The Creator in defined by the concept of “One,” as it is said: “One, Unique, and Unified.” This is how He reveals Himself to us. When Kabbalists attain the Light of Infinity, the highest point we can possibly attain, they discover One concept that includes everything without any differences.

In the beginning everything was included into this single concept: all the created beings as one creation. Afterwards, in order to give the created beings a feeling of existence, understanding, and attainment of who they are and who the Creator is and to make them appreciate the complete and eternal state in which they exist, this single concept was divided into numerous individual concepts that are opposite to Him.

This is how the descent from the world of Infinity up to this world occurs, according to the rungs of the ladder, through the five worlds (Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya). Within them, a huge number of changes take place. This descent of the worlds goes on until it reaches our world in which we are completely detached from perfection and even from the feeling of the lack thereof.

But it is especially due to this that we begin to attain unity, the One. It is due to our efforts to correct our view point of the world, our perception of reality through our five senses and above them, as much as we can imagine it to ourselves, and to connect everything to the single One.

We have no other work: only to connect everything together into One concept. Each one connects his perception of the world to One, and everyone connects their perceptions together so that everything merges into One. And this work is applied primarily in the group, with the help of the efforts of the many who want to determine the concept of this One above all the differences between them.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/27/2011, Shamati #69

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Rabash, “Love of Friends” (abridged version): The only way to enter the spiritual world and obtain a new sensation is for a few people to get together who have a small desire to exit their egoism. However, they can’t do it independently without help from outside. Even if they try to get together to connect, they can’t. In order for them to be able to connect, they need the influence of the general Light. Since the Light comes from the One, Unique, and Unified, it unites our desires into a single desire. Each person senses a unified creation where we merge in our desires, and the Light fulfills us.

Each one of them has the potential to reveal the quality of bestowal, but they can’t realize it in action. However, each of them enters the group. If each person who enters the group lowers himself before the group by accepting its conditions, then this group becomes a single body, a single desire.

Do all that’s in our power and redemption will come in an instant from Above, as soon as we exert a certain amount of effort in uniting. The main thing that we are faced with today is the unity of friends. Our only goal is to obtain such unity, effort, and intention between us so that this would attract the Light’s influence, and the Light will complete the work by uniting us. Exert more and more effort in this matter for it will redeem all of your shortcomings. Ultimately, when you all unite, you become similar to the Light.
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From Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 11/27/2011

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The first condition based upon which I can become a human is to rise above my desire and begin to observe it from an external point. This way I see this desire from the side, I verify, examine, and clarify it by means of a special analysis from the side of the upper one, the Creator. After all, I always have to attain the advantage of the Light from the darkness, meaning on the contrast of my desire relative to another desire.

It’s for the purpose of giving me this other desire for comparison that this artificial structure exists, called the group, the friends. Relative to them I can verify my desire, and at some point in the future I will be able to do this relative to the Creator Himself.

However, at first I need to rise above my own desire and begin to clarify it, observing from the side, from my point in the heart, which is called faith above reason. This is how I receive the objective, unbiased point inside of my desire—at first one point, but gradually I will be able to make a full restriction.

This does not mean that I am restricting my desires, but rather that I feel separated from them, as if they are losing power over me. This is not a suppression of one desire by another, more beneficial one, but the acquisition of an independent point that really is on the side of the Creator, or at least on the side of the group. If I relate myself to the group, I can see myself from the side and control my desire from above.

The more I get separated from my desire and relate to it as a researcher, the more of a human I become. This is because the desire is on an animate level, and the development of the relationship is higher than this desire, which requires the human level. The whole difference between a human and an animal is in the realization, understanding, the feeling and the mind, which allow one to correctly control one’s desire.

Desire is the matter of creation, and control over it makes me similar to the Creator. This is because I take control out of His hands into mine, and I begin to rule over my desire in accordance to the Creator’s program, uniting with Him and fulfilling His desire.

So it turns out that my desire, consisting of the still, vegetative, and animate levels, thanks to my control takes on the human form. All of these levels are only needed for the sole purpose of supporting the human level, giving them form and existence inside of it, rising and descending together with it.

We need to clarify this with the help of the environment for at first we don’t have any contact with the Creator. And since we are talking about serious scientific research, and not about fantasies, we are given the work in a group through which we are working with the Creator and on our desire.

