Question: In what way is the giving of the Torah different from the receiving of the Torah with regard to the holiday of Shavuot (Pentecost)?

Answer: The Torah was given from Above, and the question is whether we receive it below. Therefore the holiday of Shavuot is called the “holiday of the giving of the Torah,” meaning that if you went through the early stages of the preparation, then you are given the opportunity and you are given the Torah which you should receive under certain conditions.

According to the way it’s described, we see that it isn’t enough just to reach Mt. Sinai; we also have to discover that it’s the mountain of hatred. This means that we return from the “right line” to the “left line.” Why do we need it after the escape from Egypt when I have already detached myself from the ego? But the Torah isn’t given just like that, I have to evoke the “Egypt” in me again, my evil inclination, while standing before this mountain and connect it with the Creator, with the Light that can correct me.

Then, by standing against the Light, I see the conditions that are revealed in my ego, I see what relations I have to establish between them, so that “the darkness will shine like Light,” so that the ego will resemble the Light by fully dressing in bestowal.

In order to do that a person undoubtedly needs many external forces of bestowal because I don’t have these forces and never will have them. So where can I find them? I am ready to connect with all the friends under conditions of mutual guarantee, and this enables me to connect with the general power of bestowal, meaning the upper Light, with the Creator. Thus the main condition is revealed: If we receive it, we will advance towards the Light, towards life, and if not, “here will be your burial place.” This is the condition of mutual guarantee; I annul myself only in order to connect.

If I accept this means, meaning mutual guarantee, the goal of creation, which is mutual correction of all the vessels of bestowal until adhesion into one whole according to the principle of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are One,” then I accept the method, the instruction, called the “Torah.” Then I enter the desert and start correcting myself. Each time new parts of Egypt, of the “left line,” are revealed to me; each time I find sins, mistakes, and evil inside me and correct them by rising to the level of Bina.

When I rise to this level after “forty years in the desert,” I will be worthy of working with the desire to receive in receiving in order to bestow. This is already the work in the Land of Israel, meaning in the desire that is aimed directly at the Creator (Yashar El). By fulfilling these corrections, I build the Temple, a special vessel into which I draw the Reforming Light and the Light of fulfillment. Thus I reach my Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction).

Then new vessels, which do not belong to Israel, are immediately evoked. Where do they come from? The point is that I didn’t take into account all the vessels because I selected and corrected only part of them in order to include Malchut in Bina, and not more than that. Now when the desires of Malchut itself are evoked, I see that my Temple is in the Land of Israel, meaning in Malchut that has joined Bina. But this isn’t enough. We have to reach the state in which the Land of Israel will spread all over the world, to bring Malchut back from the level of Bina to its place.

Thus the third Temple will be built from the desires of the whole world that will go through complete correction. Therefore it’s clear that all our history was only a preparation for the final correction, which we are fulfilling today.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: It says in the Torah: “I am thy Lord,” what does it actually mean?

Answer: It means that the Creator controls everything. If you consider any thoughts, or desires that you have or actions that you perform as your own, it is only because you are confused and have the illusion that it is you. Actually “you” don’t exist at all.

Question: So when do I become myself?

Answer: If I become equal to Him, then He and I “sound” in unison. My self actually doesn’t exist. My free will, my independence, is only to perform consciously and willingly what the Creator does with me.

I am merely a “zombie,” but I was given the chance to grow a “head,” a mechanism, an understanding, and a recognition so that I will understand where I am, who created me and who performs all these actions. I am given that so that I will agree or disagree with His actions, so that I will accept Him and feel Him as good, will identify with Him and will only want His full control. Then I will see that He withdraws and doesn’t want to control me because now I want to control myself exactly as He controlled me and no other way.

This means that I am in adhesion with Him. He makes room for me to the extent that I agree with Him. He created me, I am totally under His control, and He only wants to build this “head” from me, the understanding and the recognition, so that I will resemble Him, and be like Him.

With this goal I can join the game—I constantly agree or disagree with Him alternately, in order to understand Him through these changes and eventually to want only His control over me with my heart and soul.

In any case, we are never detached from the Creator—He is the first and He is the last, and there is none else besides Him. The only thing missing is our recognition of the force that controls us.

