We see about the citron that the adornment is in it precisely before it is suitable for eating. However, when it is suitable for eating, there is no adornment in it anymore (Baal HaSulam, Shamati, 19, “What Is ‘The Creator Hates the Bodies,’ in the Work?”).

Each of the four plant species—etrog (citron), palm branch, myrtle, and willow—has inner qualities that we must somehow identify, unite, and do spiritual work for their common connection.

Question: If a person feels the splendor of the Creator, he might think: “How can I enjoy this alone?” Should he somehow hide it from himself?

Answer: No, there is no need to hide anything. Simply move forward, invite friends and others to unite and reveal the Creator among themselves.

Question: Does the whole group need to achieve the quality of splendor where there is taste and fragrance in the spiritual work?

Answer: No, each person reaches it in their own time.
[336131]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/24, “Sukkot”

Related Material:
Four Qualities in the Soul
The Four Kinds Of Plants—Upshots Of Spiritual Roots
The More Impenetrable The Darkness, The Brighter The Light

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Creator - No Comments →

One should say, “When will my deeds come to be as the deeds of my fathers?” Through it, one is rewarded with being a “branch of the holy fathers” (Baal HaSulam, Shamati, 85, “What Is the Fruit of a Citrus Tree, in the Work?“)

Question: What does it mean that a person is the result of all the fathers?

Answer: When a person is connected to the Creator, the root of all the fathers manifests within him because he reaches it in his spiritual attainment.

Question: So can I have the same attainments that the fathers had, and know and sense it all?

Answer: I do not think it will happen all at once. But to some degree you will feel your direct connection to this. First, you must simply desire to be connected to both the feminine and male parts of the global vessel (Kli), and then, as you proceed, you will discover what it means to be in mutual connection with everyone.

To be a branch of the holy fathers means that a person supports everyone, helps everyone, and draws everyone toward mutual dependence with the entire global Kli.
[336082]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/24, “Sukkot”

Related Material:
And The Main Illumination Is Left In The Root
Relying On The Merits Of Our Predecessors
According To The Advice Of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: How can one feel and realize in practice that each new Zivug (coupling) is not just a repetition of the prior correction but an advancement toward a deeper level of light and correction of the vessel?

Answer: We study this on ourselves when each successive step is higher than the previous one. Therefore it requires us to unite more.

Question: Do we need to return to the already corrected desire?

Answer: No, by no means; we do not touch the corrected desires.
[336128]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/24, “Sukkot”

Related Material:
Spiritual Ascent Is Strengthening Unity
Practical Ascent On The Spiritual Ladder
A Fragment Of An Ideal Dream

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Is rejecting any attainment in the intention for the sake of my friend a demand that the Creator is obligated to fulfill?

Answer: No. First of all, the Creator is not obligated to anyone. Second, we need to perceive in a more clear way what joy is when we enjoy what seems to be the Creator’s game with us.

Question: How can we move from the state when there is no taste in work to enjoyment from the Creator’s game with us?

Answer: It is only when we raise the greatness of the Creator and the greatness of the friends. There is no other way.

Question: What does it mean to enjoy the game of the Creator above tastes?

Answer: Such pleasure comes only in properties of bestowal.
[336134]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/24 on the topic “Sukkot”

Related Material:
The Ability To Be Grateful
The Creator’s Game
The Creator’s “Unfair” Game

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Comment: During the day, when working with the friends, I discover new areas where I am not connected with them whether in thoughts or desires, and I understand I have no inner strength. So I turn to the Creator, but it requires time for a new connection to be made in me where the connection was disconnected, was torn.

These steps seem like small steps that require time, but I feel that I fall deeper into these states and discover new aspects there.

My Response: Do not be afraid; fall in them. They only advance you.

Comment: If there are states where I feel pain or unpleasantness, I can work with it. But I am not comfortable when I think I hurt my friends with my actions.

My Response: It only seems so to you. Keep going forward, and do not be ashamed of feeling yourself with them in one desire.

Question: And when I feel that I did not finish something and something happened because of me, is this a wrong attitude?

Answer: That is not important. Anything is possible. The main thing is that you together with your friends want to reach such a desire that will correspond to the Creator.
[336279]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/24, “The Study of Seven Ushpizin”

Related Material:
The Value of Each Friend
Grab Hold of the Friends
Combine All the Efforts of the Ten

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

Question: When we feel no taste in spiritual work, it is as if we are in the shadow of the Creator. He creates this shadow, but are we supposed to find magnificence even within the shadow? How does a Kabbalist lift himself out of this state?

