Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

We Have Gathered Here To Become Human

530We have gathered here to establish a society for all who wish to follow the path and method of Baal HaSulam, the way by which to climb the degrees of man and not remain as a beast (Rabash, Article No. 1, Part 1, 1984, Purpose of Society – 1).

From this article, we need to extract the key principles:

    1. What does it mean to gather?
    2. What is the method of Baal HaSulam?
    3. What is the degree of human?
    4. Was man created for pleasure or for awe before the Creator?
    5. The condition for achieving all of this is similarity of qualities with the Creator.
    6. The desire to receive is not bad in itself; it is the very material of creation. What is called the evil inclination (Yetzer Ra) is our unwillingness to unite, our refusal to correct the shattering of the soul into its parts—our individual souls.
    7. We do not destroy the egoistic desire, but only correct its intention from for myself to for others.
    8. That is, in the desire to receive, we are always opposite to the Creator; but in the intention to give, we connect to Him.
    9. Adhesion with the Creator is through similarity of qualities with Him. The intention to bestow is attained through work in the group. This is a task that is both achievable and verifiable. The collective desire to bestow that we build is the common soul, which the Creator fills.
    10. Every state we go through consists of two opposites, and as we advance the gap between them grows. I reveal:
      1. My increasing worthlessness
      2. The increasing greatness of the goal.

I must connect these into one point to feel the shattering between souls so deeply that it compels the upper light to correct me. Then bestowal will reign between me and others.

This is called the giving of the Torah—the light of correction.

And afterward, the giver of the Torah is also revealed within our corrected attitude toward others, within the collective spiritual vessel (Kli).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/2010, Writings of Rabash

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The Gates of Prayer Are Not Locked

534In corporeality, you can see the door just as you can see the opening. But in spirituality, you see only the opening. But you cannot see the opening unless with complete and pure faith. Then you see the door, and at that moment it turns into an opening because He is one and His name is “One” (Baal HaSulam, Letter 26).

Namely, I see before me stands a wall through which it is impossible to penetrate, go around, or leap over. But the moment I reveal the quality of faith, this quality forms an entrance in the wall, and I pass through. I wish this for all of us.

The gates of prayer are not locked. We must constantly try, together with our friends, to pray to the Creator to help us unite, to clarify what is called the force of bestowal, and to reach Him with this force of bestowal.

We are obligated to reach such a state, to give all the quantity and quality of efforts in order to arrive at the gate of tears. Only through the gate of tears does one enter the upper world, the spiritual.

We must pray for each friend in the group that he may reach the gate of tears, the spiritual world, everything! “He who prays for his friend is answered first.” This greatly advances people.

But this is not about words; prayer is called “work in the heart.”

The gate of tears is a special gate that opens only when a person understands that he has no strength whatsoever to perform even the slightest act of bestowal. Yet at the same time, he must attain these acts of bestowal  no matter what. He is ready to give up everything just to become one who bestows. Then these gates open.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/21, Writings of Baal HaSulam “My Soul Shall Weep in Secret – 1”

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The Force of the Group

528.02Thus, there is but one counsel: If several individuals come together with the force that it is worthwhile to abandon self-love, but without the sufficient power and importance of bestowal to become independent, without outside help, if these individuals annul before one another and all have at least potential love of the Creator, though they cannot keep it in practice, then by each joining the society and annulling oneself before it, they become one body.

For example, if there are ten people in that body, it has ten times more power than a single person does (Rabash, “Love of Friends – 2”).

This refers to the force of rising above egoism, the power of detachment from one’s “I,” when you include yourself in others, in another field, on another level. You clearly feel: either “I” or the next level “we.” In that “we,” your “I” is needed only to organize this “we.”

Question: Does a person receive the strength to rise above egoism from the group?

Answer: Not from the group, but through the group.

Question: How can a person feel that he or she has the power of the whole group to perform some action in spirituality?

Answer: If a person serves one’s friends, then he or she gains the strength of the whole group. We are speaking of the power of bestowal, of the ability to give. Therefore, when a person makes efforts to elevate the group, the person receives that strength. That is one’s vessel, his or her Malchut.
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From KabTV’s 4/12/18, “Love of Friends”

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Dancing Is the Most Serious Internal Work

294.3At our gatherings there are certain actions where I must let go of all criticism and simply merge with everyone.

How can I do that? Precisely by jumping and singing together with everyone, like a child, annulling myself.

Such an attitude connects me to the common state, and then I gain the opportunity to break free from limitations and feel some kind of spiritual breath!