Question: But doesn’t a father want his son to be independent? Doesn’t he leave his hand leave him alone for a moment? Can’t we operate on our own even in bestowal?

Answer: If the Creator left us we would disappear from HaVaYaH, from existing. He creates the illusion of whether I agree or disagree with His actions in order to allow the growth of a “head” in addition to the “stomach.” First you worried about filling your desires, and now you are given doubts, and a space is opened from which He seems to be absent. Thus the Creator raises you in small portions of imaginary independence, while you may be satisfied or dissatisfied with His control.

And so, in contrast to religions, we arrive at a critical clarification and examination and eventually reach an agreement, and from that we reach adhesion when the Creator’s control over us is felt as undividedly good and absolute. This actually stems from the initial disagreement and my rejection of His actions. “As the benefit of the Light from the darkness”—I constantly try to clarify things, have doubts and resent the Creator, disagree with Him and curse Him, until I reach adhesion with Him.

This is why it says that “the opinion of the Torah is opposite from the opinion of the landlords.” A person who develops by the wisdom of Kabbalah seems like an actual “offender,” since he goes through such doubts and serious questions, but without this he cannot reach adhesion.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How do we work during a seminar, how do we listen to one another?

Answer: A friend can say things that I might or might not understand. He can say things that I think are great or maybe something foolish. In any case, I now perceive him as a manifestation of a representative of the Creator: The Creator is influencing me through him.

If I am repulsed by my friend’s appearance, expression, the actual meaning of his words, or everything else, I might not perceive him or want him. And this is a wonderful exercise! I need to rise above this! If he is a representative of the Creator, since “There is none else beside Him,” especially at an event like this that we are participating in, then I need to elevate my friend and try to penetrate the spiritual essence through him, which is presenting all of this to me and also presents itself this way. I must rise above myself to a state, where I will perceive everything in it as absolute goodness, absolute bestowal, an absolute spiritual quality—despite anything that I am feeling on the inside, despite the fact that I do not have it.

And it is a very good thing that these two qualities are manifesting in me: my egoistic attitude towards my friend, when everything that I see in him does not take any criticism at all, and on the other hand, on the contrary, when I treat him through faith above reason, as a representative of the Creator, because nothing should come from anyone in the world that might be evil, bad, imperfect. And if it exists in me, then it is mine; I am looking at him with my own eyes.

This is why, if I am able to note these two states in me, then I have already done certain spiritual work. We must put together all the highest and lowest critical states in relation to one another, and we will have a common vessel—Malchut, which is on the bottom and consists only of unpleasant things—and it will keep getting brighter and worse in us, and we will be able to keep rising towards Keter over it. Then we will reach such distance between them, such tension, which will equal the state when the Surrounding Light will turn into Inner Light and shine there. And then we will acquire the first spiritual degree.

What does this do? We raise MAN towards Malchut of the world of Atzilut, which connects us together, and there we establish ourselves for the first time as newborns. And a person cannot be born alone, but only a minimum of ten people.
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The center of the group is the point in which we become free from all the fragments of the breaking and want to concentrate only on our sparks uniting them together. And the more we seek to unite these sparks, the higher we rise on the spiritual ladder.

Due to these efforts, we reveal a new depth of desire in us, and a greater Light is revealed in the unity of sparks. The connection of sparks is the “Reshimo de Hitlabshut,” and the depth of desire, above which we want to connect, is the “Reshimo de Aviut,” and thus we begin to connect in our first common spiritual Partzuf in which we will feel one soul.

The first time we will feel ourselves in the integral reality where we are all connected to each other, and inside it we will feel spiritual life—one for all. As it’s said: “There is none else besides the Creator,” one for everyone: one thought, one light, a unified system. We will feel ourselves living inside one upper force.

And then, we will begin to recognize it more and more, distinguish more features in it, different attitudes towards us relative to the size of Partzuf. But the very first point from which we have to begin is the point of our unity, called the center of the group. It consists of two elements: The first one is overcoming of our egoism, the Reshimo de Aviut, and the second one is our desire to unite through our sparks, which determines the Reshimo de Hitlabshut.

