Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 41: Bear in mind that the reality of all the worlds is generally divided into five worlds called a) Adam Kadmon, b) Atzilut, c) Beria, d) Yetzira, and e) Assiya.

These “worlds” are the levels of my internal closeness to the Creator, to bestowal. It’s as if I look through their prism. At the same time, I can accept bestowal on a certain level of Aviut (thickness) from zero to four. On the whole, these are all levels of attainment until full adhesion.

Question: What do we need these worlds, these concealments, for?

Answer: So that we will gradually discover the Creator according to our equivalence of form with Him; it’s a law: Every phenomenon in reality can only be attained according to an equivalence of form. As long as I, according to my egoistic nature, am external to it and am not compatible with it, I cannot feel it. When the point in the heart awakens in me, I begin to feel my oppositeness to the Creator, and then I can grow and increase my point and my closeness to Him. But until then, I am detached from Him by my ego: He is total bestowal and I am total receiving, and I have no connection with Him. This is how the law of equivalence of form works.

Question: Can we say that the levels of equivalence reflect my sensitivity to others?

Answer: Yes. My attitude to others or to the Creator is actually the same thing. The main thing is that the direction is from me outward.

We must understand that we are in one state called the “world of Ein Sof (Infinity),” or “Malchut of Ein Sof.” But we are separated from it by five levels of opacity of the senses. Special Masachim (screens) weaken them like filters that are dressed on the perception of the world of Ein Sof, and as a result, we only feel the “external world” although everything actually takes place inside.

Reality is fixed, but it’s depicted to us in the form of this world. The only difference is in the vagueness, in the dullness of the senses.

Question: How can we sharpen our senses?

Answer: It depends on your sensitivity to others in feeling the other and whether I can feel that he is as important as I am. Therefore it says: “Love thy friend as thyself.”
[104944]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/13, “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: On one hand, I must correct my attitude towards the friends, no matter how I perceive their relation towards me, even if it seems that they hate me. But on the other hand, I can’t aspire to correction if I do not receive support and guarantee from the friends. How do these things work out?

Answer: It’s necessary to see the reality like this: There is Malchut of the world of Infinity, and all of it it’s me. Malchut is divided into two parts: Now I feel one part as myself and the other as what is outside of me. Yet actually these are external Kelim (desires), near and far, constituting a complex system of various relationships between themselves and even between me and them. This entire system, everything that seems to me as “I” and “them,” is in fact myself. All this together is mine. But at this point I need to see a double picture: my own part and the part that is opposite, contrary to me.

And besides this, there is a Creator who built this state. What for? This is to develop my mind and feelings. After all, they are developed only through the work between us, meaning between me and others.

If the picture of reality were entirely portrayed within me, I would be below the still level. It’s because even the still feels the environment, while I would only be a point of primordial matter. I would be even further from the vegetative level that feels the environment more strongly, consumes, absorbs, and excretes substances, and reproduces, in short, lives, even if it pays for it with its death. This is even more relevant regarding the animate and speaking levels. People don’t just interact, they overcome vast distances, discover new means of communication, and make extraordinary efforts to transcend time and space.

Therefore, everything is measured according to the strength of the connection between a certain creation and its environment. The intensity of our development depends on the amount and capacity of connections between us, in other words, on interdependence, mutual guarantee, and the integration revealed throughout the world.

It’s impossible to reach the Creator if I don’t see everyone as opposite me and opposing me, hated by me and hating me. And in every detail I must rise above the habitual, superficial approach to a higher level. I need to ask for help from the Creator and build support in a group by picturing it to myself as part of me.

In fact the entire world, all people, animals, and plants, all of the still level of nature, the entire universe, is my soul. But I am separated from it by that power of imagination that the Creator inserted into me and thus I can’t discern see the closeness between us. This is too much for me.

But Kabbalists suggest to me to use a group, a small part of the world that I can imagine as my soul. It means that I need to stick to my friends with my heart, to unite with them, and to bring these Kelim (desires) back into me, contrary to the power of my imagination that portrays them as being outside of me.

Understandably, I can’t do this alone, the upper Light is required here. It separated me from these Kelim, so let it now correct my present “vision” and bring it back, within. And then I will feel that I am getting my soul back. I sink into the friends, melt into them, or embrace them and put them inside, it doesn’t matter how to say it. The main thing is to make it happen: unity, oneness, the guarantee. As I build a mutual connection between us, to that degree I will feel what is felt in the soul: the revelation of the Creator.

Regarding the current period, our times, a small group is not enough. We need to connect with the groups scattered throughout the world and then with the entire world. This is the task we have received.

