Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

Work on Your Attitude Toward the Group

938.07We see the extent to which a person is dependent on society in everything that society defines. Therefore, our choice lies in finding a suitable environment. I must not be satisfied with just any environment.

In one of his letters, Rabash gives the example of a tailor who finds himself among tailors who are not particularly skilled. If you want to become a true professional, you must be among the best craftsmen.

Suppose you have sewn some item of clothing. If you have done it well, they will tell you so; if you have done it poorly, they will explain in the finest detail what is wrong. In other words, they respect work done perfectly. Among such people, you too will become a specialist and will not tolerate any shortcomings. Everything depends on the environment.

Therefore, if you want to become a skilled craftsman, you need a society that demands precisely this in every respect, and then it will not be difficult for you. All our difficulties, all the problems that arise when we are incapable, lose our way, fight with one another and with our own desire to receive, are caused by the fact that we do not build the environment.

We should not feel any effort in our work if our environment is corrected accordingly, because, by my nature, I will want to do what is accepted in the group. Therefore, being concerned with one’s own spiritual advancement is nonsense, real foolishness. A person must be concerned with establishing the concept of advancement in the group to the degree he needs, and then he will realize it.

We are the direct result of all the desires, thoughts, goals, and the importance that prevail in the group. Therefore, if we are already speaking about correcting the Reshimo, this is accomplished only through working with the environment.

Here we see how correctly all these things are connected within a single topic that you are working on. You work on your attitude toward the group, which is, in essence, your attitude toward the Creator. In response, the environment influences you and awakens you once again to the same work.

In other words, you see that all the beginnings, all the forces, all the prerequisites, and everything that must be revealed at the end are contained in a single topic, and you do not need to scatter your efforts across numerous factors. You have only one factor in which you begin and complete all the work, all the efforts, all the corrections and the fulfillment of the Kelim.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/26, Rabash, Notes 882 “Rosh Hashanah”

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How to Come to a Common Denominator with the Group?

963.8Question: In what form can I give to the group when I feel that I am becoming detached from it and that I have no common denominator with it? How can I annul myself before the group?

Answer: If you feel that you have no common denominator with the group, examine yourself. Perhaps the group’s goal does not coincide with your goal, and you are in a position to make some correction. Perhaps you should turn to the group and say, “Friends, I think you are getting it wrong.”

You must shape the group: “Buy yourself a friend.” You are obligated to invest effort and build them up so that they influence you. You yourself must awaken this in the group.

Perhaps your friends are not doing the right things; perhaps everyone acts quietly rather than openly, and this does not awaken you. You do not receive a sufficient impression from it. Or perhaps you do not want to be impressed by these things at all but need to be impressed by something else.

If I want to lose weight, I join a weight-loss group. There, they motivate me through all kinds of means of influence: lectures, discussions, films, anything to ensure that I retain a sense of the importance of the idea. And we must do the same thing. For any society outside our framework, this principle is clear. At any company, in any private business, the main question is: How do we inform the whole world that our product is the most necessary and the most important?

If I produce crackers, I want the whole world to eat only my crackers, not meat or fish, only these crackers. And I want everyone to think that they need nothing else. That is, essentially, what occupies the thoughts of a factory manager. And it should be the same for us. This is called external dissemination, as well as internal dissemination within the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work?”

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The Group Is a Spiritual Concept

963.7Question: How can we build a group that will obligate us to advance in the right direction?

Answer: We see that everything depends on the effort a person invests, not in the people he has artificially surrounded himself with, but in that with which he truly integrates.

Sometimes it helps him to choose a few people with whom it is somewhat easier for him to speak and establish a closer connection. However, as we advance and pass through various states, we begin to understand that it is wrong to close ourselves off in some small circle.

The group has no clear boundaries separating what is within it. The group is a spiritual concept, and perhaps I am not even able to see and outline for myself precisely what it consists of.

Ultimately, all the aspirations, desires, understandings, connections with the higher force, and all the joint efforts we make together constitute the concept of the group. Only one thing is missing: for the greatness of the Creator and the greatness of the goal to burn within it so strongly that they obligate everyone, and no one would have any difficulty thinking about this and living by it constantly.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/26, Rabash, “Rosh Hashana”

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Cultivate Higher Values

938.04Question: Should we be, in a sense, completely open with one another in the group?

Answer: No, we should not reveal ourselves to one another. Everything depends on how a person internally attunes himself in relation to the group. Externally, the group should only take the qualities we want to attain and cultivate them as something most important.

