is an empty space that didn’t exist before. There is no such thing as an empty space, but here it is created and we feel that there is nothing there, not even the Creator.

We have created such an area by throwing our ego aside, and our passion to be incorporated in one another are connected in a pure intention, in our reluctance to regard the ego. Therefore, this place becomes empty and already belongs to another dimension.

The space in which we are belongs to the animate level and the empty zone is the place for the formation of man. This is where the Creator is revealed: the first ten Sefirot, which are us, the ones who are included on this connection.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/14, Shamati #66

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Rabash, “If He Merits, His Work Will Be Done by Others”: If he merits, his work will be done by others. But if he doesn’t merit, his work will be done by himself.

And what is to be understood is what the importance is of the “merit” that his work comes through others. If so, then this is the phase of the “bread of shame” after all; so of what benefit is this?

And it is to be explained that “others” are called the Achoraim (backside) phase. That there are vessels of Panim  (face), which are called vessels of bestowal, and vessels of Achoraim, which are called vessels of reception. And because of this, before a person is made whole, when he still hasn’t reached the level of “merit,” his work, which is the sacred work, is through the vessels of Panim, which are the vessels of bestowal; with them he can work on the sacred work.

Which is not so when he has merit. Then, his work, which is the sacred work, is done by others, meaning in the vessels of Achoraim, which are the vessels of reception. He can use them for the sake of heaven.

Vessels of the face are called Israel (straight to the Creator), for there are sparks that yearn for the goal of creation in them, even if in the meantime this is for the sake of reception. Their yearning is weak because they do not have great force of desire (Aviut).

And so if they are ready to activate the Achoraim, then they get energy from there to advance towards the goal of creation, to connection, to adhesion. There is an immense power in the vessels of Achoraim, yet it has no direction. This means that they are not directed towards the goal of creation, yet they have lots of energy. And if the vessels of Panim are ready to see that the vessels of Achoraim are theirs, then they join them to themselves and see part of themselves in them.

And that is how they get energy from the Achoraim, and give the right direction to the whole of the complete vessel that is already made up of the desires of Galgalta ve Eynaim and AHP.

And so the right stage follows: The direction comes from the vessels of Galgalta ve Eynaim, the vessels of Israel, and the energy for movement towards the goal of creation comes from the vessels of Achoraim, AHP, directed by Israel. So they reach the goal of creation together.

This is called, “Their work is done by others,” for they get the “work,” the energy for advancement itself, from the vessels of Achoraim. But this is on condition that they see the vessels of Achoraim as an inseparable part of themselves, as a single system.

And if not, then they need to advance through the energy that is in them, in the vessels of Panim. And since this is a weak energy, they are certainly not ready to advance quickly until they finally turn to the vessels of Achoraim.

So they need to sense the time and place where it will be possible to turn to the vessels of Achoraim to connect them to Israel and advance together. They need to acquire experience and build some kind of method to approach them. As it is written: “Train a child according to his way ” (Proverbs 22:6). This means that it is necessary to search for some form to approach people and connect them with us.

To the degree that Israel invests energy in the vessels of Achoraim, to the degree that they feel that everything is part of a single vessel, to this degree they can advance quickly. The feeling of movement comes in the vessels of Panim, but the clarification of the advancement comes specifically with the merit that the vessels of Achoraim is included in them.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/5/14

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Writings of Rabash, “Steps of the Ladder,” Article 12

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The Book of Zohar, Selected Excerpts — “Middle Line,” Item 4

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, “Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words,” Item 42

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World,” “In Practical Life, the Four Attributes Contradict One Another”

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Writings of Rabash, “Steps of the Ladder,” Article 12

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The Book of Zohar, Selected Excerpts — “Israel and the Nations,” Item 18

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, “Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words,” Item 36

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World,” “In the Absence of the Ability to Establish the Attribute of Truth, They Tried to Establish the Noble”

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Question: What allows people in a workshop to come to the point where they understand that the answer needs to come from above?

Answer: We are the only ones with the system, which we received from above, and thus we are able to pass on the fact to people that only a discussion in a circle, only the workshop, gives the solution. This comes from above. It seems that this is a very simple activity, but, actually, it isn’t so simple since it raises us above the ego.

It isn’t that same primitive form of a circle where we sat around the campfire tens of thousands of years ago when the tribe lived as one commune. We are no longer able to do this today, and, besides that, everyone rises above himself in order to suit himself to the Light that Reforms. The role of the workshop and its goal is to let the Light influence us.

It seems that we are sitting around the campfire, as did those ancient people, but they were connected between themselves in a natural way, while we need to connect above our ego that controls us. Thus, we need the upper force to connect us.

When it connects us in spite of our ego, then that already provides the power of the Kli (vessel). To the extent that the ego strives harder to get out, the Upper Light operates more strongly internally. Accordingly, the inner stress appears that determines the depth and strength of the Kli.

You begin to play it—the power of a certain Kli and a certain Light—and then the power of another Kli with another strength of Light, and more and more. Thus, you begin to feel these changes within the transitions between them and begin to know the Creator.

The letters are the last level of TANTA (Ta’amim, Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot), which looks as if it is the most cumbersome of all the TANTA, but that is because we speak about the material that adjusts itself to the Light. However, that is the largest size of the compatibility between the created being and the Creator. You begin to play with your Kli on the entering and exiting of the Lights as if you are dancing with the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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