Question: As we prepare for the European Convention in Berlin, we are experiencing difficulties trying to receive forces from the environment. While we make the physical actions, how can we avoid losing a connection with the inner goal?

Answer: First of all, it is good that people feel a lack of intention because without the inner component, the intention of bestowal, the external efforts cannot succeed in attaining the Creator’s revelation. So where can we get the right intention for uniting and connecting, inside of which we will act?

We have to try, the way a small child tries to be an adult, with all our might to keep the intention and not forget that we carry out all of the external actions coming from our inner effort. To what extent will we able to do it—that no longer relates to our success.

It is possible that the Creator wants to show us that we really are small and unsuccessful so we would stop being proud of ourselves and would feel that without help from Above we will not be able to keep the intention and will not be able to unite with our own powers. If we were able to do it ourselves, then we would not need the Creator and would not reach the state of “Let us go to Pharaoh.” In essence, a person never has reason to complain about the states he receives. They become revealed as a result of his advancement and therefore at every moment they are correct. The question is how to be able to build the right attitude to them with the help of the group.

In most cases we give ourselves a guilt trip about the past, thinking about how we acted incorrectly, did something bad, missed out on something, were unable to do something, and so on. This is the influence of the impure force, Klipa, which brings us back to the past. The same thing is true about being disillusioned in our qualities: What is the point of blaming ourselves if it is a known fact that we are egoists and continuously reveal just this? We have to form the right attitude above this state.

Therefore, everything depends on the effort. It is impossible for a person to be unsatisfied and to want something different, but that doesn’t matter because the sensation comes from Above. Beginners are shown how successful they are, being encouraged and supported like small children. On the other hand, those who advance are shown their flaws and mistakes not so they would correct themselves, but so theywould demand correction. And all of the reactions are for our own good.

A person’s inner work in relation to the group should be separated from the actions done to organize the studies, the conventions, and dissemination. One does not relate to the other. The inner ascents and descents should not affect the external work. There has to be a daily routine and program, according to which we act independently of desires.

In our inner work we make efforts as much as we can, but the sensation we receive—good or bad—depends on what exactly we should be feeling. If we do not feel inspired, excited, and generally supported, it means that this sensation is being sent to us to help us detach from egoism.

Disappointment with the states that come to us shows a person that the egoistic desire does not support him and thus he naturally turns away from it. Egoism itself helps us to reject it, which is called “help against you.” Our unpleasant sensation in the work is help from the opposite side, until we are able to ascend above our nature and look at it from Above together with the Creator. This is called standing against Pharaoh together with the Creator. That is how one ascends and passes the Machsom.
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From the lesson on 12/24/10, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Can we build the collective intention before the lesson begins? If so, how?

Answer: The collective intention has to be founded on the common goal. Our ultimate purpose is to delight the Creator, whereby we equalize ourselves with Him. In order to accomplish this, we must get to know Him since He wishes that we see His love and kindness. It isn’t our personal need; the Creator wishes for us to know Him.

Getting to know something means to become equivalent in form. Hence, we do our best to aim all our efforts at bestowal. I exert effort not to gratify my egoism, but yearn to step out of myself and desire to find the Creator namely to delight Him therewith.

To accomplish this, I need to possess the Kelim (properties, vessels) of bestowal, and I turn to the aid of the Light concealed in the Kabbalistic texts, especially in The Book of Zohar. The Light can reform me, walk me across the abyss that lies between my properties of reception (receiving Kelim) and bestowal (bestowing Kelim).

However, if I think about it alone, there isn’t sufficient force. It doesn’t even sustain my ability to hold the intention to bestow. On the other hand, if I work with the others as a link in the chain, in one desire where everyone nullifies himself before all the others, then our common spirit gains great power. Kabbalists, who had already passed these stages, promise us that this is the way to success.

Hence, I am happy to be among the friends and to be able to build the intention with them by withdrawing from myself as far as possible in order to finally bring pleasure to the Creator. In this way, we become similar to the Creator in qualities and get to know Him in the same degree; moreover, we achieve adhesion with Him.

Therefore, we must start preparing before the lesson and arrive to it with a fully formed desire. By thinking about it, a person “heats” himself up more and more until he finally succeeds. It is written: “Mitzva (commandment) without intention is like a body without a soul.” You are given a commandment to study the Torah, a Kabbalistic method that is designated to reform the evil inclination. With its help, you will attain bestowal, feel love for all others and, ultimately, for the Creator. The Torah derives from the Hebrew word “Ohr” (light) and from the word “Oraa” (instruction).

