Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

Spirituality Is a Field

537Spiritual work is not carried out by our mind. We need to adapt this program, install ourselves so that we work on a slightly different principle and so the program would be updated more and more at each of the 120 degrees. Each of them consists of many sub-steps.

Imagine if you sat down at your computer now, opened it, and saw that a familiar program became slightly different, and the next day it changed even more. And you must establish an increasingly complex, integral connection between you in which the particles begin to connect with each other into a system that begins to form a field from all sorts of straight lines of communication.

Spirituality is a field. In it there are no connections like “me – you,” “him – her,” and so on. Between all of us there is a kind of disk, and in it an infinite number of connections. I can be connected with everyone simultaneously, and this is constantly changing and leads to a general correction when this disk turns into a sphere. That is the gradual revelation of the Creator, the upper world.

Question: How does it turn from a disk into a sphere?

Answer: This is a qualitative change that happens by itself. Depending on our efforts, the program is constantly reinstalled and begins to include connections that were previously only linear: “me – you.” And suddenly, it starts to work in stereo, on many lines. There are also such examples in technology.

We only make efforts. In accordance with them, the program is reinstalled and creates new possibilities in us that we did not know about before. Although I create new efforts, I do not know what program I will receive. From below this is called MAN, and from above—MAD, a system that is revealed from above.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/20, “Preparation for the Convention”

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Feel Sorrow that the Creator Is Concealed

538Question: You mentioned that in the article of Rabash “The Torah is Acquired Through Suffering,” it speaks not only about the sufferings of love; meaning, not just the inner experiences from the lack of the light of Torah. What other sufferings are mentioned?

Answer: First of all, we must feel sorrow over the fact that the Creator is concealed and that only we can reveal Him; otherwise, He will remain concealed, and that is not good. Secondly, your friends, like you, are still in concealment, and we ask for all the friends and for the whole world. The main thing is to ask.

Question: Can the sufferings of friends become my own deficiency (Hissaron)?

Answer: Typically a Hissaron is a personal sensation of the need for the Creator’s help.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/31/24, Writings of Rabash “The Torah Is Acquired through Suffering”

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The Essence of Gratitude to the Creator

237Question: What is the spiritual essence of gratitude to the Creator?

Answer: We must thank the Creator for creating us and for bringing us to the method of Kabbalah through which we can enter a two-way connection with Him and reach certain degrees of connection. As it is said: “I am for the Creator, and the Creator is for me.”

Question: What does gratitude to the Creator mean as a spiritual action?

Answer: Speak about the feelings you have toward Him, about your hope to achieve a connection with Him through your friends. Ask both for your friends and for yourself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/24, Writings of Rabash “Prayer”

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How Can We Assess Our Progress?

938.01Question: How should we assess our progress in a group: by the extent to which hatred is revealed among us or by the effort we collectively make in the group?

Answer: Both. We should assess our progress by the revealed hatred and by how we overcome it. If significant hatred is revealed between you and the group is unable to overcome it, that is still a substantial achievement. However, this does not guarantee anything for the future. In spirituality, there is no favoritism. Without effort, we cannot expect results.

That is why we see that many groups have fallen apart. They thought, “We’ve done enough. Why do we need to keep making efforts? Everything will come on its own from here.” But nothing comes on its own. At every stage, we need to rethink, reformat, and move forward.

Moreover, each stage is opposite to the previous one according to the law of “negation of negation.” The next step is opposite to the previous one; it is above it and contrary to it. What seemed one way to me in the previous state no longer seems that way because my achievement at the previous degree, which was considered holiness (Kedusha), becomes egoistic and unacceptable at the next degree and is called Klipa—an impure desire.

Therefore, I cannot use my previous clarifications, achievements, or knowledge for the new degree. Thus, the ascent in spirituality always happens with closed eyes, disregarding anything I once knew, felt, or determined. Everything must be absolutely new. That is why it is said: Everything should always appear as new in your eyes.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/20, “Preparation for the Convention”

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Never Ask for Yourself

275

This is the meaning of a prayer in public, that one must not exclude oneself from the public and ask for oneself, not even to bring contentment to one’s maker, but only for the entire public. It is so because one cannot extend one’s boundary while the boundaries of the rest of the buds of the flower remain where they are, for as smallness blemishes the beauty, so does greatness, since the boundaries of all the lines and circles of the flower must be related.

This is the meaning of (Psalms 22:21) “Save my soul from the sword, my only one from the dog.” One who departs from the public to ask specifically for one’s own soul does not build. On the contrary, he inflicts ruin upon his soul, as in (Midrash Rabbah, Chapter 7, Item 6) “All who is proud,” etc., for there cannot be one who retires from the public unless with an attire of pride. Woe unto him, for he inflicts ruin on his soul, for one who takes from the flower, not only does he condemn the beauty of the flower in general, that there is a flaw in their value, but even that specific part has no glory or beauty whatsoever, and no color in the eye will regard him (Baal HaSulam, “Not The Time For The Livestock To Be Gathered“).

Imagine how many useless or even spiritually harmful actions we perform when we ask the Creator for ourselves: “Give me. Help me. Do this for me,” and so on.

There is nothing more harmful to the spiritual elevation of a person, because in this way he asks for himself and not for the common soul. By doing so, he completely separates himself from it without understanding what he is doing.

Therefore, the most important thing is to clearly include several very serious, cornerstone, fundamental rules. The first rule: Never ask for yourself.

The second rule: Ask only for the Creator to gather the group. That is, ask not for each of the friends individually, but for the whole group, the assembly, the Kli, in which the Creator can be revealed, in order to bring Him contentment. This is bestowal on our part opposite the bestowal on His part. Thus, to the extent that these intentions coincide, we will reveal Him.

As an individual, one cannot leave society and ask for anything for oneself: to bring contentment to the Creator, to correct the world. This is all nonsense, which is only intended to distract us. Do not do this under any circumstances. Always ask only for unification into a group. Then, through this, everything will go right.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/20, “Preparation for the Convention”

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How Can We Feel What the Creator Gives Us?

938.02Question: In the mutual striving of the Creator and creation, if a person is not worthy of feeling and correctly realizing the opportunities that the Creator gave us, what happens to that person further along the way?

Answer: Nothing happens, a person stands still or still moves forward as much as one can, but slower than others.

Question: How can we help each other correctly feel the chances that the Creator gives?

Answer: Organize a livelier ten so that you help each other, learn from each other, and always hold on to each other, and make sure that the friends do not forget to treat each other’s states as their Kelim, instruments with which they can constantly turn to the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/24, Writings of Rabash “He Is One and His Name, One”

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Exit the Feeling of the Abyss

276.01Question: A person is in the world of the Creator: There is none else besides Him. But along with this all–pervading perfection, there is an immense fear and a sense of loneliness, an abyss, a sense that there is nothing, there is only He and me, and even my ten, the group, is Him. What should I do in this state?

Answer: Very good. It is necessary to feel that we are in a void, and we have only one opportunity not to disappear alone, and that is to cling to each other and together to the Creator. Then we will definitely reach the most correct state.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/24, Writings of Rabash “Prayer”

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How Can We Feel that the Creator Hears Our Prayer?

235Question: Every day in our group, we write prayers. Each friend describes her lack (desire) in one sentence. Does this help us progress, and how does it help us come to one shared desire?

Answer: Of course, every prayer of each woman, man, and child reaches the Creator, and the Creator responds to it. The only question is how much do we feel it? But we surely increasingly influence the Creator and receive a response from Him.

Question: How can we feel that the Creator hears every word in our prayer?

Answer: Either believe in what the Kabbalists write, or continue until we hear, see, and feel that we are in connection with the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/24, Writings of Rabash “Prayer”

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Real Awe

623Real awe of the Creator is a very high level that a person approaches gradually.

As one ascends the spiritual degrees and achieves the properties of modesty (Anava), submission out of love, from the greatness of the Creator, then a state of awe comes to him, which gradually develops him, and he becomes agreeable and gentle with his friends.

He also develops awe by seeing the Creator’s governance and participation in everything, and he begins to understand how much he depends on Him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/24, Writings of Rabash “Because of Humbleness and Fear of the Lord”

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Ask for a Quality that Is Not Initially Inherent in Us

528.04Question: We should ask the Creator for the quality of bestowal. How can a creature ask for a quality that is not initially inherent in its nature?

Answer: It can ask. Initially we naturally only want to receive, but through our lives and interactions with others, we also bestow. Therefore, we are capable of both.

I think it is important to understand that prayer should truly come from the heart to the Creator, and it should be for your connection in the ten or for your friends.

Question: Should prayer in the ten be simultaneous, like an attack, or should it flow smoothly between us, with us complementing each other throughout the day?

Answer: Both.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/24, Writings of Rabash “Three Prayers”

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