“The Creator is good and does good.” We need to accept this as the only axiom in spirituality. Nothing bad ever comes from Above. On the contrary, the Light remains in a state of complete rest, and only absolute good is revealed.

The only problem lies in the vessel, the creature’s desire. In other words, everything depends on the person, on his efforts and preparation. The action itself may be reception or bestowal, and the intention may be for oneself or for another.

We begin our development from “reception for oneself,” which is the double concealment or Lo Lishma. The action is reception, the intention is for oneself. But then, our efforts bring us to the degree of “bestowal for oneself.” The transition from “reception for oneself” to “bestowal for oneself” implies changing only the mechanical action. This we are able to do!

We have no control over the intention which can only be corrected by the Light. However, we are capable of changing our actions from reception to bestowal, as long as it is done for ourselves. We bestow in order to better our own state. This work is called “buy yourself a friend.”

But in order to shift from “bestowing in order to receive” to “bestowing in order to bestow,” we have to change the intention and for this we need the influence of the Light that Reforms. We exert efforts and do whatever is necessary in the group and in the study, but the change in intention is done only by the power of the Light.

And when we come to “bestowing in order to bestow” (the degree of faith, Lo Lishma, reward and punishment, and the first revelation), we then go on to consciously elevate ourselves to the degree of “receiving in order to bestow” both via our actions and the Light’s influence.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/10, Article, “Could Anything Negative Come Down from the Sky?”

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A question I received: Is egoistic bestowal a higher degree than egoistic reception?

My Answer: "Bestowing in order to receive" is a more advanced degree, a more intricate reception. Obviously, one can gain more and cause greater harm to others with its help. Yet egoistic bestowal lets a person understand that bestowal is a valuable quality that helps him gain.

Direct reception is limited in its possibilities, while bestowal can provide greater opportunities and benefit. Humanity would not have developed if people had not opened businesses where they gave to others by selling their services in order to profit. People would have simply withdrawn into themselves, like animals that can only receive egoistically. Only man with his developed egoism understands how to give for his own benefit, meaning in order to have a much greater return at a later time.

However, Kabbalah only speaks about the unity among us, and for this reason even the first degree, egoistic reception, speaks about relations among friends and not about everyday life. All of these degrees pertain to my connection with the other souls and the revelation of the Creator within this connection.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/10, Article, “Could Anything Negative Come Down from the Sky?”

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According to the Kabbalists, The Zohar is the most effective part of the entire Torah and of all Kabbalah books. Why? These books are called holy (the property of Bina) because they are written from the heights of spiritual attainment. Therefore, by reading them, we can attract upon ourselves the Light that brings us back to the Creator (to similarity to Him).

However, we can correct the desire to receive only by the desire to correct ourselves for there is no Light, no fulfillment without a desire. Hence, we have to demand for the Light to act upon and transform us. This Light is called the “Surrounding Light” because it shines on us from afar. Under the influence of the Light, our “evil intention” turns into a good one. Then, to the measure to which the desire resembles the Light, the Light fills it.

Hence to prepare for the study of the Torah means to acquire the desire for correction. This desire is preceded by realizing that our nature is evil (for us). The evil in our nature is our inability to unite with each other! Our unification is precisely the vessel where our Upper, spiritual life can be revealed.

For this reason, we have to try to establish a connection with each other and to unite together. This is described in the writings when Israel stood at the foot of  Mount Sinai: “as one man with one heart,” “all of Israel are friends,” and  “love thy neighbor as you love thyself.” After we discover our inability to unite and start feeling what prevents us from achieving our good state, then MAN, a true prayer, the wish to become corrected, will emerge within us.

That is, preparation for studying the Torah amounts to our efforts to unite, feeling how incapable we are of doing it, and realizing this state as evil, as an obstacle on the path toward good. That is, the Torah study comes after the correct preparation; MAN emerges itself.

We can think and clarify all of it already while we read The Book of the Zohar. Meanwhile, the Light will help us in our work.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/10, The Zohar

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The environment will keep me thinking about the spiritual goal, if I, in turn, care that everyone is thinking about our unity and doesn’t abandon these thoughts. Thus, everyone will receive this impression, grow stronger, and advance. This is called “mutual guarantee,” whereby everyone cares about others having everything that is necessary for spiritual advancement. If instead of worrying about receiving from the environment, I worry about how to strengthen the bond between friends, as a mother cares about her children, then this is sufficient for this environment to begin influencing me.

First of all, I have to take actions in the direction of giving, connection, and care. I should view myself as being bigger than them in this regard, in order to influence them, strengthen them; I should search for additional ways of how to provide this for them. And after this I have to be able to humble myself in order to receive from them.