But if you haven’t equipped yourself with the necessary intention, you are sitting at the lesson dead and performing mechanical actions deprived of spirit and the Light of life. So it is up to you to decide what you are getting up for at night and what you are doing.

Even if a person is unable to keep the intention, let him at least feel how strongly he lacks it. The heartache caused by the empty, bitter heart is just as important.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2010, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Buds”

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Question: In the beginning of the lesson, you usually set a common direction for all of us; you help us focus on a common intention. How important is this directive?

Answer: We need to come to the lesson already prepared, with a particular desire (intention): What do I wish to receive from the lesson? I need to think a lot about this prior to the lesson.

Sometimes I organize an intention for everyone without relying on your preparation, but rather setting an example myself. However, in general, each of us should prepare for the lesson on his own, in his own intention. One’s success in revealing the Creator depends precisely on the intention.

A mother gives to her little child what she thinks is necessary. However, as he gets older, a person chooses things according to his taste, using his own experience and comprehension.

We have come in contact with The Book of Zohar many times already; we have tried many exercises with the intention. Over the course of the day, a person needs to prepare for the lesson and for attuning himself to the studies. We need to give people an opportunity to build an intention on their own rather than gathering them like a nursery school teacher: “Take each other’s hands, and everyone follow me!”

One has to prepare for the lesson on his own based on his present sensations and understanding, based on his current state. After all, the lesson is a time for the realization of desires. Here, being on a date with the Light, a person can receive what his point in the heart aspires for.

Maybe we should sit in silence for 15 minutes before the lesson so that every person could search within. However, I depend on you in this regard: Between waking up and coming to the lesson, you have time to think, attune yourself, and build your intention.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/2010, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Buds”

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Question: Is there a difference between a student studying Kabbalah one on one with a Kabbalist teacher and the way we study in a group?

Answer: You also study together with me at the lesson. Of course, it’s different from having a one on one lesson, but I don’t think that today it is possible to pass this science on to anyone individually. In our time this is possible only by studying in a group or through the Internet in the widest possible form, and it makes no difference where a student is. The student will advance, whereas the previous individual method no longer works.

You shouldn’t regret the impossible, but should use everything you have. Every person has a governance from above and the Creator controls the entire process. Any place where you have freedom of choice, you should realize it and that’s all.

I don’t have any students that are closer to or farther from me. The student himself continuously determines how close he is, and that is how much he advances. Whether a student is close to me or far is determined only by how much he desires to accept my inner message, absorb it, and realize it.

This does not depend on whether a person is located right here in the classroom or lives far away and studies over the Internet, or whether it’s a man or a woman. Everything depends on the student and how he uses the means that are given to everyone.

Besides, it’s very important to not forget that it is impossible for the student to respect the teacher while neglecting the group. That’s because a teacher is the innermost part of the group, the message that is inside it. Therefore, it’s impossible for a person to scorn the group while respecting the teacher, the group’s inner charge.

The group is our mutual place with the teacher, the place where we meet. This did not exist in previous times, when the student worked with his teacher face to face. When we meet inside of the group, every student determines for himself whether he unites with the teacher “Peh el Peh” (through a common screen) or “Peh el Awzen” (from the mouth into the ear, like when studying regular science).

At the end of it all, we meet the Creator, because everything is united until the world of Infinity.
From the lesson on 1/7/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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The Kabbalistic method is built on group work, on the connection between us, on the aspiration for all of us to gather together, to collect all the common forces, and with our mutual efforts to help every person come out of himself to others. In reality the method is very realistic and simple. In order to perceive the upper world, we have to stop paying attention to the “atoms” of our bodies and switch our attention to the emptiness in the “interatomic space.” We can do this in human society or in a small group that allows us to change ourselves.

We have to get together, mutually helping each other, and start shifting our attention from ourselves to what is between us. The work is unpleasant, unclear, and very unnatural for us. But that is why Kabbalists wrote an enormous amount of materials. By applying the Kabbalistic method to ourselves, we add to it, complete it, and materialize it. We begin to accept and feel it inside. As a whole we adapt it to us and to real time, and implement it in the present.

Therefore, we carry it out and research it, as well as develop the phase of the practical realization of all of Nature. Today the method is applied on us, those who desire to complement our sensation of the universe with an additional, external part. Moreover, this is not simply an additional part, but the most important part. We begin feeling forces, phenomena, and actions in interatomic space, meaning in 99% of reality. First and foremost this enormous volume is filled by a thought, a plan, forces, and their interactions, and everything that activates us, who are tiny, microscopic parts.

