Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

Toward Greater Unification

232.08Question: 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.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/24, “Sukkot”

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Enjoy the Creator’s Game

28.02Question: 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.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/24 on the topic “Sukkot”

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Together with the Friends

530Comment: 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.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/24, “The Study of Seven Ushpizin”

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How Can You Rise from a State of Tastelessness?

938.01Question: 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.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/24, “Sukkot”

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Not Just any Group

528.04Question: 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.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/19, “Questions and Answers”

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Verify the Connection with the Creator

938.01This 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.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/24, Writings of Rabash Letter No. 12b

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The Correct Kli of the Ten

528.03The 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.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/24, Writings of Rabash “According to the Sorrow Is the Reward”

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A Taste for Bestowal

232.1One 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.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/24, “Sukkot”

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939.01Question: What does it mean to acquire the tastes of the Torah in the ten?

Answer: It means to correctly receive each of the four types of manifestation of the Creator in the soul.

Question: A person who has been studying Kabbalah for a long time needs some kind of nourishment from the light. But there are friends who rarely attend classes and apparently do not receive the taste that would attract them. How can this taste be conveyed to them?

Answer: There is not a way to do so; just like in our world: only the one who tastes, feels it.

You just need to try to connect together and attempt to feel this taste. Then even those who do not yet have it will begin to feel it. This will push them forward.

Question: There are moments in our work when everyone feels passion, fire in the work. And it happens that people lose this taste. How can we ensure that a person always feels the bright taste of spiritual work?

Answer: It is not easy. In order for a person not to lose his taste, you must connect and drag him into your connection in which you could convey your tastes to him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/20/24 on the topic “Sukkot”

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The Influence of the Light

235Question: Before crossing the Machsom, it is impossible to perform a selfless act. But we get the impression that we are doing something selfless for the sake of the group. How can we reveal that this is not quite the case?

Answer: You will receive such revelation from the Creator. He will shine His light on you, the quality of bestowal, and you will feel this quality against the background of your quality of reception. In this way, you will feel the gap between you and the Creator.

Question: Still, this is an unpleasant revelation because I feel that I am acting for my own sake. How can we sweeten this state so that we have the strength to continue; not to despair, but to move forward?

Answer: You are doing this intentionally in order to reveal your difference from the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/24, Writings of Rabash “According to the Sorrow Is the Reward”

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