Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

When It Becomes Cramped Under the Old Roof

942If a person begins to imagine the system of bestowal as increasingly close and alive, one draws nearer to working in the group to disseminate this knowledge. One understands that this whole idea materializes here in one’s group, in one’s world. Here and now a person must carry out the corrections.

Then it becomes easier for the person to agree to enter into a covenant with the friends and to keep it. Everything depends on presenting spirituality as correctly as possible, that is, as the revelation of connections of bestowal between us, among all the inhabitants of this world. This network that connects us will become the reality of the upper worlds, the world of infinity.

Within it, we will reveal forces, and the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature will no longer be so important to us. They will gradually disappear like the first nine Sefirot, the preliminary stages of the development of the light and the desire. Only the final stage will remain, Malchut, the forces contained in our mutual connection, in mutual guarantee.

This entire network of connections operating fully in bestowal is called the Creator. And then we reveal that “There is none else besides Him,” because this is the only thing that has ever existed, and we all become included in this network, included in the Creator.

However, the relation of man and the Creator is still very far from us. We attain it by building relationships between a person and his friends, that is, between man and man, by constructing a network of connections between us and entering into a covenant. We advance through such work where we must be connected with one another precisely in unpleasant, uncomfortable states. This gives us the opportunity to complement the connection with our own efforts.

It is said: “One should always sell the beams of his house,” meaning he must always be ready to leave his current degree, exit his state, and seek a higher degree. It is called higher because there one is more strongly connected with others, adds more of one’s own effort, and more devotedly adheres to the friends.

And in connection with them, a person finds how to connect to new forces and to reveal new systems within the general system of Malchut.

Malchut is the place where the force of bestowal is revealed, the desires of people whom this force of bestowal, that is, the Creator, connects.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/11, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House”

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Constant Analysis

238.02Adhesion to the Creator is defined as obtaining the property of bestowal. But your desire to receive will never allow you to obtain it. For now, while in this desire, you have to imagine that you want to achieve bestowal. Yet to imagine it and awaken it as something of vital importance can only be done with the means of a group.

I often sense that as I utter a few phrases you lose the thread of the thought and become confused; one moment you grasp it (yes) and the next, it slips away again (no). This is what is called effort!

A person persistently searches with their soul, within their mind and heart, for a way to reconcile these things in order to re-establish what one heard, even for a moment. And again, it disappears. It may take hours or days until you build these phrases again. It is necessary to constantly reconstruct them so they would become clear for you. It means that you are analyzing the Kli.

These things are opposite to the desire to receive; therefore, they are very difficult and require tremendous inner effort, strength, energy, and even additional calories. Only if a group awakens in you the importance of this search is it considered that you are searching for the Creator, for this idea, inside yourself.

Only a group can constantly pressure you, demanding you to begin building a Kli. Without this impetus a person would never find the inner strength to do so, save perhaps through the catalyst of tremendous suffering. It is only when you begin to ask about the purpose of life that you begin to search.

If you proceed in the ordinary manner, it will take you years to move forward. But the group can bind you to this path, push you, influence you, awaken you, and ignite you every single moment. If you fail to perceive this influence from the group as the most important thing in your life, if you do not feel it boiling inside of you with the urgency of life or death, if you do not submit to this “brainwashing,” you will be unable to succeed.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”

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Until the Light Changes Us

938.01Question: If I try to convey the awareness of the importance of the goal, the Creator, to a friend ,what am I actually doing?

Answer: You come to the group and say: “Friends, you must constantly give me a sense of the greatness of the Creator.” Saying this is not difficult and costs nothing. From your ego you pressure them. They are an external force from which you can demand.

From yourself you cannot demand, but from them you can. “I want you to give me the awareness of the greatness of the Creator.” They begin to give it to you, and then you yield to their influence.

Question: But then  am I again moving toward pleasure?

Answer: Yes, because the group convinces you, since you are built in such a way that you submit to the opinion of society. Naturally, you derive pleasure from joining the common opinion. It gives you confidence, a sense of belonging, but all this is still measured within vessels of reception.

And then you begin to strive after the greatness of the Creator: “It is worthwhile for me to be near Him.” But you do not see these pleasures, because if you did, you would strive for them yourself. Since you do not see them, you need the group to tell you that it is worthwhile.