This attainment of the root leads us out of the state of time, lack of vision, and submission, in essence a state of non-being, to a state of clarity, eternity, and perfection. That is what the right realization of the science of Kabbalah gives us.

All of this is realized in the group, where we begin to feel how to come to the outside, to the perception of others. We go from the sensation of “the world inside me” to the sensation of “the world in the world.” If there are billions of people or souls instead of me, then by coming out of myself I begin perceiving the forces that act between us, and I feel all the souls as one whole, as one closed system.

Today even on the material level something is already telling us that the world is global and integral, and everything in it is interconnected. Thus, I begin to perceive everything on the outside as myself. I thereby acquire a great desire, force, and fulfillment, which is at my disposal. All of this becomes my “self.” These are no longer people, but simply forces that exist in this form.

That is how a person starts to reveal the true volume and vision of the world.
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From the lesson in Moscow on 1/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What should we do if a person leaves the group? Should we try to bring him back?

Answer: If a person decided that he no longer wants to come to the group, we must respect his decision since there is no coercion in spirituality. This is first.

Second, even if a person says he doesn’t wish to continue his studies, tomorrow everything may change. So, we should have a flexible approach to this. If the group tried to bring him back several times (usually twice), but he still hasn’t returned, he should be left alone. We are not allowed to approach him any more.

In Gemarah, there is law: If a person is walking in a field and sees that another person’s donkey fell under the pressure of the load, he should help get the donkey back up and place the load on it. If this happens the second time, he should do the same: Get the donkey up and put the luggage onto it. If after the first two times the donkey fell again, the help cannot be offered again because the animal is unable to carry the load.

A donkey (“Hamor” in Hebrew) symbolizes matter (“Homer”) that we are comprised of. And its luggage is the load that this matter is able to hold. And if your friend “fell” after you have tried to bring him back twice, leave him alone. It is his choice!
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From the Introductory Lecture in North Tel Aviv 12/19/2010

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Question: In the corporeal world, I have to see and draw a line between two points in order to connect them. How can I connect two souls with the help of The Zohar’s text?

Answer: I don’t know what my soul is, and I know even less about what the other souls are. Moreover, I will never know this. I only need to develop the correct attitude towards them called “bestowal,” and that’s it.

I have no awareness of who I am, nor do I know who my friend is. All I need to do is love him, and that’s enough. It means that I attain the force of the Creator, which rules between us. My open attitude towards the other person, my ability to like and love him is the Creator’s force, the force of bestowal. It is the Creator since He is omnipotent, and I become His part.

We don’t know who anyone is right now; it will be revealed later on. All I need to do is accept the conditions as they unfold. But all of my attention should go towards connection without contemplating who I am as I am the one who is supposed to make the effort to love the others right now.

Yet, to the degree of my effort to bring myself to love and bestowal, I will know my friend and myself even more. I will attain it only if I tie myself and him together with love, then both of our souls will be revealed. It will happen only under this condition.

Therefore, I should focus on the correct attitude towards others, the point where I can exert my effort, my desire, in order for it to be revealed. But how can I create and achieve such desire? Where does it come from? It comes from the group; it is where I influence my friends and they influence me. I have to feel my lowliness in order to receive the importance of the goal from them, and the Creator will be revealed between us.

Thus, I unveil this point more and more using the force of one gram, and all of the worlds light up. Why do I do it? In order to attain this entire labyrinth, to pass through it, learn the whole program of creation, and attain the entire wisdom.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/11, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Donkey Driver”

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Question: Will revealing the evil within make it more difficult for the person to acquire love of others?

Answer: But this is exactly what you are revealing: the evil in relation to love and unification with others. All the other evil pertains to the animate level.

For example, there are dogs that bite, and there are nice, cute dogs that are pets. Animals also have different personalities. However, we are not referring to a good or bad temper, but to the way a person reveals the real evil when he begins to unite with others. The actual evil inclination becomes revealed precisely in the rejection of the goal.

I unite with others in order to attain the goal, the Creator. We reveal the evil only when we aspire toward the goal. Evil does not become revealed without a connection to the goal. I can have a bad temper, I could lack patience and be irritable; however, this is neither called “evil” nor does it pertain to spirituality.

But when I try to attain love for my friends in order to acquire love for the Creator and I discover how much it sickens me, then evil is the degree of resentment and rejection. Evil is the aversion to unity.

