Baal HaSulam, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 3, Chapter 8, “Histaklut Pnimit“, Item 88: All we have to do is to clarify once more and raise all the souls that fell from Adam HaRishon (first man) into the Klipot (shells) and bring them back to their root just as they were before the sin of the tree of knowledge.

And where is the shattering point, the point where my “self” is revealed? Where does it stem from? It is a result of the shattering, since everything other than the shattering is the upper Light and is unity and connection. It is because of the shattering that a “short circuit” between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow is created.

Then this point of the “self” is revealed and only by our efforts to connect can we discover this point and do the work we have to do in contrast to it: to change from “I” to “nothing” to the Creator, and “nothing” doesn’t mean that He does not exist, it means that He actually does exist and fills everything and that “There is none else besides Him.”

This means that our goal is to constantly connect so we will all “shrink” as much as possible. By that we discover two things together, both the “self” and the “nothing,” the Creator. Between them I will discover the whole spiritual ladder around which there is the whole circle, all of Ein Sof (Infinity).

If we begin to ascend this ladder from the bottom up, if we ascend from one level to the next, we connect everything that we have to correct, the whole circle, except for the part that we cannot come near, called “stoney heart.” When I ascend up a line it means that I correct not only that line but the whole area that is not revealed yet; I correct the ten Sefirot on the line, and everything else is the Surrounding Light. But it is already a Surrounding Light that is made of different couplings that I have made. I have received the Inner Light in the coupling and in contrast to it the Surrounding Light. Then I ascend to the next level. This is actually the whole corrected vessel. The Surrounding Light is in the “stoney heart” that will be corrected at the end of correction by “Rav pealim mekabtziel.”

By having created a whole corrected vessel I ascend to the next line, to the next level. Then I continue my line and acquire a greater Inner Light and accordingly, also a greater Surrounding Light. Thus I clarify both each time.
[111530]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/04/13, “From Hatred to Love by the Light that Reforms”

Related Material:
I Am Disappearing And Growing
A Desire, A Point, And Light
Giving In To The Dominion Of The Friends

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

Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah,” (The Giving of the Torah), Item 11: “This exaltedness and Dvekut, which is guaranteed to come to us through our work in Torah and Mitzvot, is no more and no less than the equivalence of the branches with their root.”

• All the gentleness, pleasure, and sublimity become a natural extension here, as we have said above, pleasure is only the equivalence of form with one’s Maker. And when we equalize in every conduct with our root, we sense delight.
• Also, everything we encounter that is not in our root becomes intolerable, disgusting, or considerably painful to us, as is necessitated by that concept. And we naturally find that our very hope depends on the extent of our equivalence of form with our root.

Thus we advance by pleasures and sufferings. On the whole we should establish the equivalence of form from both parts. I have to create of myself a form that is similar to the Light.

But the upper Light has no form; it is total bestowal and absolute love. So how can I create the form of the Light in my desire to receive that has a form?

I “undress” from all the egoistic relationships that I have and establish connections of love above them. So internally I am totally made of a desire to receive and its external expression becomes a desire to bestow.

As a result I find myself in front of the Surrounding Light, in front of the Light of Ein Sof (Infinity), and I make the image of the Creator for myself, by myself. This is why this level is called Adam (a human being) which means to resemble the Creator (Domeh in Hebrew).

The Creator himself has no form, but we discover Him by getting closer to Him and by that we “create” Him.

Baal HaSulam, “The Secret of Gestation and Birth”: It is similar to a Rav and his student, when the Rav’s only inclination is to empower his student to be like him and to teach other students like himself. In the same manner the Creator is content when the created beings create and renew His image. Our force of renewal and development is not really new, but a kind of imitation. And our level of development is measured according to the level that the imitation matches the work of nature.

We fulfill all that in the mutual connection between us. We were given a chance to overcome the ego between us if we use the means that we have correctly: the lessons, the workshops, the conventions, etc. The most important thing should be to reach connection, so that the connection will resemble the Light and mutual bestowal to some extent.
[111460]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, “There Is None Else Besides Him”

Related Material:
Either Him Or Me!
Cleave Unto His Qualities
The General And The Particular Attainment

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

Question: You said that we shouldn’t pin our hopes on the convention, that we shouldn’t expect any pleasure, but that we should only work above it and set an example for others.

