Question: During group dynamics and the interaction of people, apart from a kind atmosphere, various forms of emotional tension also arise: hatred and different sorts of conflicts…

Answer: I think that all this will be revealed more and more since in order to bring us to agreement and balance with nature and each other, we will need a continuously increasing egoism—to the extent that we will penetrate into deeper layers of our interconnection with nature. By rising above it and uniting above such great resistance, we can achieve greater pressure, greater emission of energy, and greater revelation of the inner parts of nature.

In our interaction with each other, egoism plays a part of a resistor, electric resistance that stands between us. And the greater this resistance, the more energy is produced there.

Therefore, the revelation of egoism should become greater every time, and the opposition should become higher and more vivid. As we rise above them, we will penetrate into greater depths of nature. This is our instrument with the help of which we will feel the underlying nature due to the emergence of continuously greater hatred, incongruence, and misunderstanding between us, which tear us apart on all the levels and at every occasion.

If we unite in spite of this, our unification above the resistance will become that very instrument through which we will be in harmony with nature. That is, our harmony will be built on our integral connection with nature, whereas the depth of our unification with it, our penetration into it, will depend on the force of resistance that we overcome between us. 
[64333]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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Before starting to read or hear text that carries spiritual information, one must first attune himself to the place spirituality is revealed. It is written, “From love for the creatures (meaning from love for friends) one comes to love for the Creator.” Therefore, from the beginning we must imagine the group, the right connection between us, within which we await revelation.

All of the science of Kabbalah is devoted to the revelation of the Creator to the creatures. And success depends on how correctly I imagine the place of this revelation, meaning its conditions: the aspiration to it, a high evaluation, gratitude, and at the same time—suffering. Good impressions and bad, meaning great inspiration and great despair. All of it together.

But in the end, I focus on a reality in which I await the Creator’s revelation—the quality of bestowal, which rules over the whole universe from concealment. “There is none else besides Him”—the force of love and bestowal.

Once I attune myself this way in order to cling to this quality as much as I can imagine it with my entire heart and soul, in my heart and mind, aiming all of my thoughts, desires, and forces at it, I can then read the text. It might be talking in technical terms, such as Talmud Eser Sefirot, or be a legendary tale—that doesn’t matter. Behind all of that, I try to see how it describes the relationships between me and the upper force of bestowal, meaning how much I correspond to it.

This is what the book or the reader’s voice tells me about. No matter what the form in which I receive information about the Creator’s revelation, I will be ready to perceive it.

When we look at our life, in it we must also try to see how to reveal the attitude of the Creator, who “clothes” into the world. And first of all, obviously—in a group. He awakens all of us together, “day and night” (meaning in different states—ascents and descents) so we would finally reveal Him in the connection among us.

All of us together are like a musical instrument that must be tuned well and correctly by establishing the appropriate qualities, mutual connections, and harmony between us so the instrument would play correctly. When that wind blows, which played on David’s violin, then like that violin, we will play together.

In general, a person should try to see the expression of the upper force in all events of his life, even though he does not understand why and how things happen. On one hand, in regular life we must try to act normally and be the same as everyone. But at the same time, internally, we should relate to everything as if it is the revelation of the Creator to us.

For the time being this is like a game—it is not real because you still don’t know exactly how to decipher the picture that appears to you, but still, you have to search.
[65183]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Is it possible to give the notion of religion a modern definition? After all, soccer and basketball today captivate people the same way.

Answer: No, that is not really religion after all. “Religion” is something that answers my questions about the meaning of life, about reward and punishment.

Suppose I live a regular life of seventy years from birth until death. Besides that, I ask questions about the cause and the outcome of my life, about my destiny. In other words, I wish to attain that what exists above me, something that cannot be revealed through regular sensations.

Soccer does not answer these questions. It only allows me to fill my seventy-year existence with something, along with other pleasures from food, sex, family, money, respect, and knowledge. However, I wish to rise above these things.

I understand that they are summoned to confuse and “deafen” me. I do not wish to go any deeper into this mire than my life’s necessities require. No matter what, I only use food, sex, family, money, respect, knowledge, envy, and passions in order to reveal the essence.