If I separate from my desire and relate myself to the group, then the group becomes the level of Bina for me, from which I connect with Keter and with Malchut, and thus I control the entire structure of the universe. That is why unity with the group and love towards thy friend are the only means for us to work effectively and consciously, a unique possibility to realize oneself and to reach the goal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If the spiritual path as if runs through empty air, how do you orient yourself using a certain coordinate that exists in emptiness?

Answer: First of all, you need to completely disconnect from your egoistic desire and agree to not receive in it any coordinates on the path or parameters to measure your progress. The coordinate includes your position in terms of height, width, and depth, but also conditions like warmth, pressure, illumination, and so on. That is my egoistic coordinate, so the first step is to stop sensing these things because all these measurements pertain to my desire to enjoy.

I, on the other hand, wish to sense this coordinate with respect to the desire to bestow, rather than with respect to external conditions that I presently sense egoistically. I want to learn to bestow while existing under these conditions.

Furthermore, I’m wary that a spiritual revelation may fulfill my desires to receive pleasure and force me to enjoy it for my own sake. Therefore, I don’t even want to know that I bestow. It’s sufficient for me to simply remain in this and nothing more. This is the starting point.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: Why does our analysis eventually become increasingly blurred and vague?

Answer: The point is that you are shattered. It says that the Creator created man simply, but people have made many calculations. After all, the shattering preceded us.

Fundamental questions become “blurred” in your eyes because you don’t pass them through the group. After all, you can clarify things only in the group, in the commonality that you want to solder into a single whole.

There is no other place you can look for answers. You are looking for them in your mind, but your mind is “flat,” superficial. Our job is to connect all the shattered parts into one vessel. This is why I come to the group. For me it is a picture of many parts, and I have to collect them into one.

In other words, the group is the “model” of the Creator. It seems that He is “shooting” at me from every direction, but I have to identify Him as one. Through the whole world, through all the confusion both inside and outside, I only want to see one source. So how can I do that?

I have been given a big world and in it, the group. It seems that there are friends and that we have to make great efforts. But in truth, by developing my attitude towards them, I connect to my personal parts. From total strangers we become one. Thus I correct and build my vessel, and then I understand what “unity” is.

In the convention we somewhat attained this feeling of unity, and this is our great achievement. We felt that above us there is mutual bestowal and love, a reciprocal, single sensation, when we are all connected. This is already the beginning of the spiritual world. After all, spirituality is the dimension in which the level of my equivalence to the Creator is revealed.

So I have to find the answers to the questions that seem so vague in the right place—only in the group.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “The Freedom”

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A person is born with predetermined properties. He is not held responsible for them, whether they are good or bad—if there is anything good among them at all, apart from the point in the heart that is waiting to be awakened. It is said in the Torah: “Awakening of one’s heart is bad from the time of one’s youth.”

But in any event all the properties of a person are combined together and designed for his or her spiritual ascent. A person has only one thing to accomplish in this world: to rise from the animate degree to the speaking one. And thus, everything there is in him, including his internal spiritual point, as well as his external material qualities, all his parameters, everything that forms him is surely built this way to make him aspire toward the goal. Everything descends here from this goal, from this final point of the end of correction, and from this place everything rises back to the end of correction.

There definitely are no accidents. Everything is designed only for this lofty task. And for this reason, we should treat the evil the same way we treat the good, accepting all the things as the necessary components that connect together to form a perfect, internal state for us.

We inherit part of our properties from our father and mother, and we get another part of them through our upbringing. Then we add to all this the properties received from our environment, the habits that become our second nature, and so on. All these properties settle within us as if we were actually born with them.

Here we should realize that nothing happens by chance, as people in our world think. On the contrary, everything gets to us through the system that influences us gradually, according to the program that works in tune with the general scheme of systemic interactions.

Thus, it is not really important what particular factors formed me, whether they are my parents, fellow kindergarten and school students, my neighbors, radio and television, books, or something else. Essentially, the following thing happens to us: From the Creator we receive the point of desire created as existence from absence. Further on, this point is exposed to various influences of the Light, which Baal HaSulam divides by level into inherited properties, intrauterine factors, influence of the closest environment, the society’s influence, habits, and so on. All in all, they all come from the Creator, and this is how we should treat them.