It seems like frivolous behavior to us, but that is only because we do not perceive spirituality within it. After all, this is the light of infinity!

We are unable to discern anything in it with our tools of perception. That is why it seems lifeless and inanimate. But it all depends on our Kli (vessel) as to whether we are able to see the entire spiritual light of NRNHY in it.

Anything that comes from a connection, even the smallest one, is already called perfection.

That is why it is in this form that we have a chance to catch some spiritual sensation, precisely when you are jumping together with others.

All these dances came to us from the great Kabbalists, from Baal Shem Tov; Rabash also made us dance like this.

It is not just frivolity. Within the dance there is serious thought and very deep work. Suddenly you do not want it, and within you thoughts of for and against are racing, and they generate terrible doubts. But you keep jumping.

This is not some kind of meditation; you are not disconnected from reality. The entire time you are standing before the question: What am I doing and why? What does it give me? Who is making me do this, and with whom am I jumping? What binds us together?!

While you are dancing, you are going through all your internal work from beginning to end.

This dance forces you to process all possible thoughts that go against it, against the unity that you do not want!

Your mind constantly rebels against it, and you are forced to make inner discernments.

That is why dancing becomes exhausting inner work. You come out of the dance completely drained, not because of physical exertion, but because of all the internal discernments you have gone through.

You are dancing inside yourself, in your internal ascents and descents! And the fact that you are jumping outwardly is just a way to awaken these internal states.

You jump physically; you rise and fall. But inside lots of other ups and downs occur simultaneously, and that is what matters most!

Without these external actions, you will not be able to achieve the internal ones. One cannot exist without the other.

That is why dancing becomes a unique tool for inner work, and that is why Baal Shem Tov and the first Hasidim who were Kabbalists, introduced these traditions.
[19042]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/2010, “Questions about the Role of the People”

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The Creator Is in Everything

940The Creator is in everything: in the world, in society, in humanity, in the ten. We merely reveal Him there according to our own qualities. Imagine ten people sitting around one table. The Creator is among them ready to be revealed as soon as they establish the correct network of relationships.

Therefore there is nothing left for us to do but take a sheet of paper and draw on it what each one needs to contribute toward the center of the table, so that a true, proper desire forms in that center—the very thing that is required of creation.

It is said that when something is required of me, I must show the correct intention before my friends, and if I cannot, it is okay. The main thing is my willingness. “Help me, and I will try.” That is enough, because it is written that “no one can free himself from prison.” Only others can help me escape my egoism.

There is nothing wrong with ten egoists gathering together all wanting only to receive. But they are willing to sit and work on their egoism in order to bring themselves to the correct interaction, so that a balanced, mutual intention forms between them, with mutual responsibility and a feeling of mutual dependence.

Gradually, they will begin to feel how close they are to one another, and realize that the Creator did not bring them together for nothing. It is precisely in this common connection, in their ten, that He sees something of His own image. Therefore I must relate to each of my friends as someone chosen by the Creator, as someone placed next to me who is not merely a friend but is actually a part of my own soul.

It is said that “there is no place in the world that is empty of Him.” Here “place” means desire. As soon as our desires reach even a minimal state of bestowal and love, we will immediately reveal the Creator within us.
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From the Convention in Moscow 5/2/2015, Lesson 3

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How Can We Obtain Faith in the Sages?

528.01Question: How can we in the ten obtain faith in the sages? Right now our motivation is mostly envy or shame before our friends.

Answer: That is true, but we have to start with something, and it does not matter with what.

Therefore, it is better to begin with what everyone already has and gradually connect your mind and thoughts to what RABASH writes.

Question: Can we say that at first we work for the sake of our friends, the next stage is faith in the sages, and then it is for the love of the Creator? Let’s say we make efforts, and those efforts hold us. How do we then rise from “for the sake of friends” to faith in the sages, with which we can “blunt the teeth” of our egoism so that the body works under the yoke?

Answer: Here you need a slightly different approach. Wait, we will see.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/2025, “To be as an Ox to the Burden and as a Donkey to the Load”

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Accepting the Methodology of Kabbalah

938.02This repels many newcomers; they fly out of the group and do not want to continue studying. Or should they cross this barrier? What should people who encounter the methodology of Kabbalah for the first time do?

They understand perfectly well what you are talking about and admire the inner depth that you convey. But they cannot accept this method and constantly ask: “What is the point of all these actions: songs, dances, and other things?”

My Response: I see that for many people this is the most accessible and pleasant thing.