In its essence, the present generation is ready and called upon to correct the entire shared soul. This is clear from the world crisis, from the awakening of the people and the continued correction in all kinds of places.

But the most important thing that we need to understand is that the group is the soul. Even though in reality the soul includes all levels, all the worlds, the Malchut of Infinity, but at least for now we must focus on ourselves, the members of the group. A friend is someone who works together with me and wants to reach unity like me so that no “gaps,” no separation, nothing remains between us. Exactly in this form we must define and mark the boundaries of the group.

In this case, if there are hundreds of thousands of our supporters in the world, the world group can count only a few hundred people, those who understand the idea, work on it without question, and use their natural resistance to create an even stronger connection. After all, everything contains its opposite, which makes it possible to establish itself. Thus, we need to be happy when defects are discovered—after all, the love is revealed above them.

Someone who is capable and ready to work in this way is called a “friend.” And the rest, in the meantime they are “spectators”…. Of course, I don’t underestimate anyone—everyone should examine where he is.
[104788]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13, Writing of Rabash

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Question: Not too long ago the Israeli President Shimon Peres expressed ideas that are similar to the ones we have been speaking about for years: about limiting the workday, replacing the hours of work with studying, about education via the Internet, about education that is based on the connection between a teacher and the students…

Answer: We determine what the world will think about. The problem is that we are behind in correcting ourselves so that our good thoughts will penetrate the minds of the elite. They permeate slowly and people begin to speak to the point, but not enough, we have to hurry.

In any case, this is how things happen: Our thoughts, desires, and actions are revealed in others internally, and people begin to think in the same manner, not even knowing why.

When the nations of the world blame the Jewish people for bringing evil to the world and even for secretly managing the world, the claims that begin subconsciously are partly justified and partly not. The nations are wrong about thinking that Jews are evil, but they are right about thinking that reality is indeed arranged as a pyramid: It is from the level of GE that the Lights come to AHP and determine all its actions.

Freewill is only on the final level of the last phase, and only those who have attained it and whom the future of the world depends on have it. Accordingly, they are responsible for it and receive more blows than others. This is the form of creation.

The “exchanging of ideas” will gradually become more common and prominent, and so we have to try and establish our thoughts so that even the “greatest villains” will receive the good and correct “inner content” from us.

It is because we are responsible for them and what happens to them is also up to us. If someone expresses wrong ideas or harms the world, it is an indication of my flaws that I have not corrected yet although I had the chance.

We could have prevented all the evil in the world. The Creator is good and benevolent and He enables us to establish things correctly and to manage things. If we don’t, then unfortunately very undesirable things happen. So we have to be more responsible.
[104940]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/13, “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 42: As we have clarified with the corporeal still, vegetative, animate, and speaking in this world (Items 35-38): the three categories—still, vegetative, and animate—did not extend for themselves, but only so the fourth category, which is man, might develop and rise by them. Therefore, their role is only to serve man and be useful to him.

So it is in all the spiritual worlds. The three categories—still, vegetative, and animate—appeared there only to serve and be useful to the speaking category there, which is man’s soul. Therefore, it is considered that they all clothe over man’s soul, meaning to serve him.

Therefore we are at the center of all of reality. Everything is designated for the development of man’s soul, in order to bring him good, which means to bring him to wholeness by the most efficient means. This is why all of reality was created and this is what its software is for, and accordingly we have advance in the best possible inner way to the best state.

There is a problem, however, when it comes to our participation in the process, and so each of us and all of us together see ourselves in an imperfect bad state in all the phases of our development. In the whole state we could feel ourselves in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) every step of the way if we used the means we were given correctly. We could implement the current phase we are on and wouldn’t feel any limitations, just like in Ein Sof when the Creator is revealed in the whole desire. Later, additional layers are revealed, at the moment the desire is perfectly corrected by the whole Masach (screen) and the whole Light.

Thus, we don’t need to suffer the “whole way” by waiting for the end of the road, for the end of correction. If we fulfill ourselves correctly right now, then we will feel that no one can harm us and that there is no cruel one in the King’s palace but only the Creator who fills the whole world. That’s the way it is on each and every level. What is more, we will also perceive the descents as ascents then, about which it is said, “Darkness will illuminate like Light.”

However in reality, we do not reach maximum acceleration and we advance, as a rule, in the “middle” line getting some relatively weak blows and trying to get aligned with the middle line…
[104936]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/13, “The Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Writings of Rabash, “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends”: It makes no difference if the friend is slandering him and must certainly hate him. Instead, a person who wishes to acquire love of others, that person needs the correction of loving the other.

Therefore, when a person makes the effort and judges him to a scale of merit, it is a Segula [remedy/power/virtue], where by the toil that a person makes, which is called “an awakening from below,” he is given strength from above to be able to love all the friends without exception.

Question: In our reality we always need to cooperate, to help each other. Say, if I want to buy a car from someone, that person needs to agree to this. But here it turns out that if a friend hates me, I don’t need his participation, his work—I can nevertheless reach love of the other if I myself want it….

Answer: That is all correct since my shattered vessel is entirely in the hands of the Creator. In our world we close the deal between us. But if I want to change myself regarding the Creator, then I am having my business with Him and not the world. So for me the world is an indicator, a criterion, of the situation and nothing beyond that. I depend on the Creator who gives me a particular picture by allowing me to understand and feel that the world changes if I change myself and that everything depends on the “observer.” Therefore, it’s up to me to turn to the Creator: He helps me by pouring a bit more of the upper Light, and then I change.

It may be that I ask for something from the friends, but only if I understand that they are also under the control of the Creator. In this case, when I turn to them, I am also turning to Him.

After all, turning directly to the Creator is still an abstraction to me, which I cannot hold on to, even though when working with the friends I need to hold Him within, inside my heart, as well. On the other hand, within the group I am overwhelmed with thoughts, desires, and emotions. Here I pass through an infinite chain of states; I feel anger, hatred, jealousy, craving, honor, control, and ecstasy…. Relative to this diversity, the relationship with the Creator seems pointless, pale, and colorless, and still evokes no sensations.

It’s logical that thanks to the group I acquire the possibility of working on the corporeal level of this world, that I have a multitude of sensations and hues of perception, which assemble into different forms and images. The “physical world” is just a concept, while essentially, we are talking about the same spiritual forces, it’s just that here they acquire volume and intensity in my eyes, being arranged on the scale from the monstrous to the beautiful.

All of it influences me instead of the direct spiritual influence, and for this reason I am able to work with the friends mutually, understanding that these are actually the Creator’s powers. Kabbalists teach us to see Him behind each friend and also behind the entire world. As a result of the cooperation I calibrate and correct myself, turning for help. There is someone whom I love and someone else whom I hate, someone whom I see this way or another. Why? Is this because it’s good for my ego? Or that by changing my relationship to the friends I can bestow to them and through them to the Creator, since truly there is none else besides Him.

Therefore here, in the framework of this picture, I have the possibility of utilizing myself correctly—so as to be in the process of correction all the time. While doing so, I correct myself, and for the others I can only provide explanations as a teacher or recommendations as a friend, no more than this. Our main work is self-correction.
[104791]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: A person who begins to study the integral method goes through difficult states since his ego receives blows. If these states are necessary, why does it happen this way?

Answer: You cannot leave the ego or leave Pharaoh if you don’t feel the blows. This is why we say that Pharaoh brings the children of Israel closer to the exodus from Egypt, as it is written: “Pharaoh has brought the sons of Israel closer to our Father in Heaven.” They feel the blows on their ego and understand that they cannot stay in it and cannot leave it, and, so they feel helpless, saying, “So, what can we do?” Then, I feel another blow and another, and I realize that I need the Creator since only He can take me out of there by holding my hand.

Then, they connect to the Creator and advance, if they don’t leave the integral education and understand that it is all done, first of all, for them and not in order to educate anyone.

When I receive blows and shake inside not knowing where to run, only the group can help me. If it wraps me and warms me, I will not fear the blows. I immediately begin to understand that I need to adhere to the group. I need mutual guarantee. I need the Creator, and, then I discover everything automatically. One little “ouch,” a little prick, and I already understand everything. However, this is only if you are around friends, including the women.

The men begin to understand that they need the women’s support, and, especially stability. Women contribute to softening things.
[104724]
From the Virtual Lesson 4/7/13

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Question: A women’s community sometimes lacks mutual warmth and support, and consequently, the relations between women are not always kind. What can we do about this?

Answer: First of all, this is natural for women. There a natural competition between them unlike an artificial competition between men. With men there should be some specific reason for them to start competing with one another. While with women it isn’t this way, strife between them is dictated by nature, and therefore we constantly have to calm them down.

Within us, men, women extinguish problems associated with moving forward. Whereas within women we have to shut down problems associated with backtracking because when various squabbles arise between them, it means moving backwards. Conflicts between men usually come up because of swings caused by the influence of the Light, from the sensation of the spiritual advancement when the upper influence collides with our egoism, but not because they are against one another. Women’s conflicts stem from their interactions on the corporeal level. Thus, we, men, have to help them in this, while they have to help the men.
[104653]
From the Virtual Lesson 04/07/2013

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Rabash, “One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House:” Rather, I truly want love of others. This is why I was interested in establishing this society, so I would see that each and every one is engaging in love of others, so that through it, the little bit of force that I have in love of others would increase and I would have the strength to engage in love of others more powerfully than I could by myself. But now I see that I have gained nothing because I see that not even one is doing good. Thus, it would be better if I weren’t with them and hadn’t learned from their actions.