Answer: The Creator lifts a person. The person initiates this action from the Creator by proceeding with faith above reason.

Question: How can we influence the Creator to create the power of elevation within the group?

Answer: You must pray. You must ask. Lift your friends and they will lift you. Together you will all ascend to the Creator.
[336185]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/24, “Sukkot”

Related Material:
In The Creator’s Shadow
In Everything There Is Only The Creator
Vague Shadows In The Dark

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: What is a group? After all, groups are different. There are groups of people with a point in the heart. They know about Kabbalah, and I enjoy talking to them and interacting with them. And there are people with whom I just have friendly relations. Is this also a group?

Answer: A Kabbalistic group is a group that preferably consists of ten people, who, together with you, are striving for such a connection that the Creator will be revealed between you.

It has nothing to do with other groups. That is, you must organize relationships between you that are similar to the qualities of the Creator. Then the Creator will reveal Himself according to the law of equivalence of form in your relationships with your friends. That is it.

And all sorts of fabrications—some other group or something else—is all nonsense. They only distract you, and you will achieve nothing here or there.
[335716]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/19, “Questions and Answers”

Related Material:
Independence of a Group
A Real Group
The Group As A Spiritual Entity

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

This means that vitality is called “light” and “pleasure,” and pleasure is spirituality. It is a rule that there is no light without a Kli (vessel), meaning there is no such thing as pleasure without clothing. For this reason, the whole difference is not in the pleasure, called “light,” but in the clothing, meaning in the Kli, since there is a clothing of falsehood, and clothing of truth (Rabash, Letter No. 12b).

Question: How do we in the ten measure whether we are in mutual connection with the Creator to gradually reveal ourselves and bestow to Him?

Answer: We need to check what we derive pleasure from. If our pleasures come from false clothing, we are still in an incorrect contact with the light of the Torah.

But if we have already reached a contact where the clothing of truth begins, we have reached the goal and can rise more and more in the clothing of spiritual holiness.

Question: What kind of pleasure can we receive from the Creator in active unification in the ten to give Him the proper measure?

Answer: The pleasure of uniting with each other and organizing a group with a common opinion: to reveal the Creator and show our love for Him.
[335907]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/24, Writings of Rabash Letter No. 12b

Related Material:
Connection With The Group Is Connection With The Creator
Toward Connection with the Creator
For the Sake of Connection with the Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

The correct Kli of the ten is formed when ten friends want to unite all their desires, goals, and intentions for the sake of the Creator.

We need to strive to get closer to the Creator so that He can be revealed to us as much as possible, and we can use His properties and His power. In this case, we will have the quality of bestowal and become like Him.

Question: How should the ten repay the Creator for the true reward of adhesion with Him?

Answer: By wanting to be like the Creator.
[335925]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/24, Writings of Rabash “According to the Sorrow Is the Reward”

Related Material:
The Common Heart
True Deficiency
The Ten Is A Standard Spiritual Vessel

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

One should be in the form of “willows of the brook,” tasteless and scentless. And one should delight in this work, even though he feels no flavor or fragrance in this work. And then this work is called “the letters of Your unified name,” by which we are rewarded with complete unification with the Creator (Baal HaSulam, Shamati, 85, “What Is the Fruit of a Citrus Tree, in the Work?”).

Question: How can we come from work where there seems to be no taste to a high degree of “the letters of Your unified name”?

Answer: When we get a taste for the quality of bestowal, we get a taste for spiritual work.

Precisely because you have no taste initially and you force yourself to work that you may develop a taste for bestowal, for the right connection, which you will begin to feel. We need to gradually understand this and hold on to this point of connection constantly.

Question: How can a person with no taste in the work not simply endure this state but transition to the property of bestowal?

Answer: The fact is that you cannot force it. Therefore, even if you fail to feel the closeness to the Creator in the quality of bestowal, you must continue to strive for this.

Those who do not abandon this goal and always want to reach adhesion with the Creator in the quality of bestowal eventually attain this quality and begin to feel it.

One develops different Kelim of bestowal, and begins to feel his new relationship with the Creator in them.

Question: Let’s say a friend does not have the strength to participate actively in all our events. What can he hope for? Could he find strength at the next stage, or can there be some internal switch?

Answer: Imagine that you remember your childhood, how you wanted to befriend someone, but that person did not want or understand it. So what could you do? You had to invent some tricks to attract him to you. In the same way, we need to involve our friend in our studies and gradually bring him closer to mutual bestowal to the Creator.
[336086]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/24, “Sukkot”

Related Material:
Feel the Taste of Bestowal
Looking For A Real Taste Of Bestowal
Taste in the Torah

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →