Question: Sometimes when I read The Zohar, I feel something pulsate in me. Is The Zohar a live system, and are we able to absorb spiritual models through its words?

Answer: Kabbalists describe the system of connections between us. This altruistic connection between everyone’s private desires forms us into the image of the Creator (since the entire system of desires is exactly like the force of Light which created it, the Creator).

Kabbalists reveal this system to us—each one according to his degree, his nature, and the root of his soul. They explain the way it works, how our actions evoke corresponding reactions—MAN (appeal) and MAD (response).

They reveal Nature and nothing else. When you reveal it—as if you were looking at a 3D picture without concentrating on its superficial image, but with your eyes unfocused, confusing them—you will begin to see the picture inside.

You become free from the power of your corporeal mind and feelings, you will abandon your egoism—and then this picture can carry you deep inside it. You enter it and discover an entire world: still, vegetative, animate, and human levels, which lead their own lives.

This is what The Zohar reveals. You read it and imagine a regular picture of this world. But The Zohar reveals the inner picture to you. You will see this inner picture when you defocus your corporeal “vision” by rising above your egoistic desires and qualities of perception—towards bestowal.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/11, Zohar for All

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We start off trying to connect. “We” meaning those people in whom the point in the heart has awakened; they were gathered together from Above. And after we are gathered together, we have to fulfill the task we’ve been entrusted with: to realize our yearning and desire, and exert ourselves in order to connect.

And then we will reveal that we’re unable to succeed in this and that our ego will not let us do this. Our egoism stands between us, separating us and moving us away from each other, and doesn’t let us connect. And even if we succeed in this, it can only be in order to achieve some material goals. But we’re unable to connect into a true spiritual vessel.

This is where Pharaoh is revealed to us. In our normal material life he doesn’t give us any trouble and lets us be well-off. You can get pots full of meat and garlic—anything you want, but only as long as you remain under the reign of the Pharaoh.

But when we try to lift above the material, the corporeal, Pharaoh starts raising his objections. And his resistance shows the person the same strength of connection, which he has to achieve in order to reveal the light. As it is said in the article “The Secret of Conception and Birth,” that due to overcoming the resistance of the previous degree, the desire of the next degree is born.

We reveal the Pharaoh, our ego, more and more, and make more and more effort in order to snap out of it, rise above it and reach a connection between us, that is, to make ourselves similar to the light. Thus we reveal that the Pharaoh hinders us and we try to escape and run away from him, maybe not defeat him, but at least separate from him.

It is clear that I will not subdue him and won’t be able to reign over him. But if I succeed in disconnecting from him even for a short moment, this is called exodus. This is how we flee from the first prison and then reveal the real barrier. The same Pharaoh turns into Mount Sinai.

We fled from Pharaoh, but now we have to show how we really overcome him, as without him, we cannot achieve a truly powerful connection between us. If it weren’t for the ego, we would be completely devoid of any powers, good or evil. Therefore, we need Pharaoh so we can overcome, rise above him, and there connect..

Psychologists say that quarrels, which sometimes arise between family members, allow them to reveal stronger connection and love, they sharpen the feelings. It’s like hot pepper and spice, which are added to food so that it isn’t bland, these differences and clashes give flavor to relationships.

That’s why we need Pharaoh in order to understand what mutual responsibility and connection are. Without his resistance we will not find out what prevents us from connecting. Even the feeling of connection that has already been achieved cannot exist without the opposite force hidden inside it that works against it. Because we are the creatures, and we have to include in us two forces: the connecting one and the rejecting one, the Light and the darkness.
[63800]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/11, Writings of Rabash

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No one comes to a group of Kabbalists because he is looking for it by himself and needs friends. If a person needs company he will look for it in a pub or in some club, but not in a group where people study the wisdom of Kabbalah.

A person reaches this group according to the inner demand. This desire is evoked in the heart and makes a person feel intuitively that here he can find the answer for the inner call. He feels that there is something here, although he doesn’t know exactly what it is, still this is how he feels it subconsciously.

So he comes to this place, when he feels that it is somehow connected to his inner desire. A person doesn’t know why he comes; he is brought there from Above. As it says, the Creator puts a person’s hand on the good fate and tells him, “Take it!”

However, after he studies for a while and goes through different states (which can take months and even years), and he finally understands that he doesn’t have the power to advance by himself and that it may be possible only if he connects with the same desires that are in others.

From that moment on, it means that he is looking for a group, meaning that he understands better that he will not attain the desired goal by himself, and so he needs all the others. He feels that he needs the group, the love of friends. Accordingly, he begins to build a special connection with other people that study with him,so that it will be possible to call them a group.

Until then, it isn’t a group, but simply a number of people sitting together…if you don’t feel your connection with those who study with you, understanding that without it you cannot achieve the goal, then you have no friends and you have no group. You need to build these relationships if you want to succeed.

All this must be clarified and so it takes a lot of time. There are people who can study and listen for 20 years and even speak about it, but they still don’t have the inner desire, the understanding of the heart, that there must be a connection with others, because otherwise you will not be able to fulfill yourself. They don’t have this inner decision, and the goal and the group do not connect.
[63685]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why is it so hard to kick a habit?

Answer: Actually it isn’t hard.  Take smoking, for example. If every time I took a cigarette to my mouth I were to get an electric shock, a few attempts would be enough for me to quit smoking and I would never start smoking again even if I knew that the “punishment” was cancelled. It is because now I don’t identify cigarettes with pleasure, but with an electric shock. This association is already “recorded” in the desire, and so from now on cigarettes don’t exist for me, I am afraid of them.

Question: But what should you do if rather than quitting an old one, you have to start a new habit, for example, starting the habit of getting up for the morning lesson?

Answer: Simple, you have a business, so imagine that each time that you don’t get up for the morning lesson, an income tax inspector comes to visit you. If you get up on time, a stream of endless customers visit you and all your business dealings are successful. This way, whether you want to or not, you associate the success of the business with a certain action, with waking up for the lesson. Then you cannot stop yourself from getting up anymore. This is how a habit becomes a second nature.

We can see it clearly in religious customs to which a person becomes accustomed as a child. He is used to singing certain parts of the prayer. If you suggest that he should just read them, he won’t be able to. He will only get confused, not knowing what he says.

All our life is made up of habits. The desire is just “raw material,” like a computer without software, the “metal” that needs to be filled with data, with software. This is what education is about; it uses the force of a habit.

When I work internally, I also have to “record” in the desire actions that are not natural for it. It takes much energy and I do it reluctantly, and here too there is the game of reward and punishment.

Question: How can it be done?

Answer: Ask your friends to help you. You cannot do it alone. You cannot manage without the environment.

Suppose you decide to lose weight. You go to a place where everyone tells each other how terrible it is to be fat and how healthy it is to be slim. You listen to them over and over again, until you internalize the message. If you managed to put an internal check mark next to it, you are protected from gaining weight again as long as you are not “tempted” by some new pleasure that is on a higher standard than the one you achieved.

The desire is a “piece of metal,” an empty disc. It will play whatever you upload on it. So throughout life you can make yourself get used to what you think is important.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/11, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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If I carefully follow the signals that the Creator gives me in my life, I will see that He brings me to the good fate and says: “Choose this, son!” And it is my responsibility to grab onto this opportunity and realize it.

But how can I see all this? How do I find my fate and the Creator who directs me? How do I understand that it is precisely what I need to execute in my life, and it is in fact the missing piece in the common puzzle? The whole picture is already complete except for this one piece. So how do I see it and where do I find it?

It turns out that I need to search for the place of my free choice. The Creator will bring me there and lead me directly to the place where I need to execute my action. The Creator directs us through a simple and natural path, allowing us to feel some guidance that brings us a sense of comfort in a life that is difficult, full of suffering, problems, ailments, and misfortunes. And since we are a simple desire to receive pleasure, we instinctively run from evil and strive for peace.

The Creator shows us the direction: from evil to good. However, one needs to exert effort from his side since advancement by this path is possible only under the condition that we change our motto, the intention with which one does everything. Either I just want to run away from evil and reach goodness, according to my natural desire to receive, or I advance above my desire, at the level of intention, and I do this in order to delight the Creator.

In other words, I need to separate from my desire to receive, rise above it, perform a restriction on it, and in spite of everything that remains in it, advance with the intent to give joy to Him, rather than me. This constitutes my free choice.

I constantly work with my desire, and it advances me and shows me the path from suffering to pleasure, which shines to me ahead like through slots in the wall or like a ray of light through the clouds. However, advancement toward this ray is only possible if I change the reason for my movement, and rather than doing it for myself, although it is pleasant and nice, I begin to do it for the benefit of the Creator.

He calls me in order to do good to me, and I go in order to do good to Him.
[63688]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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Question: What if I have chosen an environment, but I can’t concede to it, can’t bring myself under its influence? Does it mean that I am destined to external suffering because I lack internal achievements?

Answer: Suppose that according to the root of your soul, the time has come for you to develop spiritually. This is possible only through mutual connection with a special environment that will enable you to acquire the attribute of bestowal and to discover the next, higher state. Suppose you have already approached it, that it is your turn in the general system, and you have been given a chance.

In this case, if your personal efforts to be in contact with the general system are not enough, you are behind, and then nature’s external forces, which you didn’t activate by the right work in unity and in mutual guarantee, automatically pressure you. They have already been activated, but it’s as if they are unemployed, and so you feel these forces as suffering until you activate them.

There must be a special connection for each of them: here in love, here in unity, here in dissemination, and here in studying… Put everything in its place and you will feel peace. Otherwise, these forces are left without use, without the right connection, and these discrepancies with your present level of development affect you negatively.

The forces that you should have activated (but didn’t) summon the suffering that you feel. In other words, they make you pay attention to them and to correct the defects, to make the necessary connections. This is the difference between the right path and the path of suffering.

With the help of the group we can discover these opportunities and do our best to include them in the unity. If it’s the opposite, we will certainly suffer, both individually and as a group. This means that I suffer because of my external and internal forces by which I should have already connected to the general system.

No one is stopping me except me. There is the group, and instead of judging its advantages and disadvantages, I have to see it as ideal. So the problem is only in me.

And by correcting myself, I also correct the group. I awaken the friends to bestow upon me even more strongly, but actually I awaken myself to demand more from them. One way or another all the correction takes part internally.

Question: I understand what I have to do, but why is it so difficult?

Answer: Actually, you haven’t clarified to yourself what you should do. This is what makes it so difficult. If you accurately discover what you have to do, you will see that you have to be in a close, inner, and “intimate” contact with the environment.

This contact frees you from all worries. It’s as if you open a small screen, connect one heart to another, and you get everything that you need from the environment. You connect to the environment, and together you become a whole—and the problems disappear: Now all the forces that pressured you in the form of suffering become friendly and desirable.
[63476]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/2011, “The Freedom”

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Every given moment with all its data comes from Above. Everything in it is predetermined, and I am under its control. However, the next moment is in my hands.

I begin to analyze what is the meaning of life? Can I understand it? Suddenly, I realize that not only can I understand it, but  I can change it as well. Moreover, I not only can change it, but I can attain the highest possible degree of perception, sensation, awareness, and control of the situation.

It turns out that among the thousand buttons, there is the one, the most important one. All the other 999 buttons will not disturb you when you press that single button. It is your free will.

You have to find that button over and over again, to move step by step, each time doing different work and performing different analyses. You can’t just grab that button and hold on to it until the end. No, you have to look for it each time anew, among all the other buttons. Now, it was here, so how can I reach it? On the next level, it is in a totally different place.

This is how you change your life. This isn’t some superficial work. It throws you from one place to another, from one end of your data matrix to another. With the help of this button, you have to activate all others. This button is the access to them.

Eventually, free will merely obliges you to come to the group. It isn’t complicated. Enter the group and bring yourself under the influence of the right environment. Thanks to that, together with the environment, in mutual connection with it, you will find the right button and change your fate.

Reality is much more simple than what we imagine. It says that the Creator created man simply, but people have made many complications.
[63484]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: What does the law of loving the other give us?

Answer: By means of loving the other we can reach love of the Creator, which is the purpose for which we begin our development. The purpose of creation is to reach love of the Creator.

The Creator initially had a perfect love of the creature according to His nature of good that does good. Bringing the creature to this goodness means bringing it to the point of adhesion with the Creator.

It turns out that love of the Creator is the purpose of our development, its final point. It is reached through keeping the 612 commandments (various preparations in our 612 egoistic desires in order to turn them toward bestowal), which are necessary to reach the last, 613th commandment of love and bestowal toward each other.

Each rule consists of a connection in a variety of details. Following the example of the “holy group,” that is, the society built on the laws of bestowal and consisting of a few people united by one goal, our aim is to reach a higher purpose through giving to each other.

Giving in itself is not a purpose. If we gather together only to give to each other, we build an egoistic formation by enjoying each other. Such a union is advantageous to me because ten of us can reach more fulfillment than one. Everyone will receive pleasure from the other nine.

However, such bestowal doesn’t take us out of the egoistic law of receiving for oneself. Only if we bestow upon each other in order to bestow upon the Creator can we be called a holy group that wants to reach bestowal. Otherwise, we would build an egoistic society in order to mutually profit from each other.

A perfect spiritual structure should consist of not less than ten people, according to the ten Sefirot of a spiritual body. Then bestowal of one toward the other will bring us to bestowal toward the Creator since together, we want to become the full ten Sefirot.

Malchut is included in the first nine Sefirot (Tet Rishonot). Thus, ten Sefirot of bestowal (ten Sefirot of the Direct Light) are formed. And the first nine Sefirot get included into Malchut and form ten receiving Sefirot (ten Sefirot of the Reflected Light). Thus, we come to mutual bestowal. The need for such an action gives us the right to receive the power, the fulfillment from Above, and is called a prayer.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/2011, Writings of Rabash

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After the convention we are in a vague state, as if in a fog, but this is good. This is the way it is supposed to be. After a heavy lunch you become fat, awkward, and cannot move.

It’s the same after the convention: You have filled your “stomach” with all of the wonderful fillings that were there, and now you gradually begin to digest them. For this reason you have slightly relaxed. It’s like an animal that having eaten his fill is now sleepy, laying, and waiting for the food to be absorbed by the body.

You’ll see how you return to your normal state after a week or two. No state should be neglected. They need to be studied from the side. Now you are in such a state when you don’t care about anything: neither the friends, nor the teacher, nor Kabbalah, nor the whole world in general. You don’t want anything, only to sleep, and you cannot and do not want to come out of this hibernation, willfully submitting to this flow.

Yet, don’t resist and at first try to study this state, like a research scientist. Now you are indifferent to everything and want nothing but to enjoy your idleness. You feel that you are a complete zero with the fog both in the heart and head, as if half-asleep.

So study this state well and very seriously in order to clearly understand: Why you are in it, what the Creator wants from you this way, and what is the benefit of such states? First of all, study the state, do not annul it. Afterwards, you will understand how to proceed further on.

These are inevitable states. It’s like a lion that caught its prey, has filled himself, and is now resting. That is, after receiving the fulfillment, you need time in order to digest it. There is a long period that is required to put all of the systems back in order. However, you must keep this whole process under control and not try to cross it out immediately.

Don’t be afraid that you’ll never wake up again. We’ll help you. You only need to constantly check your state, not even fighting it, but only to account for where you are. Don’t eat yourself up for being such an insensible animal, but simply look at yourself from the side, at your state. This is enough.

If a person starts to eat himself up, it’s not good. This doesn’t help or correct! After all, in the end, he begins to justify himself, comforting himself by the fact that he does not agree with such a state. Here, the protective force of egoism begins to function. However, if you look as an unbiased scientist at your animal body that is now sleeping, like a full lion, then you see the kind of a process you that are going through. And the awakening will come.
[63308]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/2011, TES

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It is written, “Choose life!” Of course we are not talking about the animal life, since a person already has questions that are higher than our regular existence—questions about real life, receiving the Light into corrected desires and becoming similar to the Creator. This is called human life, since all previous existence was imaginary, like preparation for the human degree.

However, life without achieving bestowal and true existence is harder than death. And this is not because it is difficult physically. Humanity is reaching a state where half of it is in depression and the other half is in fear. Consequently, life is becoming unbearable, not only due to natural cataclysms and disasters, but because of the intolerable inner pain.

We can have all the benefits in our material life, and yet feel horrible because it lacks meaning. A life devoid of inner correction and the inability to answer the question regarding the meaning of one’s life is becoming more horrid than death.

After all, a question emerges in a person, as well as new desires from the human level, and then a huge problem arises because every question from a higher degree cancels out everything one has. One does not understand why he needs all these fulfillments if he fails to find meaning on a higher degree. People are not committing suicide in countries that lack food, but particularly in the most well-off regions, such as the Scandinavian countries.

A life without the correction of desires is very difficult for a person who is asking this question. He begins to suffer not only because he does not receive pleasure from anything, but also from the fact that he brings suffering to others. He criticizes himself for his past, present, and future. He considers himself guilty in regard to his children, close ones, and strangers—in regard to everyone because he feels that he is the source of misfortunes for other people.

He is shown an overview of his whole life, and he sees how evil he was in regard to every person he encountered and how much he used everyone. In these circumstances, it’s difficult to remain without an understanding of the goal, which is the opposite: good and does good. He has no hope for the future, for the days to come, which will only be worse. A person feels that he will spend the rest of his life in the same useless manner, without receiving any fulfillment in the present or the future—no inner or surrounding Light.

However, one who lives for the sake of correction and rouses inner and surrounding Lights not only becomes worthy of receiving pleasure from life itself (when Light is clothed into desires), but he is happy to “bring sons into this world” (new states). That is, he advances further. He develops his desires and sees that he needs the whole world since it represents his own desires, which he joins to himself and fulfills. It turns out that they all are his sons.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/11, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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