Question: Is there a margin when patience on the spiritual path begins to cause harm?

Answer: “Patience” does not mean that I sit and let the grass grow under my feet. It is written: “A fool sits on his hands and eats his heart out.” “Patience” means that I constantly, non-stop, try to attain unity.

I keep discovering time after time that I am very far from it, and I keep trying. I fall off again, and once again I return to the path; I keep climbing the mountain as I am being pushed down, over and over again. The higher I get, the less merciful the “guards” become, but I still do not give up.

I only care for my perseverance: I persistently perform a correct evaluation of my actions; I persistently grab on to the goal every second; I am adamant in my decision to attain it. I have nothing in life but this.

And as a consequence of my perseverance, my comprehension of evil and good, my understanding of the purpose of creation constantly changes. I keep getting inspired, as I keep revealing something new in it. Whatever I saw yesterday as bestowal, the Creator, and the evil today acquire new, completely different shapes. In this way, perseverance constantly renews my inner definitions, my connection.
[33222]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Matter of Tu Bishvat”

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The true evil inclination correlates with the good inclination, which is revealed to us from Above. It is written that the purpose of creation is to delight the created beings. And to do this we need to become like the Creator, to bestow like Him. Once we acquire the opportunity to bestow, we will discover that this is His benevolence.

There is no better gift than the opportunity to bestow. From it, we will enjoy like the Creator enjoys when He bestows to His creatures.

This means that I must come to the exact state when it will be goodness to me: to delight in bestowal to my neighbor. And my “neighbor” is someone I extremely hate. When I bestow to him and enjoy it tremendously, it means I have realized the principle of loving my neighbor as myself. In this case, my pleasure is similar to the Creator’s, and between us there is adhesion, correspondence, and similarity.

This must be the criteria of goodness for me. But if I’m unable to see it on this level, then I lower it. Let’s say that goodness is an ascent above my current egoism. No matter what I want, I verify this desire according to my proximity to the purpose of creation, bestowal, and spirituality, instead of the fulfillment of my Kelim (vessels, desires). And if it is unknown to me, then the most reliable thing to do is to check how this desire brings me closer to the books, the teacher, and my friends.

Our eternal problem is to measure correctly. We always deviate to the side. A bribe from our egoism blinds us. We say: “What can we do,” forgive ourselves, and continue to measure incorrectly. And this is why we fail to reveal the evil. But how are we to correct the evil if we fail to reveal it? This error always remains with us.

It is necessary to combine three things: books, teacher, and group. If a person is able to connect them and begin to test himself in relation to them, then he has a chance to reveal the evil. These three factors can help a person begin to form a point of unity with Israel, Torah, and the Creator so that the books, the teacher, and the group would direct him towards the property of bestowal, the Creator.

And as a person passes further in the correct direction, he will see that both the means and the outcome, the tree and the fruit, are truly one.
[33225]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Matter of Tu Bishevat”

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Question: What does it mean to realize the informational genes, the Reshimot, within the group?

Answer: There is no other type of realization of each person’s Reshimot except by completing his engagement in the group to the absolute state of perfection. This is how Reshimot are actualized.

The group is the only place and way to realize them: I must enter the group with all the desires, properties, and informational data unfolding in me, and until I start seeing it as perfect, under all of its conditions, I cannot say that I have realized a particular Reshimo.

The moment I see all the friends as perfect, that is, connected, bonded, and loving (according to my degree), it means I have finished processing a given Reshimo and have realized it completely. And immediately the next step unfolds before me: as hatred, rejection, envy, lust, and ambition.

Now, yet again, I must bring my present condition to perfection. This is the only way I can actualize my Reshimot and achieve a complete state, a state when there are no more Reshimot which I need to correct with love of others and bring to eternal wholeness and perfection.

And at each more exalted rung, you are definitely going to face greater hatred and rejection, calculations you can’t avoid. You are led by an endless flood of hate and egoistic calculations involving others, while thinking only about how to deceive, take advantage, and place yourself above them.

You think about it every instant until your head cracks. And if you are also arranging a plan to carry it out, you break your heart as well. And then you understand that you can work only in the group. A person is cast into such states when all the problems are focused around only this. This is the way it is until the very end of correction (Gmar Tikkun).

These calculations are not going to leave you alone; they look like some kind of nonsense, and you think you’re done with it. But in an instant, they re-appear all over again! And it keeps repeating time after time, without an end! All we can do is exercise patience and keep returning to the same thing endlessly, until the breakthrough finally occurs.

Rabash used to share how a physician prohibited him from drinking whiskey, but he would soak a piece of pie in it and little by little ate it. It looked like he was eating a pie, while there was less and less whiskey in his glass.