This will come to you, because by putting efforts into something it becomes dear and important to you, and thus influences you. It is similar to parents being both impressed by and dependent upon their children.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, Article, “Concerning the Importance of Society”

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If I stay alone for one moment, without the support of the group, I will immediately fall. By myself I have no grip on spirituality, the Creator, or bestowal. I can either be within my spiritual vessel while I am connected with the others and receive support from them, or outside of it. As soon as I lose their support, I fall.

One cannot advance and achieve something on his own. He won’t be able to keep himself in spirituality even for an instant. If a person thinks that he can advance on his own through reading Kabbalah books, performing some actions, and keep on the spiritual path, then it is self-deception. One will be lying to himself and only hoping in vain for advancement. Without participation and connection with the group, called the mutual guarantee, we have no chance to stay in spirituality even for a moment.

Besides, to be present in the spiritual environment doesn’t mean to be in it physically. What matters is how strongly a person desires this environment to impact him since that testifies to his desire to put himself under the influence of the Upper Force or the Creator. But if a person simply reads Kabbalistic texts in solitude, he will not be under the Creator’s influence because everything one reads passes through his egoistical filter. A person will perceive the book as he understands, feels, and desires to see it!

Thus, I’m under the influence of the Creator only if what I read comes to me through the group. The Creator or the Light “dwells amongst his people,” meaning within the group, the assembly of the souls.

Individually we have no chance for spiritual advancement. We have to understand very clearly that our only instrument to unveiling the Creator is our unity.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, Article, “Concerning the Importance of Society”

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There is no Light without a vessel, and no fulfillment without a desire. The Upper Light is in a state of complete rest; it fills and surrounds creation entirely. Everything depends solely on our desire, our vessels of perception. If we yearn for this particular fulfillment, we will perceive it. However, if our desire does not correspond precisely to the frequency or quality of the fulfillment (meaning there is no equivalence of properties between the desire and what fills it), then we don’t feel fulfillment. Multiple examples of the corporeal world attest to this.

We have to bring our desire to the Upper Light to be filled. To do this correctly, the desire has to correspond to the Light, that is, to be in bestowal. How are we going to acquire this force of bestowal? Kabbalists say that the power of bestowal exists in every person, but is very small and remains this way in the person alone.

It can grow only if a person unites with the others. If he wishes to attain bestowal and is willing to do whatever it takes in order to receive from the group and the friends their desires to bestow, then he acquires from them many such desires. He does so in the degree in which he annuls himself and exalts the friends in his own eyes. In this way he is able to receive from them a greater desire to bestow, in both quality and quantity. And if a person possesses the desire to bestow, then the Light during the reading of The Zohar will work on him; it will begin to organize his desire and fill it.

Therefore, preparation to reading The Zohar should take place in the group, in the mutual “incorporation” into each other, in order to form a strong desire. In this case, we will succeed. We can accelerate time and shorten it, without the need to submerge ourselves in prolonged corporeal suffering. We can transform earthly suffering into the torments of love, which means suffering from not having the qualities of bestowal, from not having the desire to give that we must attain. We can work with the group and friends, and in doing so acquire such a will.

As we see, everything is in our hands. We can actually condense time to zero. The Creator created only the point “existence from absence.” The rest He handed to us, so that we increase our desire from the size of the point in the heart to the expanse of Malchut of Infinity. This is only possible if we unite. Therefore we only have a single opportunity to attain the desire for the Light: to strive to be together within our small desires to bestow.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/10, The Zohar

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There is a concept of “entering a union,” when the parties sign a commitment to treat each other well in the future if the relationship worsens, problems and misunderstandings emerge, hatred breaks out, or lack of understanding comes to replace understanding. However, even if I fall into such a state where it seems obvious to me that the other side has become my enemy, I will still treat him as a friend according to the agreement that I once signed with him. This constitutes the strength of the union.

When is it possible to enter such a union? If we are close and our qualities match, then we enter a union. We don’t need it right now since there is understanding between us and even love! However, we sign this agreement in case I come to feel opposition and hatred – then I am obliged to keep myself in such a relationship by force.

In other words, I can “fall” and see you and me hating each other, but still I need to treat you like before. I know that everything depends on me, and the whole of reality outside of me is unified and perfect. This is where the concept of a union comes from – I rely on the fact that all the changes occur only in me: the good ones and the bad ones. Everything depends upon my outlook of things: “Everyone judges according to his own shortcomings.”