This gives rise to a question: What has been placed upon me? I start understanding that everything in my life originates from a single and unique Source that clothes into various garments. In truth, these are not garments, I just see them as such. In reality, it is the same upper Light that has passed through various filters and is now drawing various images in my imagination. These images form the picture of the world for me, which includes the still, vegetative, and animate nature, as well as people. By means of this the Creator constantly “shakes” me, gives me no peace, pushing me further and further ahead.

So, when one gathers all these kinds of influences into one whole, while connecting them to the correct goal, then one deals with the Creator.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “The Freedom”

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The Creator puts one’s hand on the good fate and says: “Take it!” He gives a person desire, awakens in him the question about the meaning of life and impressions, and arranges everything for him, bringing him to the place where he can realize himself, that is, to receive answers to his questions.

But the question is: Where is the person himself here? After all, everything is already predetermined by how I am structured, what kind of education I received, and how I was directed until this very moment. If I take a look back on my life, I will see that it was always turning somehow, like some kind of taut spring. And even though I don’t see clearly Who was turning it, nevertheless someone was arranging everything for me: gave me the question about the meaning of life, organized the group that I found, the books.

Everything is already organized from Above, and it’s as if they took me by the ear and brought me to the correct place. So where is my free choice here?

It turns out that free choice begins long after this. After you are brought to the group that is studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, you begin to study, receive impressions, and become overwhelmed with sensations, and it then seems to you that you finally found your place. But actually, you still don’t understand anything, and all of this is not yet what you need to reach.

The place of your free choice is that empty area, that white spot that you need to fill. It is ahead of you, and you still haven’t discovered it. In the meantime, you study and are thrown from state to state without any choice. When a bad state comes, you fall into depression, and when a good state comes, you are happy.

Sometimes you receive understanding because the desire to know everything appears in you; sometimes your feelings arise as the desire to feel awakens in you. And in this way you are taken through all kinds of states together with the group, with the environment. But in the meantime, the current carries you, without any free action of your own.

And thus it continues, until you reach the empty place that you need to recognize and on which you need to concentrate all your attention. This is so since it is specifically in it that you realize yourself. And if you don’t realize your free choice there, nothing will happen.

All that is in the hands of the Creator will definitely come true. But no one can do anything with that empty place without your correct cooperation. And this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about!
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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All of history and the former, private part of my life make up 99.9% done by the Creator, and 0.1% is what is left for me to do. However, for me this 0.1% of my life is, in essence, 100%. It is because it depends on me by 100%, and I need to worry only about this and nothing else. After all, everything else is not under my control.

I need to clarify particularly this tiny area, where I need to do something on my own. It’s like a big orchestra with the greatest musicians in the world performing all the pieces perfectly, with immense feeling, and without a single mistake or falling behind for even a second.

I just need to twiddle a few notes of my own in this whole great symphony. However, if I don’t play them on time, it will spoil all the music. But if I do what is assigned to me, I will complete an absolutely perfect symphony. This is how my life is arranged. Therefore, a person needs to concentrate all his attention and effort on adding these few points, playing these few notes, but he should do that properly.

Thus the wisdom of Kabbalah does not talk about anything else but this. There is an infinite multitude of everything in the spiritual world; it’s a huge reality, like a symphonic orchestra with plenty of different instruments and the most complex musical score. However, we do not study all this, and we don’t understand or feel anything there.

Kabbalists don’t tell us about that although having reached their correct realization, they already feel this whole common harmony. They explain only how we can play our tiny portion, our few notes.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: What is the Egyptian exile in relation to the friends?

Answer: The exile means that I cannot establish the right kind of connection with the friends because Pharaoh stands between us and rules over us. It turns out that I am forced to work for Pharaoh instead of working for the sake of friends. This means that I am in the Egyptian exile, in slavery.

At first, I feel good in this exile. I don’t care about the friends, I only care about Pharaoh, the king, who lets me live well and brings me egoistic fulfillment, fulfilling my jealousy, lust, ambition, and the urge for strength and power. I unite with Pharaoh and I am ready to work for him.

Yet gradually, I begin to reveal that this is not good and I can’t live like that. Since I do not advance this way and do not clarify the goal of creation, I begin to feel that I am in exile. As it is said: “And the sons of Israel cried out from the work,” when they revealed that the splendid cities of Pithom and Ramses that they are building for Pharaoh are becoming poor and unfortunate cities for them.