This is the kind of attitude that I must develop toward life. What should be important to me are cause, destiny, and consequence, not what lies beneath them.

Naturally, today we fulfill ourselves with corporeal pleasures in that segment between birth and death. This is why mass media shapes social opinion, even though who are they, in essence? What do they understand? We see the results of their actions with our own eyes. However, the public does not care who shapes their opinions. Let soccer do it.

Still, at least this is the lesser of the evils. Mass media lulls the masses and feeds them substitute goods. For example, the Internet is a real sedative with plenty of benefits. People would lose their minds without it, not being able to apply themselves. A person pounds the keyboard, chatting with virtual friends, and searches for nonsense on the net while the clock is ticking, and death comes nearer. Just imagine what we would do today without the Internet.

However, when a person rises to the level of questions about the meaning of life, he begins to research what this life is for. He wants to know why he started researching, why he is living, why he was given an opportunity for an analysis, who set this up, and what will the result be like. The person is not just curious; he is searching for purpose. All of this falls under the notion of “religion.”

This does not refer to philosophy or fantasies, but to the highest evaluation of our lives, an evaluation that takes place in vessels above our body. It is these vessels that we must develop, new vessels where it is really possible to study cause, destiny, and consequence.

All of this is programmed in me from the beginning. I am only given a small spark that I blow up to open myself up. How do I do that? I do it through a united environment, the group, which will drag me up from this world with its influence.

When I am among my friends, I gradually grow new vessels inside that are different from anything that I experience in our world. They do not stand against it; the world stays as it was. My animal body with its five senses does not change.

At the same time, I develop in a spiritual environment and manifest five new senses together with my friends. They are called KHB-ZON in the language of Kabbalah. I discover “religion” in them: the upper force as the origin, its program, and the purpose of this program.
[61642]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: What is “fate in reward and punishment?”

Answer: At every moment in our life we face reward and punishment. At every moment I must demand correction. If I demand it properly, I get a reward, and if I don’t demand it properly, I get correction.

The reward is getting stronger desires with which I can direct myself more accurately to the goal. I become more sensitive and tune myself more accurately, calibrate myself, and imagine more accurately what the “Creator” is.

I understand this by building myself by myself over again according to Him, and learning about the way I am built. Thus I become more similar to Him and this is my reward—to bestow more. The punishment is in seeing that I missed.

But this also becomes part of the correction, and then the punishment becomes my reward. After all, it makes no difference whether I receive a positive or a negative reaction. The main thing is that it allows me to find out my deviation and to correct it.

I accept all these deviations as good and beneficial, no matter whether they are positive or negative, whether they are repulsive or attractive. I don’t know which additional desires I have to reveal now. All the evils that I have to discover are hidden in me, and when they are revealed, I perceive it as reward. Although I feel bad, I rise above my feeling.

I perceive everything I receive from the reforming Light, no matter how it is felt, as a great reward. This is my direction. But in order to do that, I need the support of the environment, so that I will constantly see myself as part of this system. Only there will I be able to change in order to join it.

Suppose, for example, I have to become a part of the friends in a space that is cone shaped. As I try to fit into the shape, I constantly receive further clarification about what I am lacking and how to do it more accurately, so that I can fit in this special form.

So although every new revelation can be felt as negative, the troubles and confusion become a blessing for me. It says that the wisdom of the Torah is opposite from the wisdom of landlords, because you are happy with these revelations.

This is a “very narrow bridge” that we have to cross. A person who advances by spirituality, finds a reward both in positive and in negative feelings. The main thing is to correct one’s tuning.
[64949]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/12, “Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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We have a desire and a thought. If we only had a desire, we would perform everything blindly with no self-control, just like inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature in which the only thought is how to fulfill the desire.

A person who has developed to the inanimate, vegetative, and the animate levels thinks only about how to attain what he wants. There are different types of people: smart, energetic, violent, shy, brave, etc.—but each one wants to fulfill his desires, from a tiny baby to an elderly person who hides his desires. In each one there is the thought of how to fulfill his desire in every possible way.

This is how we develop in feeling and in mind, like a beast, until the point in the heart is revealed in us and begins to ask: What is all this for? Why? From that moment on, real science begins; when I begin to ask about the essence of my desire: What do I need it for?