Gradually, through this, you evoke the surrounding light, which indeed changes you. The action is not performed by us, but we must provide the means for it. The Creator is concealed and not needed by me, yet the group says that He is needed, and it seems to me that it is so. I do not know who He is or what He is, but somehow, I perform an action, according to which the surrounding light comes to me, and it is what performs the work.

Everything is done detached from the desire to receive, which, during these actions, feels nothing. There is no concrete benefit. If someone from the outside asks you: “What do you gain from this?”, you can answer: “Your life is no better.” Or say: “I receive pleasure from exploring reality. I have something beyond your animal level.” But do you have anything tangible? No.

This is a sign that we are advancing correctly without the interference of the desire to receive, until the surrounding light changes us. There is no other way, no other means. Therefore, each time we find ourselves in a kind of despair, we have nothing to be proud of, the end is unknown, and where that Machsom is, is unclear.

On one hand, we accumulate some experience, but on the other hand, it gives us no foundation. And all of this is necessary in order to disconnect the desire to receive from the result, which in fact does not belong to it.

And so, it continues until I become satisfied with the existence of a certain “charm of holiness,” received from the surrounding light. I cannot do otherwise; I want it. The light builds this yearning within me.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/26, Rabash, “Concerning Hesed [Mercy]”

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The Books, the Teacher, and the Group

281.02If I have a desire to bestow to the Creator, must I actually give something or is the desire itself sufficient? The desire is sufficient. I do not have to do anything else, for in truth I have nothing to give Him except the desire.

My work is to move from the absence of desire to a state in which it appears within me. Once I acquire the desire, I have nothing more to do. Everything is complete. The desire is the Kli (vessel), and if I have a Kli that works in order to bestow, that is enough; I have done my work.

How do I come to the desire to bestow to the Creator? Where do I get it from? It is said that initially a person is given a point in the heart. Without it, you are simply an animal. But if this point is given, meaning a desire to attain spirituality, then you must do everything else yourself.

This is possible only through the group, the books, and the teacher, that is, through external means at your disposal, through life in this world. There is nothing else. From above, you are given a spark called the point in the heart, and with this spark you must rise higher and higher.

How can this be achieved? Nothing more will be given to you from above. But we have built a system called “this world” around ourselves. And then, by the fact that within your circle there are books, a teacher, and friends, you can use them and move forward. So the spark is there, the environment is there, the goal is clear. Bon voyage!
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 3/22/26, Rabash, “What Is the ‘Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man’ in the Work?”

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How Can I Sense the Suffering of the Shechina?

239Question: What is more effective for our advancement: to strive to feel the greatness of the Creator or to feel the suffering of the Shechina?

Answer: First and foremost, we can advance only if we reach ahead. And we can reach ahead only if we feel that there is something positive ahead.

The positive is called the feeling of the greatness of the Creator. He is great, and I naturally reach out to Him. If I feel that there is suffering and darkness ahead, I will not strive to go there. Therefore, I definitely need a vessel of bestowal so I will have the need to find an unfulfilled desire in Him, something that I can give to Him, so I will be able to bestow for His sake. Then, when I feel the suffering of the Shechina, I will truly rejoice that I have found something that I can give to Him.

Therefore, we should not force ourselves to imaging the suffering of the Shechina. This is a very artificial thing we have no preparation for. I do not react to anything external happening outside of me whether it is the Creator or a friend. How then will I be able to receive from this “fuel” for work or forces for advancement?

The only thing we can cling to for now and receive help from is the greatness of the Creator. Let the friends constantly speak to me about the greatness of the Creator so that I will convince myself that only it rules and acts, that only it is important for me.

Later, the desire to work precisely in this direction—for the greatness of the Creator—will come from this. Because whether you want it or not, you submit to a great person, you want to bestow to him, to serve him. And all this is only because he is great. This is already embedded in our nature. You do not even need to make an effort for this.

And as soon as you really get some feeling or some awareness of His greatness in your work on the greatness of the Creator or you even simply imagine it, you will begin to think: “The Creator is great, but what can I give Him? Why does He need me? Perhaps indeed some kind of connection can arise between us?”

This comes naturally as a result of the awareness of the greatness of the Creator.

Therefore, the suffering of the Shechina can be felt only by a person who has already acquired some awareness of the greatness and importance of the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/26, Rabash, “What Is, “When Israel Are in Exile, the Shechina Is with Them,” in the Work?”

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The Desire That Leads to the Goal

231.01Question: If a person feels inspired by the books and the group while one studies, is that not a form of pleasure?

Answer: Everything depends on the underlying cause. There are many people who come to this path because they feel bad. They are looking for a place where they will feel good. In general, there are a thousand and one reasons, but ultimately it all boils down to a lack of a sense of the future. They need confidence. And confidence is a result of attaining faith.

Yes, it is true that this sets us in motion, and we act from the fact that we feel bad now and will feel good later. But the real question is: “Do I change my values along the way? Do I remain in the same desire to feel good in the same vessels as before? Or do my vessels continuously improve? Do I begin to strive for something beyond matter? Do I start approaching the charm of holiness?”

If so, then I no longer interpret “good,” as I did at the beginning, to mean filling myself with various corporeal pleasures. For us, “animal pleasures” are essentially honor, power, and knowledge. I begin to see that power and knowledge do not lead me to the goal, and I feel how empty they are in themselves.

If this is process is taking place, a person is developing. If not, he remains as he was, and then he leaves the group. A person who does not change his values cannot remain here. He will feel as though the group is expelling him, pushing him outward.

And so it continues until the only pleasure left for me is attaining connection with the Creator. I am not yet acquainted with Him, I do not know Him precisely, but it is like a kind of “madness.” No one sees Him,and neither do I, but it is something I am drawn to.

This is the result of the influence of the surrounding light that shines from afar and builds a yearning for it within me, until, in the words of Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “it does not let me sleep.” This is called persistence, steadfastness.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/26, Rabash, “Concerning Hesed [Mercy]”

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Everything Depends on One’s Attitude Toward the Group

232.05Question: Where is the boundary regarding clarifications carried out in the group?

Answer: There is no boundary! You might ask: “If I am on level number ten and the group is on level number two, can it awaken me to rise to the eleventh level? What does it mean that they ‘wash my brain’? Who are they compared to me that they could arouse me, given such a difference in our levels?”

This is not a question. They can awaken you and help your ascent regardless of who they are. That is why it is written: “From all my students I have learned.”

You can take a group of beginners who understand the spiritual idea only a little, and through them receive such an ascent and such a “brain-washing” that you will rise from the world of Yetzira to the world of Beria. I am speaking completely seriously. This has nothing to do with what a person represents, what he feels, or what he clarifies. It relates only to your effort in relation to the group.

If you were now to enter the group of the students of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, you would receive from them exactly as much as you receive here in your own group. Everything depends on what you demand and what you invest. What matters here is the effort of each person.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”

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The Domain of Bestowal

938.01We must always cut down the bad weeds around us, as they affect us—we must keep away from bad environments, from people who do not favor the path of truth. We need a careful watch so as to not be drawn to follow them.

This is called “isolation,” when one has thoughts of the “single authority,” called “bestowal,” and not “public authority,” which is self-love. This is called “two authorities”—the Creator’s authority and one’s own authority (Rabash, “Concerning the Importance of Society”).

All of this is clear; the problem arises only with the implementation. Each of us is under our own authority, and we do not understand what it means to be under someone else’s authority. “Does it mean I must become a slave? If there is authority, then there is an owner?”

In fact, we must be under the authority of the altruistic desire, instead of the egoistic one. It is very difficult for us to understand these things. We simply do not see where and how all this takes place.

But over time, through study and participation in the life of the group, if a person draws upon himself the influence of the small light, he gradually begins to awaken. Then he becomes capable of discerning the true nature of the distinction between public authority and single authority, the authority of the Creator and the authority of the creature, the quality of bestowal and the quality of reception. These details are revealed with great difficulty, yet once they are discerned, a person begins to understand what is unfolding before him.

“It is a long path,” said the sages, “but you can shorten it if you follow several pieces of advice.” The advice is simple. If you want to perceive yourself on a higher degree, in the next dimension, then build it, form it. Unite with those who desire the same, and together evoke the upper force, so that between you, in your common understanding and feeling, it will create a network that will become the next degree.

Everything takes place in a person’s perception. The Creator in Himself is unattainable; we perceive Him only in the relationships between all the parts of reality that are within our perception. If you change your attitude to reality, that very attitude will become your Creator (Boreh), from the words “Bo” (come) and “Reh” (see).

Right now, for you the Creator is the egoistic force that governs all of the reality you see. In this form you perceive and feel it. So change it through the reforming light. There is such a force that you awaken; it is your next degree.

All the degrees already exist in that dimension, in that “informational-force channel” from which you can receive everything. Connect and receive. If you want to know what will be tomorrow, you will know it. If you want to know how to carry out changes, you will know how. Just connect. This is the reforming light.

In general, our approach is this: unite with one another and evoke the light that will correctly realize this unity. We must demonstrate our readiness commensurate with the state we are in, and ask for correction.

For implementation, it is very, very simple. That is why the articles of Rabash about the group are so simple and straightforward. There are few in number, and all these materials can fit into a few dozen pages. In them is the entire method. Everything else are only additions that help attract the light. To describe how to organize the group in which we draw this light, ten pages are enough.

Thus, today our work is first of all to organize ourselves into the correct structure, and then to turn with a request for correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/12, Rabash, “Concerning the Importance of Society”

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The Benefits of Spiritual Development

543.02Question: Rabash writes that when friends gather, they should talk about the benefits of gathering. What does he mean by that?

Answer: The benefits are an abstract concept. It can exist only in relation to my desire. Accordingly, I envision a future fulfillment, which I can earn, with less effort than the pleasure I will receive. Then it is called a benefit—you invest 99, you get 100.

But my desire must be greater than the invested effort, otherwise the desire to receive will not allow me to exert. Therefore, every time we calculate what kind of pleasure we will receive, what the disadvantages are, and how much effort we need to expend.

The benefits we want to get from the process we are going through, I cannot relate to someone else. If a person is still in pursuit of benefits from animal pleasures (food, rest, family, sex) or the pleasures of money, honors, knowledge, then I cannot give him other pleasures instead because abstract ones are not clothed in what he understands. He does not feel them. There has to be a different Kli for this.

The Kelim we initially have are Kelim in which we feel pleasure clothed in something of this world: power, knowledge, education. The closer the pleasure, the more palpable and greater in magnitude it is.

These are animal pleasures; the greatest of these are the pleasures felt through touch and sight. They are followed by more abstract ones, pleasures brought by money, honors, which are things that require a certain level of development.

But it still comes clothed in something: I am honored, respected, more knowledgeable than others, which is a kind of power (knowledge is, in the end, power, albeit a little more abstract).

But if the pleasures are even more abstract, they are not perceived by the Kelim of receiving. They relate to Bina, which is inside Malchut. Even the Klipot are the pleasures Bina feels inside Malchut, and not Malchut itself.

You cannot explain it to people who do not have it. This requires preliminary development. So when they asked me on American radio: “What is special about Kabbalah? Why did it suddenly become open? What do you want?”

I replied that we are in a state where we do not see what will happen tomorrow. The life we live is no good, people are using drugs more and more, there is no family, children have no connection with parents, we do not even know what will happen to us in a second, we are increasingly immersed in such life problems that it becomes necessary to know about reality, how to control fate, how to see which of my actions will lead to enjoyment, confidence, and a good life.

You cannot talk to people in more abstract terms because they will not understand them. They ask, “How do I do this?” Come and learn. If we want to do something in this life in a logical way, we must study it, in any profession, even a shoemaker. Even there, you will find many professional secrets you must master before you start working, and even more so with us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/26, Rabash, “Concerning Hesed [Mercy]”

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Where the Property of Bestowal Manifests

528.01Question: What is a group from the point of view of Kabbalah?

Answer: A group is an assembly of egoistic forces that are ready to suppress their egoism in order to create a network of forces between them that are similar to the Creator.

Comment: The group must direct a person toward the goal. If the goal is to acquire the properties of the Creator (the property of the Creator is bestowal), then it cannot manifest itself in relation to the inanimate and vegetative nature. I cannot bestow to stones or plants.

My Response: It is quite natural. The property of bestowal can manifest itself only in a group.

Question: A very important element is the growth of the desire in the group. How does this happen?

Answer: When I come to the realization that I must attain the Creator and there is only complete egoism within me, then at the same time, I accept the condition that my development must take place in a group.

Therefore, I must enter it, become equal with the friends and even lower than them, and I must annul myself so that through them I can begin to receive the influence of the Creator, the upper light.
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From KabTV’s “The Basics of Kabbalah” 3/4/19

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