To that, there is the reply that if a society is established with certain people, and when they gathered, there must have been someone who wished to establish specifically this “bunch.” Thus, he sorted out these people to see that they were suitable for each other. In other words, each of them had a spark of love of others, but the spark could not ignite the light of love to shine in each, so they agreed that by uniting, the sparks would become a big flame.

A group is not just a collection of people who gather in order to study together like in a certain course. This gathering is called a Kabbalistic group the moment these people feel a real need for an inner connection, in order to discover the Creator in it and by that to bring Him contentment.

When all these conditions are fulfilled, even in the most initial form, then we may see that a place and the time, the conditions for the birth of the group are formed. Anyone who decides that the main thing he needs in life is the concern for such an inner connection with other people in order to find the revelation of the Creator in this connection is a called a “member” in the group.

Our obligation is to constantly check whether we are compatible with these conditions. If we are not, if a person is not compatible with these conditions and exits the domination of the group, he immediately returns to the level of the animate. But whoever remains connected to others in order to annul himself in order to bring about connection and in it to discover the upper force, the force of bestowal and general love is part of the group when he succeeds in doing that.

Eventually, the collective efforts of the friends lead to the revelation of the system called the “soul.” They build the spiritual system of the ten Sefirot between them, the Direct Light, the Returning Light, the three lines, etc. All the details of the upper worlds about which we study in The Study of the Ten Sefirot will be revealed in the connection between us as the components of the system of the soul.
[104556]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13, Writings of Rabash

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Spiritual advancement is according to the formula of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” “Israel” is he who exerts himself in order to build a deficiency inside himself and to fulfill the Creator’s desire and allow Him to be revealed. In order to do that, the created beings’ vessel has to be whole. Whoever yearns to discover the whole vessel is called “Israel.” After all, the Creator, the upper Light, is in absolute rest and needs only the vessels.

The Torah is actually what we need to exert ourselves for to discover the love for the created beings and from the love of the created to reach the love of the Creator. We exert ourselves by yearning to love the created beings, to rise above ourselves, and to be incorporated in the environment by organizing it according to all the necessary conditions so that it will impress us and will evoke us correctly. It is impossible to reach the right awakening without an environment; it is only possible by external influence.

When we exert ourselves enough, we discover that we cannot do anything. Time and time again we discover that we cannot reach the love of the created beings and eventually we understand that we need the Creator’s help. Then a prayer bursts out by itself and it brings us to the love of the Creator.

It turns out that the three conditions: Israel, then the Torah, and then the Creator bring us to the goal; as it is said: “I have labored and I have found, believe.” It is impossible to immediately jump ahead without first exerting one’s self, that is, without the Torah, without a prayer, without a request, it is impossible to attain the Creator. It would be an egoistic request for which you will not get an answer. You will not have the letters of the prayer since they are created only by a person’s exertion. Only when their measure is filled will you know how to turn to the Creator with a request.

Before, you don’t even have a deficiency for what the Creator wants to give you, so you don’t turn to the Creator with the same request, and this is clearly why you don’t get anything!

If you want to save time and energy and to reach the goal quickly, you should act in the direction of “Israel the Torah and the Creator are one” so that eventually they will unite into one whole. It turns out that the right direction is the exertion on connection in the group in order to discover the Creator and to bring Him contentment. As it is written: “From the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.” All the sages’ sayings refer only to these three stages: Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.
[104673]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/13

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“One Should Always Sell the Beams of His House and Put Shoes on His Feet” (Shabbat, 129).

Question: What does it mean to “sell the beams of his house” in the spiritual sense?

Answer: “The beams of his house” are all the thoughts, the desires, and my whole attitude to life, that obligate me to worry about myself instead of uniting with the friends. In order to build one general image, one system, I have to sell this “house” that is so dear to me.

But this is not enough either. I have to buy shoes to put on my feet, which means that I need a defensive force that would hold me in its field. It isn’t enough to just annul my opinion and lower my head before the group, which called to “sell the beams of his house.” I also need to receive powers that allow me to remain adhered to the friends above all the thoughts that are evoked in me.

This means that it isn’t enough to annul myself, but that I need an additional force that binds me to the group. This is called a “covenant” or “shoes on his feet (raglan),” so as not to “spy” (meragel, which has the same root as feet in Hebrew) for the benefit of my ego.
[104554]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13, Writings of Rabash 

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