Then a person who has not acquired them will feel ashamed and afraid of harming the group. He will see that he is lower than the other friends and will want to attain these qualities.

The greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the goal, aspiration toward the goal, contribution to the group, love for one’s neighbor, interest in others—if we cultivate these as the highest values, it will turn out that I will be afraid that these qualities are absent in me, because then the group will despise me.

Everything depends on how the group organizes itself and how a person attunes himself in relation to it. Moreover, he should not do this openly. The group, on the contrary, should speak about the fact that we have such a standard: the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the group, the greatness of bestowal, the greatness of love.

A person is not obligated to reveal himself to the group: “I am bad, I am uncorrected.” He must feel this within himself, and against this background immediately give the group what it demands of him: the greatness of the goal, and so on.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/9/26, Rabash, “Go Forth from Your Land”

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Bestowal for the Sake of Bestowal—Detachment from Oneself

292Question: What is this stage of bestowing for the sake of bestowal?

Answer: What kind of pleasure does the desire to receive receive from bestowing? What does bestowal mean to it? How can we attach the intention for the sake of bestowal to the desire to receive?

For this, I must connect myself to someone outside myself, someone external, which, in fact, does not exist for us at all, and we do not understand what it is. In other words, I must connect my desire to receive with someone else’s desire to receive. This someone could be a friend, the group, or the Creator. Then for me, the Creator is as though a desire to receive, because I care about His well-being, which means that He has a desire to receive.

This is how I imagine it, and I take care that this desire to receive experiences pleasure. After all, this is the only way I can understand it! I want Him to enjoy! Then I connect my desire to receive with some external desire, an external need, and live within this external desire. It has become important to me.

It is as though I detach myself from myself to the point that I care only about what is there. Here, we return to the example of a mother and her infant: the infant occupies all her attention. She works to meet its needs and is not concerned about herself at all.

So, what does bestowing for the sake of bestowal mean? It means doing everything that He desires. At the same time, the pleasure I experience is in Him. I bestow, and bestow, while my pleasure is in Him. Receiving for the sake of bestowal, on the other hand, means discovering that I can give Him pleasure only to the extent that I myself experience pleasure! I enjoy, and only then does He enjoy! This is double connection.

When I bestow for the sake of bestowal, I do not experience the pleasures that pass through me; I am simply present within Him. I am constantly working with His need, and this is my pleasure: what is felt there. But when I work with the desire to receive for the sake of bestowal, I must experience pleasure myself, and only to that extent can I feel that He is enjoying Himself. Now our pleasures work together: our needs operate together as one unified need.

Therefore, in Kabbalah, we say that when bestowing for the sake of bestowal, I work with the Aviut of Shoresh, Aleph, and Bet, whereas when receiving for the sake of bestowal, I work with the Aviut of Gimel and Dalet. In other words, when receiving for the sake of bestowal, I work with the Kelim of reception; when bestowing for the sake of bestowal, I work with the Kelim of bestowal, whose Aviut is relatively small.

In fact, the Kelim with Aviut Shoresh, Aleph, and Bet are also Kelim of reception, but in them I do not feel pleasure from bestowing upon Him. More precisely, of course, I do feel pleasure, but it does not depend on my bestowal upon Him.

It is just like the example of a mother who gives to her child: she does not have to experience pleasure herself in order to care for the child; she only needs to feel whether he is enjoying himself. Whereas when receiving for the sake of bestowal, I must feel my own pleasure, and my sensation of His enjoyment also depends on this feeling. It is as though I unite both our desires to receive—mine and His—so that one depends on the other. This gives a person an unlimited Kli!

When receiving for the sake of bestowal, the receiving Kli is unlimited. When bestowing for the sake of bestowal, you simply bestow; there is no limitation, but the Kelim, the desires, are not revealed. My Kli, my desire, does not participate in this process. It participates only in my concern for Him, and my degree of Bina depends on the Aviut He has; that is, on the extent to which I reveal Him as the recipient of my bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/12/26, Rabash, “His Law He Contemplates”

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Awakening an Urgent Need

231.03Question: How can we achieve a qualitative change within ourselves regarding the principle  “Love your neighbor as yourself”?

Answer: We study that the only necessity that brought us to Kabbalah was the factor that caused us to change our lives and are undergo internal transformation. Everything comes only from the Kli, out of necessity. Nothing can happen by itself.

Therefore, if we want to do something or change something, we must seek not “how can this be changed,” but “how can an urgent need for it arise in me?” As soon as that need arises in me, I will change it, or it will change by itself. But it will change only if I urgently desire it. Everything depends on the preparation of the Kli, on our desire.