Therefore, when I sign such a union agreement, I establish and direct myself to the fact that the world is good and perfect, and all the changes occur only in me. This is the foundation of a spiritual union, and it exists eternally. Our Patriarchs (the Kabbalists of the past) entered such a union having corrected their parts of the common soul which is called “the Merit of the fathers.” And we can use this merit if we join them and go back to the state of that union that exists between them.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/10, Article “Ancestral Merit”

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A question I received: What does “triggering the soul of a righteous“ (Ibur Neshmat Tzadik) mean?

My Answer: This means that a person who wishes to reach a goal and seeks how to accomplish this suddenly feels that he is being helped and supported. He feels a higher soul  clothing in him like NHY de Ima clothes in Zeir Anpin. It is like in our world when a baby is born, there are always grown up relatives around him, those who love and sustain him.They take responsibility for him. And the child reciprocates with his love and loyalty.

Thereby, the law “I Was Borrowed On, and I Repay” is fulfilled. This means the person accepts their assistance and caring and then compensates or pays – not directly to them, but to the other souls. This is how the cycle is completed. Similarly in our world, a baby is born and his parents take care of him, and when the parents get old, the child, now grown up himself, looks after them and his own young children too, thus linking all generations with the previous and the following levels.

Only this arrangement of linking all the levels gives us an opportunity to ascend. Actually, it is impossible to ascend from step to step without the external help. Every time I ascend to a new spiritual step, I am reborn. To ascend, I need assistance from the group (through mutual guarantee), from the Creator (who works on us through the group), and from the special souls (our teachers and helpers).

It doesn’t matter whether they are in our world or are helping us from the system of souls. We receive help from all the Kabbalists who corrected themselves. Their corrected souls have already reached the common system of Adam HaRishon in the World of Infinity, and they are helping us. Thus we ascend. This system of help is called the shepherd of the mules; it is the common soul (the collective help) helping to correct our “donkey” (our matter).

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 6/2/10, Article, “Which Degree Should One Achieve”

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A question I received: What is “The Fathers’ Merit”?

My Answer: There is a part in the general system of souls that has already completed its correction. They are called the Patriarchs. This part exists in a corrected state, filled with Light. These were very luminous souls, which is why they were able to fully correct their parts in the general system of Adam HaRishon.

But now how do we correct ourselves? We will be able to reach correction by attaching ourselves to them. If I strive to do this, I am called righteous for I want to come to the same state as them to justify the Creator and the creation. And that is when “the fathers’ merit” begins to influence me (otherwise it does not), and I receive from them the Light that returns to the Source.

For this I need a system called the Kabbalistic group, so that within it I could realize the advice given by these Kabbalists (fathers). They tell me what I need to do to place myself into their corrected part within the general system of souls. This is called “to make use of the fathers’ merit.” They have given me Kabbalah (the Torah), told me how to achieve correction, and how to utilize the correction they’ve already made in the general system. I need not torture my body; I only need to draw the Surrounding Light onto myself through their corrected system.

My choice lies only in connecting to the group, through which I can aim myself at the corrected system, called “fathers.” “Fathers” have made corrections within the broken system of Adam HaRishon, and thanks to these corrections anyone can, regardless of time or situation, use the right environment to become like the fathers to connect to them so as to receive from there the Light that returns to the Source, thereby utilizing the power of the light they had attained.

In our Kabbalistic group we want to become like that corrected group of souls, called “fathers.” Therefore, everyone ought to say: “When will my actions be like those of the fathers?” Thus we will have an example how our group can connect to their group.

In this lies our entire choice and inheritance of the fathers’ merit. If our group enters the corrected part of Adam HaRishon, called “fathers,” equalizes its qualities with theirs, and connects to them, in so doing we will make use of their “merit” and return to the corrected state that exists there.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/10, Article “Ancestral Merit”

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A question I received: When evil prevails and everything looks gloomy, where do we find strength to ask the Creator for help?

My Answer: Even if a person finds strength within himself to surmount a “downfall,” it will be an egoistic achievement. It won’t help his correction. Overcoming and advancement are possible only through the power that comes from the group.

You fell because the Creator gave you an additional desire which triggered a bigger connection with other souls. A bigger desire is not added into your “point in the heart,” but rather through its revelation as the wrong connection with other souls. You sense that you made one more step forward, but at the same time you know that it’s false and you have to correct it.

Correction is only possible under the condition that you are willing to be inspired by the group, acknowledge the benevolence brought about by unity, and ask the Upper Force to connect you with others. Only under these conditions will your correction be in the right place.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/10, Writings of Rabash

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