This isn’t simple. People come to study, they become a group, but years may pass until they begin to ask this question, that is, that they want to know the desires they feel: where they come from? They begin to look for the reason, the root, the source.

Then they understand that the thought was given to them in order to reach the Creator by studying their desires. If I, through thought, correctly perceive the desires, I can reach the source from which they come, will understand who is sending them and why, what he wants from me, and how I should regard Him.

Through the group and even directly, I begin to demand from Him to change my desire: “You gave me such a desire, but I am asking for another desire!” then I will really be able to change it. The thought is given to us so that thanks to it we will be able to know our desires and demand new desires.

The thought exists so that I can check and prove to myself that I can’t do anything with my desires! Even when I seem to overcome, it isn’t that but simply changing one desire for another, which is also egotistic: for respect, for control, and pride. I simply find another desire that beats the first one and change values.

As a result of my thoughts, or under the influence of the environment, I begin to imagine that another desire is more important than the one I just had. And so I decide to change it to another. It is the game of egoism. This way I can change any desire I have.

But I can truly change the desire only with the influence of the environment that will give me other values. Then, as a result of its influence, I will demand from the Creator to change my desires. These desires can already be super-natural for me, meaning against my ego.
[64819]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If the correction has to be an internal one, why do we take all these external actions hoping to achieve internal changes through them?

Answer: This is exactly where the difference lay; we want to use external actions (those recommended by the Kabbalists) in order to achieve the decisive point where we start demanding the Light of correction because we will understand that nothing will help us if not for the Creator. And we have to achieve this point as quickly as possible.

And the most effective thing to become sure of one’s inability to do anything on their own and their lack of desire is to try and include themselves in a group. Then you will quickly reveal that you’re not worth a penny, you can’t overcome yourself, you push your friends away from you and are proud of this, hiding the truth from yourself. Try to look at yourself from the outside and you’ll see all the ways in which you avoid internal connection with the group.

But, at the same time, if you’re attached to your friends, you’ll understand that you can’t go on like this! You must be together with them, at least in order to reveal the spiritual world with egoistic intentions. And you can’t get closer to them, so what is there to do? And then you start shouting so that the society and the Light would influence you, the more the better! You demand this egoistically, one hundred percent for yourself, Lo Lishma.

The Light keeps working and working on you, sometimes more, sometimes less, altering your states, and you start valuing closeness with the group, connection, and development. You start noticing a correlation between the states of enthusiasm and the connection with the friends.

You watch parts of the convention and you’re full of feelings. Because you already have this readiness, this is already close to you, you put a lot into it and you understand what attracts all these people. You feel their hearts. Maybe each person’s individual desire is small, but together we achieve huge power that impresses everyone.

By these actions we arrive at two conclusions. First, I really want to reveal the spiritual world: Give it to me! I want it egoistically, who wouldn’t want to exchange this hell for heavenly paradise? Second, I understand that I cannot do this without a connection with the friends, inside which I can reveal the thing I want so much.

That unattainable place I hate so much is where the treasure is hidden. So what do I do? I have to enter the dungeon; there is a lion at its entrance and at the bottom of it there is a treasure chest. I cannot avoid this lion!

But this treasure is everything to me! How do I beat the lion? I get closer and it’s about to attack and eat me. He can’t break free from his chains; otherwise, he would have already swallowed me.

But when I approach him, he suddenly gets up and takes me straight to the treasure chest….
[64786]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/11, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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All the changes that happen in the universe, following the origin of the plan of creation, only pertain to the creatures. But the Creator is constant, as it is written: “I did not change the manifestation of my HaVaYaH.” Nothing else happens in relation to Him: He wished to make a creature to please it—and He did it.

All the actions take place inside the creature—in its consciousness, understanding, perception, and development. This way the creature develops from one point, which essentially separates it from the Creator. It is a special point, created by the Creator, which is the reason the created is called a creature, a desire.

Everything beside this point must absolutely be like the Creator. And in order to bring them to this similarity and create a connection between the creation and the Creator, the creature separates into an enormous number of parts.