Therefore, a qualitative change in “love your neighbor as yourself” must be based on the awareness of the necessity—that without this, our life will remain an animalistic life. Of course, we can already tune ourselves today to the idea that this is how life will end, but this too depends on the society in which we are.

If our environment does not give us the possibility to accept this life and awaken us so strongly that we feel that even the slightest delay is base, repulsive, and unbearable, then we will truly be able to change something. Everything depends only on the group.

The group itself must guide us and itself urge each person to display such an attitude toward it. In other words, this is mutual work between the person and the group. Nothing else can be done here.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/24/26

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“Make Your Desire Similar to His Desire”

558The Creator, who acts from above, sets only one condition: “Ask for what I have, and ask in such a way that it will be for your benefit.”

In our work, this is called preparing the Kelim (vessels).

To prepare a Kli means to acquire a Hisaron for what the Creator wants to give and to act accordingly. It is said about this that the Reshimo (spiritual record) must be correct, in accordance with the Reshimo de Hitlabshut and Reshimo de Aviut, so that the force of the screen that I will receive from above is truly the one I need. That is, I take care of this in advance.

And in this, there is certainly a sequence of actions: concealment, revelation of the posterior, revelation of the face, both in preparing the Kelim and in receiving the lights.

But ultimately, raising MAN means “making your desire similar to His desire.” Only this is called MAN!

Otherwise, all your actions, whether you cry out or study, are counted, but they are not included in the action that sets the upper one into motion. However, these things also gradually gather and still become the cause of a person’s advancement.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘We Have No Other King But You,’ in the Work?”

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Confidence in the Path

177.13Question: How can we avoid falling into a Klipa (impurity) from a state of ascent? After all, you immediately want to take pleasure in that state.

Answer: I would say that, of course, we will fall. But if, as I advance, I constantly build an environment that I move forward with, then I am not afraid of falling.

I have confidence, support, and a framework that will pull me forward even if I fall.

Therefore, I no longer think about these states. On the contrary, I am confident that “Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” I know that I am still advancing.

In other words, the work on the concept of bestowal encompasses everything. It is so self-contained on every side that all the questions and answers are already included within it. We do not need anything external.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/26, Rabash, “The Rosh Hashana Prayer”

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For the Group to Correct Us

938.03Question: What should we do in the group so that it truly corrects us?

Answer: We must use the forces that by their very nature cause us suffering in relation to society. These include envy, hatred, pride, all the things that give rise to unfulfilled desires in me in relation to society and the people around me. I must use these forces correctly.

After all, whether I want to or not, I envy another person and compare myself with them. No matter how much the other person has, I look at what I have in comparison with them. I cannot imagine a greater benefit than having everything in the world. I have a dream: there is no one else in the world—only me. I walk down the streets—everything belongs to me. I enter houses and shops—everything is mine. This is a familiar dream. I cannot imagine anything greater than this Kli, and I am drawn toward it.

These are the impulses we use when building the group. These natural qualities are within me, and now I must use them for the right purpose. That is all. We need to build a system that makes the best possible use of these qualities.

Question: But envy can work in two different ways, can’t it?

Answer: If I am afraid that my friends in the group might put me in an embarrassing situation, and so on, then on the contrary, I should set the condition that the group takes care of those qualities in me that I want to improve. Accordingly, let the group make use of the shame I might feel in relation to my friends, my self-respect, and everything else. The aim is to leave me no way out, so that I will work on the desires that truly require correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/9/26, Rabash, “Go Forth from Your Land”

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Undergo an Internal Change

938.04Question: What is my involvement in everything that happens to me?

Answer: As a beginner, you are now 100% dependent on what you choose to receive from the environment. If you decide that this is your environment, that you want to become similar to it and receive its main idea from it, then you must nullify yourself before it. After all, the smaller you are, the more you will receive from that which is greater.

You must regard everyone as great, listen to everyone with your mouth open, and truly wish to absorb everything that happens here. This does not mean simply telling yourself: “I am small, insignificant, and they are great!”

You will be able to receive from the group to the extent that you are able to invest in it. Perform all the actions that the Kabbalists advise us to perform, and you will see how it works!

Of course, you can come here and sit here as if at a university, thinking: “I am studying, and they are also involved here. I should gradually study this science, receive an education, and then we shall see.” In that case, you will receive nothing from the group, and no inner change will occur within you.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/9/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?”

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