We are unable to receive the Light of Hochma (Wisdom): We can only keep absorbing it in our desire drop by drop, until after an enormous number of actions we absorb all of it. How does a computer work? It doesn’t understand anything but “0” and “1,” while everything else is done through multiple actions.

This is how all of nature is structured: quantum physics, chemistry, and other sciences. There is nothing but “plus,” “minus,” and a tremendous number of acts. The whole trick lies in this multiplying of actions. Each action, no matter what equation it is defined by, comes down to “plus” and “minus,” connection and separation.
[33246]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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Question: If my egoism is crying because it feels bad, how can I remain in the thought that this state is where the truth lies?

Answer: We focus on things which essentially are not up to us. We need to go through the entire chain of spiritual states, but if we focus on them too much, start analyzing them, and “writing a dissertation” on them, we don’t move on. We do not advance.

True, a person has to understand his condition in order to complete it. But to do so, he has to move on to the next state and once there, make a conclusion about the previous one. Our work is to hasten the time, and this depends on the influence of the environment. The more I absorb from it, the faster I will move on. Any procrastination brings harm.

A certain state may be good, but I if I sit there and start analyzing my ascent piece by piece, then the very first extra moment spent there becomes Klipa, impurity. That’s because I stopped due to feeling comfortable, pleased, and good there.

It follows that we have to beware not to submerge too deeply into ourselves and constantly look forward. This is very important. Sometimes people procrastinate, unable to move on, thus turning their condition into a subject of their “scientific research.” This is not good.

I have to allow only an instant to feel the state I have found myself in. I barely touch it, and then immediately, with the help of the group, I move on to the next state, not delaying it for another second. And while you are at it, don’t forget that the work is done by the Creator, whereas our job is to prepare MAN for Him, a plea for correction. We must prepare ourselves in order for Him to do the necessary work upon us.

Similar to the feminine part in creation, we look up from below, while the Creator, the male part, turns to us and acts from above downward. All we need to do is just bring ourselves to Him.
[33454]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You mentioned that evil is revealed in relationships between friends. However, if a person studies over the Internet and is not engaged in mutual work with others, how can he reveal evil?

Answer: I see that people enter Facebook and a number of other social networks and are simply living there. Passions are seething and love is in full bloom; people even get married – if it turns out that the couple is indeed a man and a woman.

Although the network is full of lies and filth, we should respect it. Once, we were walking with Rabash past a stadium, and he said: “We have to respect this place, it brings joy to people!” The same is true of the Internet. With all the garbage that’s in it, it connects people. It provokes people, forcing them to stir up all the evil hidden deep inside of them: envy, hatred, lust, hunger for fame, and lies. It’s has all kinds of things in it, but it helps us actualize many Reshimot (informational genes).

All of humanity is there and everyone is lying non-stop, wanting to outsmart each other, arguing and bickering. Do you have any idea of what it does to the ego? What other common ground could you find to bring them together? Which other place? Instead, with the help of the virtual connection, people realize (and process) their Reshimot and are moving forward in the understanding of their egoistic nature.

So why can’t we, those who are seeking to reveal the Creator, the property of bestowal, fulfill our spiritual Reshimot correctly through such a virtual link, too? I’m sure that the entire Internet has evolved just for that. We’ve come to the final stretch of the path and it’s time to accelerate our advancement. Thus, in order to satisfy their need as always, people have come up with such a connection.

That’s why we need to set up a social network between us so that every one of our friends, regardless of whether he or she is part of a physical group or not, will feel close to everybody and will be permanently connected to our general idea, the purpose of our joint effort, work, study, and communication.
[33406]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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Question: There are only several days left until the convention in Berlin. We already want to feel it now; we want to feel that the entire world Kli is in one state. How can we do this?

Answer: First of all, we need to realize how we can keep increasing the connection between us and make our dissemination around the world more intense. Our spiritual state depends specifically on this.

Our next spiritual degree depends on how much we will be able to expand around the world since the Light will correct and lift us accordingly. This is because we do not exist for us, for our ascent; we exist so Kabbalah will spread.

In “Messiah’s Horn,” Baal HaSulam writes that the dissemination of Kabbalah around the worlds is called a horn or the Messiah’s call. Messiah is a property that pulls man out of egoism (the world “Messiah” or “Mashiach” in Hebrew comes from the word “Moshech,” to pull). So this is what we need to do. If we assist the world a little more so it will come closer to the correction of its egoism, we will be lifted as much as the world needs. But if the world does not need it, we will not be lifted.

What did the ARI say on his deathbed? Chaim Vital, the ARI’s main student to whom he gave the ways of this wisdom, was not there at that moment. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his letter: “Isaac Cohen, one of the ARI’s students…came in at the moment of his passing and cried because their hope to see the world full of good, wisdom, and the Light of the Creator, which they had during their teacher’s life, was leaving.