These parts are separated and are pushed away from each other by their egoism, the desire to enjoy, the evil inclination, a selfish intention. This is the way the creature feels: divided and diverse, separated into many different systems, which are hostile to one another. But all this only exists within the creature in its sensations.

This sensation is called “concealment” (Alama)—an entire system of worlds (Olam), which exists so the creature would finally understand that the concealment separates it from the Creator. There is absolute perfection, unanimity in the Creator. He is one, and there are no differences within Him. But inside the creature there are an infinite number of different parts, which contradict one another.

In the end, the creature discovers that this exact division does not let it connect with the Creator and creates inequality between them. This evokes a special feeling, called shame—the feeling of their difference, which makes the creature begin to act, striving to become like the Creator. And here it sees that for this it needs to unite with everyone it now hates, pushes away, neglects, and does not take into consideration.

The creature is ready to make this transition, these actions of correction, for the sake of attaining equality with the Creator—anything to achieve adhesion. Complete equality of actions and qualities is called adhesion.

This is a gradual, step-by-step process where we realize the program of creation. We must feel ourselves in all the other states on the way towards unity or when already attaining it—in other words, on all the rungs of the ladder, while increasingly developing our unity.

At the end, we will see ourselves to be absolutely different creatures, and the group will appear different, not just a union of friends in a team, but a new spiritual formation with common thoughts and desires in a different reality. But any new state is directed towards the attainment of a greater connection, which is referred to as a union of friends both in our and the spiritual world.
[62164]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/11, Writings of Rabash

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The Creator created us as egoistic and forced us to break. We arrive after all of the preparations performed from Above downward, and that’s why it’s impossible to demand from us to want and attain bestowal. We need to be realistic and try to do what we are capable of doing.

But in reality, we are given the point in the heart with which we can perform some external actions directed towards bestowal. However, this does not occur inside the heart since it is completely egoistic.

This is how we establish our relationship towards bestowal: depending upon what will outweigh what: the point in the heart or the heart itself. The heart pulls everything towards it. This is its nature. The point in the heart is also pulling towards somewhere, and it’s not clear where. Both have forces opposite to each other. This state is given to me from nature.

However, through the means of the environment, I can increase the strength of the point in the heart by ten times, a hundred times, or a thousand times, that is, however much the opportunity presents itself thanks to the group and my connection with it. If the strength in the point in the heart becomes greater, I’ll be able to arrive at a state where I am able to balance it with the heart and try to outweigh it.

Sometimes the heart will win, sometimes the point in the heart will win, and in this way I will go through ascents and descents and move forward. It will continue until I finally have invested enough efforts in order to raise the point in the heart above the heart. One needs to continually try to achieve this overturn.

At first, I have the heart, black and evil, and the point in the heart. The point is very small, and the heart is much bigger than it. However, by virtue of connecting with other points and striving for bestowal, I receive from them the strength to withstand my heart, to fight and annul it, as it were.

Each time, applying ever more efforts of this kind, I finally arrive at the breaking and  understand that I am not capable of anything, I have no strength. This is when I raise a prayer (MAN) and a miracle happens—salvation!

There are a lot of transitions going on inside, and this doesn’t happen directly, but rather an overturn takes place. After all, we are not asking for what we receive afterwards. That’s why it’s called a miracle.
[64510]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”: For observing Torah and commandments in order to bring contentment to our Maker rapidly develops that sense of recognition of evil, and here we benefit twice:

A. We do not have to wait for life’s ordeals to push us from behind, whose measure of goading is gauged only by the measure of agony and destructions….
B. We save time, for He operates to “enlighten” us, thus enabling us to increase our work and hasten time as we please.

On the second path we don’t wait for the suffering that constantly pushes us according to the natural process of evolution. Each time I feel negativity in the present state (desire -1), I run to the state that seems positive (desire +1). Then again I discover the negativity of the new desires in it (desire -2), and searching for a filling I move on (desire +2). Then again the whole process repeats itself: I discover a greater negativity (desire -3) and look for a way to fill it, until I reach a new positive state (desire +3).

Thus, I am being pushed forward by the sufferings that push me again and again in a most painful way. So how can we follow a different path?
It’s very simple: If you want to move on to the next state by yourself, before the negativity is revealed, don’t wait. You can hasten the process and shorten the time. You only need to understand what you are lacking. What you are lacking is a new desire, that minus (-).