All of this building does not bring any benefit to them. On the contrary, there is a danger (“danger” or “Sakana” in Hebrew is also related to the word “poor” or “Misken”) that they may forever remain in Egypt, in this state of opposition to each other, in an unfortunate life that has no purpose. And then we begin to try to turn this state into a state leading us to salvation.

From the moment when this starts to be revealed for us, Moses is being revealed (the point in the heart), who runs from Egyptian slavery to another place. That is, this quality of Moses inside of a person separates one from Pharaoh, from the ego, and begins to grow on his own, wanting to take the rest out from the Egyptian exile. This is how a person comes to be at war with Pharaoh.

Pharaoh and Moses fight each other while between them is the Creator. On one hand, He hardens Pharaoh’s heart, and on the other, He strengthens Moses and tells him: “Do not be afraid, come unto Pharaoh together!” This is how the Creator teaches Moses to keep to the middle line.

Pharaoh stands on the one hand, on the other hand there is the power of the Creator, and Moses grows between them, through the ten Egyptian plagues. Thanks to them, he obtains the ten main qualities with which he can now run away. And when he runs, all of his other qualities join him, which also agree to come out of Egypt as well.

This is how we come to the state when the fact that we ran away from Pharaoh, from our egoistic desire from which we have separated, is not enough for us anymore. Now we need to obtain the quality of bestowal, and that is why we come to receive the Torah. That is, the Light that Reforms has to begun to work practically here, and we attract it towards ourselves. Our unity with each other must become stronger. We are constantly moving forward towards an ever stronger connection.

We enter Egypt due to the fact that we all hate each other, especially the point of Joseph, the beginning of the middle line, meaning that we separate. However, the Egyptian exile already begins from “how wonderful and pleasant it is to sit together as brothers,” but only Joseph knows and understands this.

Now he wants to join all of his brothers, all of the “first nine Sefirot” (Tet Rishonot) to himself since he himself is the last Sefira Yesod. For this reason he says: “How wonderful and pleasant it is to sit together as brothers,” when he unites all of them, and a spiritual vessel is formed.

Afterwards, an even greater unity is being reached in Egypt, when the seven years of famine arrive, and they begin to reveal that they have one common hated enemy, Pharaoh. And when they run from their ego, the desire to enjoy, all together and are ready to unite, when they agree to be as one man with one heart, in mutual guarantee, meaning to fulfill the conditions of receiving the Torah, this is already the next level of unity.

Each time unity becomes ever greater. All of the transgressions they commit and then correct in the desert are directed against unity and afterwards—towards unity. There is nothing else besides the realization of the principle of loving thy friend as thyself, the great rule of the Torah.

All of the commandments, meaning the actions of correction, are included in it, until we reach the correct connection and enter the Land (Eretz) of Israel (Yashar-El, “straight to the Creator”), meaning the desire (Ratzon) that is similar to and united with the Creator. Such is the path.

That is why this is not simply the love of friends, but the means to reach and realize the goal of creation.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/14/2011, Writings of Rabash

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We don’t change reality, but only our relation to it, its perception. We need to worry about our inner feelings so that each time we transform each situation to joy.

And this isn’t because it causes me to feel good—I can also feel bad. Rather, I feel good because this situation comes from the Creator and thus I cause Him happiness. In my every correction makes me feel good, I feel good from the fact that I bring contentment to Him.

And the first correction is to rise above good and evil so that it is not important how I feel. This means that I rise above my desire to receive. Try to eat something with the intention to bestow and see that the tastiest food loses its taste. Thus, I now rise above my good or bad sensation, and it becomes tasteless to me, like grass.

Afterwards I begin to feel the taste of importance of the Giver, and as a result of this, I cause Him delight. And having felt the importance of the Giver, I return to myself and enjoy in all of my desires. However, it is already a different pleasure: I enjoy because I delight the Creator.

This means that I do not change reality, but I change my relation to it. The main factor in all of these actions is the greatness of the Creator, which for me changes everything. I work on a higher level than the one where I felt good or bad in my beastly body. I need this beast, but I work above it.

Thus this is considered my free choice. Indeed, I receive a free plane in which I can do whatever I want. I don’t go into this low area where the Creator directs me through different situations. And my free choice is consequently expressed when above all these states, I build a relation called the intention to bestow.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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