Filter all the human properties and rid yourself of all the animate. There are “dogs,” “rabbits,” and “donkeys” sitting within us. Leave it all; do not take it into consideration. The prophets wrote in reference to this: “I came, and there was no man.” Evil is only associated with unity and aspiration toward the Creator.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/11, “What is the Bread of the Evil Eye at Work”

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First and foremost I have to be grateful and “bless” the fact that I have a connection, that I am not shut off from the upper governance, no matter what it seems like to me now: good or bad. The most important thing is that I have a point of unity: I know about the existence of the Upper Force, Nature. It is Good and Does Good. It has a mind and feeling as we understand it. It creates us and desires for us to develop. Out of all humanity, right now it evoked a desire inside of me to come to it, and I have to be grateful for this aspiration even though it brings me discomfort.

I treat my new aspiration the same way as all my other desires: I want to fill it as fast as possible for the sake of reception. However, this emptiness will only be filled if I operate in the mode of bestowal. This is a different kind of desire: It enjoys only when abundance comes from it, when it does good for someone else.

I have to treat the spiritual desire that awakened in me as a new creation. It is impossible to continue regular life with it; I just won’t be able to. That is why I am brought to the group, the teacher, and the studies; I am introduced to the Kabbalistic method so I would understand that the time has come to work on a new creation.

This new Reshimo or new inclination in me does not yet have a vector and a form. I must now immerse myself in the environment like a grain in soil in order to receive nutritional substances from the group. Only then will the embryo of my spiritual desire begin to develop.

Moreover, it will develop in a completely different direction because this desire belongs to a dimension that is completely new for me. That means I must treat it differently from the onset and not demand the same thing I am used to demanding from my usual desires.

I still live in my previous desires the way I used to live, but now I devote all of my attention and energy to raising the new sprout. I study the science of Kabbalah in order to find the opportunity to realize this desire, to express it, and reveal fulfillment inside it. This is the gist of the entire wisdom.

I don’t act instinctively, the way I did until now. The new desire demands a new “style of work” from me. That is why I must first learn a new method, develop a new approach.

However, if I don’t want to study and keep acting the old way, not rising from the animate level to the human level, then I receive blows. That’s because my new aspiration is completely not intended or adapted for my egoistic reception. Is it possible to raise a human child by the laws of the jungle among wild beasts? He wouldn’t grow up as a person and wouldn’t rise from the animate level.

In the same way, I have to study in order to properly nourish this seed and create the right environment for it. I have to provide it with moisture, minerals, warmth, and light—all the things that are necessary for its development.

This is the meaning of studying the science of Kabbalah: I study how to correctly and optimally raise my spiritual desire.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/11, Writings of Rabash

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First, we have to develop a relationship described as “Do not do to another what you yourself hate,” followed by “Love another as you love yourself.” We only need to determine who the “other” (the friend) is, who I am, and what “do” means. It has to do with a person’s actions relative to the friend, which have to acquire a tangible form in this world in the entire human race.

In the end, such relations will unfold between all humans, which can be called the world of Infinity, and it will signify the final correction (Gmar Tikkun). Here, on this sphere called Earth, among these animate bodies, we will establish the relationships that will be called our infinite soul.

When we reach that point, we will find ourselves in another world. There will be no more need for our experiencing all this materiality, and it will dissolve from our perception. Even now, it exists solely in our perception; all of this reality is but imagined.

This is the only purpose of our existence on earth. This is the place where everything occurs.

Before the fall of the Temple when people lived in spiritual attainment, they didn’t really live in another galaxy or dimension, did they? It is true, though, that internally they lived in another dimension with a different attitude. However, along with that, this world, the still, vegetative, and animate nature still existed, and everybody lived a normal life. They raised cattle, managed property, bore children, had jobs, and paid taxes.

However, the relationships between them were spiritual since all of them lived in mutual bestowal and maintained it to the best of their ability. Each person was important to the degree of their ability to bestow. Judgment was done based on the same principle: from the point of view of how much harm a person has brought on society and how suddenly his egoistic desire unfolded.

This was the way the people of Israel, whom Abraham led out of Babylon, lived up to the fall of the Second Temple. Now, in the group, we have to actualize what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches in practice, meaning that our internal relations should be grounded on love and unity so we may live “as one soul.”

It has nothing to do with external closeness. We don’t need to actually eat from one plate, live in the same house, and keep a collective household. It’s all about internal relationships.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/11, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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