Answer: The goal of creation is to do good to the created beings! Therefore, we should expect to receive pleasure but pleasure from bestowing upon the friends and through them upon the Creator.

Pleasure is the goal of creation, I should enjoy. If I don’t enjoy but cry, I am opposite from the goal of creation and far from the Creator.

The closer we get to the Creator, the more we enjoy. All the levels of the spiritual ladder are the ascent to the feeling of increasingly greater and more wonderful pleasures! It seems that you have reached the top and then such sensations are suddenly felt that you can simply go mad. But you cannot go mad since you have a Masach (screen). If you didn’t have a Masach, the smallest spiritual pleasure would burn all your fuses.

The pleasure you feel is the pleasure of bestowal, the pleasure of loving and filling your beloved friend.

I see that you have a sad face. Can’t you imagine that you fill someone that you love? Do you love anyone in this world, your son at least? Can you imagine enjoying giving him a present and that it brings you pleasure when you see his pleasure, as you actually feel the joy inside him? Do you feel the pleasure that he feels when he tastes something good or enjoys a certain game, as if you are right there inside him?

We have such corporeal examples that you can also use in spirituality. But in spirituality this love doesn’t appear naturally, since you have to ask for help, to build it up inside you by the Light that Reforms. But you should already understand that you can enjoy the fact that the one you love enjoys.

This means that all you need is love of the Creator! When He enjoys your actions, you will enjoy His pleasure from you to the same extent. By bringing the Creator your minor good mood, you multiply it by 620 times because the Creator is a bit greater than you and includes everything there is.

You multiply your efforts and your pleasure by transferring them to Him, since He enjoys you 620 times more and you receive from Him a pleasure that is 620 times greater. Thus we advance up the spiritual ladder and this is all our work: to fill the Light with 613 desires and 7 additional ones, Malchut itself, and on the whole 620 desires.
[111446]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/03/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
To The Congress With A Brick In A Suitcase
Charging The Air Of The Convention
Love As A Gift To The Created Being

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

Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 17, “The Order of the Assembly”: In the multitude of people is the king’s glory, it follows that the greater the number of the collective, the more effective is the power of the collective. In other words, they produce a stronger atmosphere of the greatness and importance of the Creator. At that time, each person’s body feels that he regards anything that he wishes to do for holiness—meaning to bestow upon the Creator—as a great fortune, that he has been privileged with being among people who have been rewarded with serving the king. At that time, every little thing he does fills him with joy and pleasure that now he has something with which to serve the king.

This should be the atmosphere of the convention in St. Petersburg. And we need to prepare for it. No “mechanism” will work for us. It is the people who gather at the convention that must form, generate the desired state, “warm up the air,” and feel that it is “charged” with our intentions. The realization of the greatness and importance of the work, the focus of joint efforts depend on us.

We are special; we are doing a special action of establishing contact, even the smallest with the upper force. It structures us, helps us, brings us closer by obstacles, and eventually propels us to the goal.
[111457]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, “There Is None Else Besides Him”

Related Material:
The Outlines Of Darkness And Light
Before The Dawn
To The Congress With A Brick In A Suitcase

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

The term “sacrifices” in Judaism refers to the desire to give of oneself to society. From the meat of the animals that were sacrificed at the Temple, the poor, the Levites, and the people held meals, and this was called “the work of the Temple.”

The desire to give of oneself to society was expressed in the form of a commandment a person should perform, in the form of tithe, which was used for educating the people.

Everyone had to bring a sacrifice according to the sin he had committed or something that he did wrong. The people were on a spiritual level at that time, and everyone determined his egoistic sins by himself since the others didn’t see them. A person felt where he had gone wrong and where he had sinned, and then according to Rabash, he had to have a feast, invite friends, sit together, and connect with them. This is called “God’s work.”

This is how people connect. At the same time they did very intensive, internal, spiritual work as to why they were doing all that. When a person has a feast, he raises and awakens others so that they will impress him more next time and help him not to fall again.

Everything is done in a very peaceful way as we also do today. Why do we need a corporeal Temple? We have a place where we meet with the group and there you bring your “sacrifices.” But everyone has to first clarify things in an anti-egoistic manner since otherwise all this is meaningless.

The sacrifices, the work in the Temple, and all the other activities are totally different from what we were brought up to believe. It is all aimed only at the connection between people.