I look at a convention, thousands of people gather there, all dancing, singing, shouting. For them, this is an understandable way to express themselves and unite. It seems to me that this is what makes them happy. Would they really be pleased if I turned it into serious academic study there?

What else can you do if you want to lift people up, to inspire them? At least on this small level they can somehow express a longing for the Creator, for connection, even if not exactly for connection itself, but for something that draws them. I have seen this.

Still, I myself am not so inclined toward that. I have a completely different approach to attainment, to inward penetration. But we are talking about the masses who can feel and grasp things in this way.

By the way, after they dance, hug, and shout, when you listen to their questions, those questions are very deep and relevant, about the four phases of direct light and so on.

These are not just random questions from someone who does not know what he is talking about, but they come from understanding! They already feel these concepts and identify with them in some way. That combination is very correct in them. I envy them!
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. To deceive myself,” 6/7/11

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Adhere to Faith Above Reason

963.6Question: We do not want to work for the sake of our desire to receive. We only want to serve the Creator and our friends. How does faith in the sages help with this? Is it some special help from above in response to our prayer? Or is it some additional effort? Or is it the light of the Torah, meaning a special state?

Answer: This happens when we are able to “exit ourselves” and adhere to faith above reason.

Question: Is faith above reason acquired in response to our actions or in response to our prayer?

Answer: Only in response to our actions when we annul ourselves before our friends.

Question: Do we then adhere to the sages who have already made this correction?

Answer: Yes.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/2025, “To be as an Ox to the Burden and as a Donkey to the Load”

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Endless Pleasure? – There Is a Patent!

929Question: How can one imagine a Partzuf? How does it manifest in a person?

Answer: A Partzuf is the measured reception of light for the sake of bestowal.

If I have a certain desire and I fulfill it for myself, it is an egoistic desire. Let us say right now that I have a desire that can be filled with some pleasure—light. When the light enters the desire, it instantly neutralizes it. It is like annihilation. The pleasure that fills me nullifies even the strongest desire.

The desire cannot persist if it receives what it wants. Therefore upon receiving pleasure, the desire disappears. The desire vanishes, and the pleasure is no longer felt. That is, receiving pleasure destroys the pleasure itself, and in the end, I remain empty. This is exactly what is happening in the world today.

The feeling of emptiness drives us forward into the unknown. Suddenly we sense that pleasure no longer gives us the feeling of enjoyment. As a result, we become depleted.

So what is the essence of the patent for endless pleasure?

If there are two entities and I receive from one and pass on to another, then any light can flow through me. I receive it not for myself and transmit it to someone else in order to please them, and so on in a circle.

Imagine a vast volume containing many parts separated from one another. What does “distance” mean? Each part feels its own egoism. And above this egoism they begin to build connections among themselves where each receives for the sake of the other.

As a result, a constant, endless pleasure circulates between them, and never nullifies any of them. It is perfect and fills everyone completely because none of them receive for themselves. Each one receives in order to pass it on to another. But the pleasure that flows between them and is passed from one to another ends up circulating among all.

Thus, a person who received for themselves—even if they could hold onto, say, just one kilogram of pleasure—would “plug themselves up” and be unable to receive more because they would already be full. But when receiving for the sake of bestowal to others, an infinite amount of pleasure can flow through them, not only in quantity, but in quality. That is, everything that can possibly be imagined, everything that is felt as pleasure by all other desires, this person begins to feel within themselves. In the end each of us as a separate small egoist grows and experiences this light as the light of infinity.

Such are the opportunities available to us thanks to our ability to unite and begin to include ourselves in a single unified system. This is what we are gradually beginning to approach in our development today.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/11

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The Teaching of Light for the Whole World

525Starting from Adam, the earlier a Kabbalist lived, the closer he was connected to the root and the higher he stood. All those who came after him received the light through him.

But for those who want to connect with the ray of light coming from infinity, the last, closest Kabbalist is always more important, because it is he who connects and unites us with the light, with the Creator. For us, this Kabbalist is Baal HaSulam.

He writes that he was honored to convey the wisdom of Kabbalah to us. And we are honored to have such a soul revealed to us that brings us the methodology of Kabbalah, thanks to which we can reveal the Creator.

The writings of Baal HaSulam are the only ones suitable in our time for achieving the spiritual goal. Only the books of Baal HaSulam carry the light necessary for our correction. To prepare for them, the articles of RABASH are required.

The revelation of the Creator to creations, i.e., spiritual liberation, must become complete for everyone,  that is, their teaching is a teaching for the whole world.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/10, Dedicated to the memory of Baal HaSulam

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