“So this is what I lack! So I can have it with the help of the environment, meaning the group, the books, and the teacher.”

Thereby I do not advance under the pressure of egoism. My advancement is now different in quality: The desire of the friends motivates me, which is the whole difference. Before I followed my egoism, like a beast that only grows in size, but now I am moving forward with the help of another force, the force of the group that comes from the Light, from the Creator. This is where the human in me, who resembles the Creator, grows. This is because I receive the group’s desires and am filled with awe and impressions by them, which I fulfill.

Thus, I don’t just restrict and sweeten the path of suffering, but actually follow a different path, and that’s the whole idea.
[62259]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: I read the book The Kabbalist, which among other things talks about how Baal HaSulam tried to reach the world. He told people everything but they didn’t listen. Why should the world listen to us today?

Answer: Baal HaSulam lived at the beginning of the present era and really wanted to hasten time. Before WWII he tried to arrange for 300 Jewish families from Poland to come to Israel. He wanted to establish a special group in Jerusalem, whose members would work in a small factory in order to make a living and be together all the time, connect all the time. He wanted to unite the people with his newspaper “The Nation.” He went back to Poland when the workers’ uprising began, hoping to direct them all to unity….

Baal HaSulam saw that the next level, the next state, is global unity. There are no intermediate levels. We have to rise from here straight to connection. But in his time there weren’t the right conditions for that. People ridiculed the Soviet Union in which a new society was formed by oppression. As a whole, the world has advanced the American way, towards attaining the “American Dream,” and it was impossible to talk about correction according to the method of Kabbalah.

However, today things have changed. I would like to emphasize that we are not talking about our accomplishments. On the contrary, we are small compared to all the groups that preceded us. However, considering the state of the world, we have to succeed. After all, today the world is helplessly facing all the emerging problems. The world has never been in this situation which seems like a dead end. It’s now clear that we are sinking into a total economic crisis and that we can’t do anything about it. There’s nothing to hope for and there’s no way out.

This is why the method for correction is being revealed now. It turns to the world not by calling it to bestow upon the Creator, but by a message of mutual guarantee that’s being revealed very clearly on the part of nature itself. Everyone sees it, but they don’t know how to reach compatibility with the Creator; they don’t know that it’s by equivalence of form with Him that we can have all the abundance in the corporeal world.

We are working together on our level, aspiring for the upper force to be revealed in the point of unity between us. For us mutual guarantee is unification at the higher, spiritual level of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE), thanks to which we, Israel, will pour the upper Light onto the world. All of humanity is actually one system, and hence, if the Light will be in us, it will certainly flow onto others.

This is exactly what our convention is for: We draw the Light from the Source so that it will be revealed between us. Then after the convention we’ll see great changes in the world. People will feel a special force: “Perhaps we can connect after all?” Suddenly this will be the real solution for them. There is no need to “escape,” there is no need to break up the common market and international relationships. On the contrary, with the help of all the present institutions, we have to change the approach and to aspire for unity and not for anything else.

The previous mechanisms are being destroyed and we have to provide everyone with a minimal reasonable standard of living and a sense of security. Everyone should receive the basic necessities. Humanity that feels so helpless now should adopt this approach. The developed countries are in a state of economic, industrial, and financial decline.

According to what is written in Kabbalah books, today, considering our investment in the world’s needs, we have a very good chance to reveal the upper force in order to correct ourselves. We only have to use our intentions as much as we can.

Clearly we are all egoists, and each of us thinks about his own well-being. Even in the group each one looks for his gain and not for bestowal upon the Creator. If we are lucky, we remember Him occasionally. But this doesn’t matter. All our efforts are accompanied by an egoistic desire “Lo Lishma” (not for Her Name), and we aren’t demanded to do more, just like babies. We try, we really make great efforts, and so the convention can really unite us.

Then we’ll be able to reveal the upper force for the first time, in order to correct ourselves and to pass on the correction to the whole world. All the signs and Kabbalistic writings indicate that it’s possible, and we simply mustn’t doubt that.
[62272]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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