The Temple is a place where all the desires and all the corrections gather. It is the place from where people went out to every region to teach the people, and there wasn’t anyone who did not know how to read and how to count. Everyone knew how to do everything; they all knew the spiritual work thanks to the tithe they gave to support the Temple.

No one followed anyone! Everyone had to do this, otherwise you were not considered one who bestows, who gives. What’s more, if a person gave unwillingly and only because he was forced to, it wasn’t considered a tithe. As it says on the two tablets on which the Ten Commandments were engraved:”Everyone should give as his heart wills.” If it doesn’t come from the heart, it is not considered bestowal.

The Torah, “Exodus,” “Jethro,” 20:22: And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.

An altar must always be higher than you, above your head, “above reason,” above your knowledge and your attainment. This means that bestowal should always be higher than all your calculations.
[111351]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/4/13

Related Material:
An Altar Made Of Desires
Charging The Air Of The Convention
The True Meaning Of Sacrifice

Filed under: Group Work, Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, Letter 38: ..hurry up and spend the majority of your time preparing your body to muster strength and courage “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” Do not lose a minute, “for the way is long and supplies are scarce. (…) But the most important is the labor, meaning to crave how to labor in His work, since the ordinary work does not count at all, only the bits that are more than the ordinary, which is called “labor.” It is like a person who needs to eat a pound of bread a day to be full. All his eating does not merit the title, “satisfying meal,” but only the last bit from the pound. That bit, for all its smallness, is what defines the meal as satisfying. Similarly, out of every service, the Creator draws out only the bits beyond the ordinary, and they will be the letters and the Kelim (vessels) in which to receive the Light of His face.

The problem is where to get the strength to constantly multiply efforts. How can we imagine the importance of the spiritual goal, that is, bestowal, every time so that it outweighs all the burdening of the heart? The heart becomes hardened; the egoistic desire of all kinds is growing, so that we can hardly see that it comes as “help against.” But every time we think that these are real obstacles, and even not obstacles—but this is our life and we need to deal with these difficulties, focusing all our attention and effort on them.

Common sense suggests that you need to behave; it’s not some philosophical debate like in Kabbalah; it’s not the hidden spiritual world, but the real earthly life. We are not able to accept these problems as obstacles on the spiritual path and to rise above all of them without exception and attach them to spiritual advancement.

We are overcome by the burdening of the heart, confused by all sorts of life problems. It seems that our life is in them, and first of all we need to deal with them and only after that engage in spiritual advancement. And even having entered the spiritual world, we find it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the goal, to aim ourselves at the true goal, that is, bestowal and love for the other and through it to love for the Creator. It is getting harder to turn to the environment and ask for support.

Obstacles come from two sides—besides this world, as well as from the Creator, the group, the teacher—from all the material and spiritual factors. In earthly life, we are overwhelmed by common concerns about: food, family, money, power, knowledge. And the teacher, the group, the Creator act in the spiritual life. But we do not want to see in all them the means for advancement, sent to us from above. We forget that we are only against the upper Light and begin to make various material calculations, slowing ourselves on the path.

Only the total effort of the group is able to create the general force that at least will keep us in the right understanding from which we can begin to start correcting our individual states. Only then will we be able to make an effort that is above human power, with the help of the environment and the Light that Reforms.
[111305]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/13

Related Material:
A Heroic War Against Weakness
The Right Definition Of The Godly Force
Don’t Leave Any Crumbs Uneaten

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

I am going to the convention in St. Petersburg not to listen to the teacher and friends, to chat in a friendly company, to participate in festive meals, to watch the cultural program, etc. No, I have studied a long time now and the convention is a test for me.

There is a deep inspection before us: Who are we? What can we do? We are anxious with the feeling of awe, not jokingly, but in all seriousness. But we are not self-absorbed, we do not walk with gloomy faces, but as usual, we combine the two aspects: joy and seriousness.

I repeat: the convention is a test, not just a meeting. The essence of our gathering is work by means of which we check ourselves: Whether our unity is true and sufficient to get a “passing grade.”

This should not discourage anyone. We are seeking the opportunity to shake and motivate ourselves to the correct unification.
[111478]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/4/13, “From Hatred to Love by the Light that Reforms”

Related Material:
I Advise Look Less Into Yourself!
First And Foremost!
To The Congress With A Brick In A Suitcase

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

Ramchal “Da’at Tevunot (Knowing the Reasons)”: The reality of man is built with an infinitely profound wisdom. The Creator has made many great creatures and all of them perform their functions. Nothing is in vain and everything is based on a single foundation: on what the Creator desires from man’s work, that he corrects all the deficiencies of creation and raises himself degree after degree until he cleaves to the holiness of the Creator. And everything has to endure great transformations to achieve universal perfection.