If I install them correctly relative to each other, it’s called faith above reason. It all comes down to one reality, to a single state. Faith is the connecting sparks, and knowledge is the force of the egoistic desire, above which we want to build our connection.

It doesn’t matter if we fail to reach the desired and connect in the center of the group. The main thing is how much effort we have put into it. The extent of efforts determines the successful state.

We will never achieve success directly through our actions, but only will attract the Light to ourselves, so that the Creator finishes this work for us! After all, “a prisoner cannot free himself from the jail;” everything happens due to the help from Above, through the prayer and the answer to it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/12, “Talk About the Workshop”

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In the News (from Daily Mail): “More than a hundred years after noted historian Baron John Acton coined the phrase ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ scientists claim the saying is biologically true.

“The feeling of power has been found to have a similar effect on the brain to cocaine by increasing the levels of testosterone and its by-product 3-androstanediol in both men and women.

“This in turn leads to raised levels of dopamine, the brain’s reward system called the nucleus accumbens, which can be very addictive.

“Cocaine works in a similar way, which can have varied effects from increasing alertness, confidence, energy, feelings of well-being and euphoria, but also anxiety, paranoia and restlessness.

“Power has almost identical effects to cocaine and too much of it can produce too much dopamine leading to more negative effects such as arrogance and impatience.

“The claims by Dr Ian Robertson may go some way to explain the outlandish and impulsive behaviour of city fatcats, tycoons and celebrities.

“Writing in the Daily Telegraph today, he said: ‘Baboons low down in the dominance hierarchy have lower levels of dopamine in key brain areas, but if they get ‘promoted’ to a higher position, then dopamine rises accordingly. This makes them more aggressive and sexually active, and in humans similar changes happen when people are given power.

“’Conversely, demotion in a hierarchy decreases dopamine levels, increases stress and reduces cognitive function.’

“He added that power has also been found to make people smarter because dopamine improves the functioning of the brain’s frontal lobes.

“Submissiveness and dominance also give similar effects through the same reward circuits of the brain as power and cocaine.”

My Comment: If, as Kabbalah says, the entire matter is a desire to receive the desired content, behavior, addiction, and human development can be explained in this way. Except for knowledge, the fulfillment by power is the greatest source of pleasure in the hierarchy of desires. Above knowledge, there is only the striving to know the Creator, not by means of the mind, but by means of the soul, the corrected desire.
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While reading The Zohar, we mustn’t forget that that it is only speaking about the connection among us in its different forms. The Zohar tells us how we can rise by this connection to higher levels each time, how we can strengthen it through the “three lines,” the new Reshimot (informational genes), awakenings, illuminations in the levels of Ibur (conception), Yenika (nurturing) and Mochin (maturity), and so forth.

This is all in order to tighten the connection among us, which means to connect our vessel more and more tightly by correcting the shattering and according to the intensity of the connection to discover the attribute of mutual bestowal that resides among the parts that were separated, and which are now connecting to each other above our ego. This is called the upper Light that is revealed among us.

If the parts annul themselves only in order to connect, it is called the Light of Hassadim, but if they also work with their ego in order to connect, it is called the Light of Hochma. This is connection, and there is nothing but that.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/12, The Zohar

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Opinion (Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, co-author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives): “One of the key ideas about human social networks is that, in the addition of ties between people and specific patterns of ties that obey particular mathematical rules, the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. The collection of human beings have properties that do not reside within the individuals, and this collection of human beings is now able to do things that they previously were not able to do. And one of the illustrations or examples that I most like to give about this is something that most people are familiar with from high school or college chemistry, and that is the example of carbon.

“So, you can take carbon atoms, and you can assemble the carbon atoms into graphite, and here we put a particular hexagonal pattern of ties, and you get sheets of graphite, and this graphite is soft and dark. Or, we can take the same carbon atoms and assemble them differently into a kind of a perimetral structure with the ties between them, the bonds between the carbon atoms, and we get diamond, which is hard and clear, and these properties of softness and darkness, or hardness and clearness, first of all, differ dramatically, not because the carbon is different. The carbon is the same in both, but rather because of the ties between the carbon atoms. And second, these properties are not properties of the carbon atoms. They’re properties of the group, properties of the collection of carbon atoms. Therefore, when we take constituent elements and assemble them to a larger whole, this larger whole can have properties that we could not have foreseen merely by studying the individual elements and properties which do not reside within the individual elements.”

My Comment: Through the unity between us, we create the property that brings the upper energy (Ohr Makif) to us. Due to this influence, we become changed from obvious egoists to altruists.
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Opinion (Dr. Sandi Mann, a senior psychology lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire): “According to new studies, boredom in the workplace is growing, affecting everyone from the high-fliers to the drones.

“…boredom – after anger – is the second-most commonly suppressed emotion in the workplace. …

“What’s more, Dr Mann believes fewer of us are willing to put up with boredom as we expect every aspect of our lives to be fulfilling – an attitude that would have been far less common among older generations  with a more practical outlook. …

“A study on the link between counterproductive work behavior and boredom by Montclair State University and University of South Florida identified six ways bored employees might harm their organizations: by abusing others, by ‘production deviance’ (purposely failing at tasks), sabotage, withdrawal, theft and horseplay. The most common of which is withdrawal. …

“[Mark] de Rond, [from the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School] also says there is a type of boredom where professionals get bored not because they don’t have enough work, but because they feel they have nothing worthwhile to do.”

My Comment: To the extent of the growth of egoism and, moreover, to the extent of it turning into a spiral, when it becomes globally integral, all the negative effects and emotions will be more and more manifested, and no psychological trick will help, except for the correction of egoism itself.
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Question: During the process of upbringing, a person has to learn certain models of behavior. What are these models of behavior?

Answer: These elements of behavior are commutation laws, something similar to the multiplication table. Primarily, it’s individual readiness to enter others, to feel another as your partner in the same tuning process.

When we meet people in our egoistic world, we enter into a certain contact with them. For example, we smile in order to first establish a purely visual connection and later, an emotional one. Only after that we begin to perceive each other more closely. The same happens here.

When I speak about groups and societies, I am referring to a multitude of groups, which will become acquainted with each other, connect, and work together, either by merging or mixing with each other, to the point of creating enormous conventions and festivals, when different groups with identical preparation come together and perform certain actions with each other.

In other words, here we are already dealing with thousands of people in a certain limited space, who have to interact with one another. At the same time, we can involve them in special states and games in order to overcome a variety of problems and processes. Besides, these problems and processes must be natural and not artificial. For example, electricity suddenly disappears, or a certain danger appears, or the other way around, a certain opportunity arises, meaning someone finds treasure somewhere. How do we interact in this situation?

We create different conditions of play and excitement for them, we try to get them out of the altruistic habits they are accustomed to and once again make them dependent on each other as egoistically as possible. At the same time, we observe how they overcome these states, then forget about them, and once again attempt to excite themselves, to remember, and to climb out of their egoism in an attempt to find new strengths within for absolutely unexpected situations.

There are many opportunities for people here. I think that the most important thing is to work through these situations because like a child, when a person plays, he ultimately corrects himself, his nature. We think that it’s just a game, but in reality this is an enormous universal goal to correct human egoism, besides for which nothing else exists. Everything else is the still, instinctive nature.
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From “A Talk on Integral Upbringing” #16, 2/27/2012 

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Question: How should I work with the evil that is being revealed?

Answer: The method of Kabbalah is intended for the correction of our evil inclination, meaning the corrupt desire that is entirely directed to its own benefit, instead of bestowal to another person. This correction helps us to become similar to the Light, to the Creator. According to the similarity of form, the Light becomes clothed in a vessel, and then we sense the upper reality.

Question: What happens in the relationship among the friends when I feel envy or hatred?

Answer: Despite the vices being revealed, you keep going and try to unite with your friends above this corruption. There is nature, but we must be above it. This is how we correct ourselves. We are not destroying the egoism, but we are working above it.

I cannot stand my friend, and I do not wish to interact with him. However, I am trying to connect with him above this rejection.

After all, this rejection is the result of my corrupt, egoistic desire. With my purpose being correction, I try to rise above it and treat my friend in the opposite way, with love.

Both of these forms coexist within me. I recognize my rejection, and, at the same time, I decide to express a different attitude, seeing my friend as a great person.

This is our work.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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