And the ARI said to him: ‘If there was just one absolutely righteous man among you, I would not have been taken from this world prematurely….’ And the student cried: ‘So we do not have any hope?’ And the ARI answered: ‘I will come to you and teach you if you will merit it.’ And the student objected: ‘How will you come to teach us if you are leaving this world?’ And the ARI answered: ‘What do you understand in hidden secrets and the ways of my return to you!’ After these words he immediately passed away to live in the future world….”

Baal HaSulam has said the same. He died because his students were insufficient for him to continue the study with them. There are no other calculations here. When a person is needed, he is kept with this mission, and when he is not needed, he is taken. There is other work for him to do.

This is why we need to understand that we need to strive to circulate Kabbalah with all our might, and then we will be lifted. One absolutely and precisely depends upon the other! It is not that just one of us will not be able to ascend (this is out of the question!); the entire group will not rise in their unity if it will not properly participate in the dissemination of Kabbalah in the world.

Let us hope that this year we will change everything that depends upon us, and then we will really merit entrance into the upper world.
[33311]
From the Lesson 1 in Moscow 1/14/2011, “Introduction of the Book of Zohar”

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Today, the wisdom of Kabbalah must be revealed to the world. In our times, everyone must know what the purpose of life is and how to attain the root of creation. Attainment of the root can be compared to fruit, where the spiritual life of a person and their spiritual development equates with tending to a fruit bearing tree.

In one of his letters, Rabash explains how to “tend” to desire by using the analogy of tending to a tree in our world. We cultivate it in the four stages of HaVaYaH until we acquire the desire to bestow, after which we start employing the will to receive in order to bestow. That is the “fruit,” meaning the end of correction of man, his maturity.

But in the meantime, having faced the question of the meaning of life, a person comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the place where it is actualized by the individuals who have similar questions. This is the period defined as “Lo Lishma” (not for Her name). The person’s approach is still egoistic, but now he desires to obtain the spiritual world and collect upper “fruit,” thereby answering the question of what is the purpose of life. Due to man’s nature, he doesn’t comprehend how it can be achieved otherwise.

This is how we plant the seed in the soil, and it begins to evolve. First, a person walks on the egoistic beaten path as he always has and relies on himself, seeing a bright future ahead. But after a while (sometimes a few years), he experiences a feeling evoked by the Light that Reforms: He begins to feel what an egoistic nature really is.

Then, he discovers that the spiritual world cannot be attained by using his usual feelings and mind; he realizes that it can only be attained in opposition to what has been until now. And a person seems to be losing his wings. He can’t move ahead with determination opening every door as he did before. At this point, he has to start working with himself seemingly from the outside, which is through the environment: in the group, with a teacher and Kabbalistic texts.

One must stretch from inward outward, and only then, having completed a circle, can a person treat himself as a seed planted in the soil. He will learn to tend to this seed so it may germinate and not dry out in the sand. He will provide nurturing conditions for it: minerals, moisture, and light, whatever is necessary for its growth. And only then will his seed sprout.
[33332]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “Because Man Is the Tree of the Field”

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A person grows not by his own effort, but due to the influence of the environment. To achieve this, he has to interact with the group in an effective, spiritual manner.

A person wishes for the group to fertilize him with the love of others, closeness, and connection with all that lies outside of his egoism. He must view this “beyond-egoism” reality as more important than the “within-egoism” one.

Only after such calculation, when the environment becomes more important to me than I am, do I start absorbing its life forces, instead of locking the attention onto myself. And then, I start to grow.

This work is non-stop. There constantly emerge new Reshimot (spiritual informational genes, records), desires, and thoughts in a person. He has to be able to handle them every second, continuously returning to the analysis and realization of what really matters: externality or internality.

It is vital to cleave to the Kabbalistic texts, the teacher, and the group. As Kabbalists inform us, these instruments calibrate the person correctly, and then, with their assistance, he can rise above himself, above the calculation aimed for personal benefit.

Cultivating within the seed of bestowal, a person enters the “womb of the upper one,” places himself under its influence, and submits to its force, its program and purpose. As to one’s own thoughts and desires, they get nullified. This is the only way to evolve: like a seed in the ground and an embryo in the mother’s womb. One has to annul himself before the environment so it can affect him freely. This is the law of spiritual development.

Thus, gradually, we clarify for ourselves what the spiritual world is compared to the material one. We acquire an increasingly greater property of bestowal above our egoistic desire, get formed like an embryo, sprout like a seedling, and finally become a tree that will bear the fruit of bestowal.
[33326]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/2011, “Because Man Is the Tree of the Field”

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