The purpose of creation is achieved through a very long, deep, and intricate process, not simple or easy, and it depends upon how the person manages to organize support for recognizing the goal for himself.

If he joins a group, becomes included in it, if he bows his head, then he hears the message that comes from the friends and tries to connect with them and the teacher, and he moves forward. Until he completes all these corrections, he obviously will not reach the purpose of creation.

This goal is achieved on all 125 degrees of advancement. Each of them contains all the really important ones and those who do good, and the only difference is to what extent a person perceives it.
[111466]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, “There’s None Else Besides Him”

Related Material:
How To Win In The Struggle With Yourself?
Two Paths To Attaining The Level Of “Adam”
Until The Shadow Clears Away

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

Question: Who can be considered a true friend?

Answer: “Friend – Chaver” is from the word “connection – chibur”. I don’t mean friends that connect in order to go out for a good time together at some sports club or a pub. In a Kabbalistic group someone is called a friend if he is someone with whom I connect in order to create a shared deficiency for mutual bestowal between us. From this I will learn what the characteristic of bestowal is.

After we know what the characteristic of bestowal is, we can expand our common Kli, vessel, and deepen it, seek the higher power within the characteristic of mutual bestowal that we have discovered. This advancement links us together with each other, soul to soul! We discover that we belong to a single system and that our souls are close to each other. This is a connection of the parts of a single soul, and therefore we are found together; for this reason the upper Light gathered us into a group.

I don’t look at faces, whom do I like and whom I don’t, according to which I will distance myself or approach someone. I accept everyone! If he has come, he is apparently part of the puzzle that is closest to us. Without him we cannot finish the puzzle. And with every friend who arrives, we assemble more and more of this puzzle, the structure of the collective soul.

This is what is called a friend, someone with whom we connect our souls and complete the collective soul between us. After we nullify our ego that separates us and disturbs us from sticking the parts of our puzzle together, we can adhere to each other. This is what is called a true friend.

Certainly we go through ascents and descents by mutually helping each other. I understand the friend, feel when he falls and needs help, and also when I fall, I need his help and support. Everything is permissible except for cynicism toward the group and the spiritual path. If some kind of mood or cynicism falls on him, this is already a problem. But difficulties on the way are unavoidable and we overcome them together; therefore we are called friends.
[111387]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Friend Is My Mirror
Who Is My “Neighbor”?
Who Are You, My Friends?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →

Question: Who completes a level and goes on to the next level, a person or the group?

Answer: Everyone completes the level. The completion of a level is called the general connection between everyone, Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one; everyone merges into one.

Question: Does everyone end the time of preparation together?

Answer: It seems that everyone ends it together. You cannot attain spirituality by yourself without the others. When you attain spirituality, you see that everyone is already there since otherwise you would not be able to attain it.

The only thing you lack in order to complete the current level is connection, mutual cooperation, advancing towards the same goal, when everyone reveals the one force as one. You have to feel what you lack in order to reach wholeness by yourself, relative to how you picture it. Perhaps your clarification is not accurate enough and incorrect, and so the upper Light shines on you and influences you a bit more strongly, evoking individual deficiencies in you that you were lacking in order to rise above them and grow stronger in the group.

We advance only “above reason.” Reason is the egoistic desires, the problems, the inclinations, and the egoistic passions, and they provide us with the “flesh,” the thickness and the depth of the vessels, above which we form the inclination for bestowal, love, connection, strengthening, justification, and appreciation of the other. We establish all that above our ego.

The Light that Reforms enlarges our ego so that we will have a chance to work above it. It teaches us not to remain on the animal level since we yearn for animal love, and for corporeal achievements. The Light teaches us to rise above them and to take more sublime values into account and to live a more purposeful life.

The Light clears and clarifies everything, it reforms us in many ways; it increases the attributes that you need, both the good and the bad. It navigates you and directs you in every sense, the Light does everything! You only have to do one thing: to justify the friends and to try to be in contact with them, to evoke them. That is enough.
[111297]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/13, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Stairway To The Future
A Small Boat In A Stormy Sea
The Donkey Driver

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →