There are many paths for one to arrive at the question of love and unity. As a rule, the word “love” means something entirely different to us: fulfilling our egoistic desires with food, sex, family, wealth, fame, knowledge, and so on.

“I love” essentially means “I want.” When I want to receive something, it means that I love it, that I want for it to be mine, to bring it closer to me, and fill myself with it. This is what my “love” is all about. To sum up, the inner definition of the word “love” is “I want to receive it.”

This is because we exist in our world that formed after the breaking, as the wisdom of Kabbalah explains. Our entire world is completely egoistic, which is why we decode the notion of “love” as something aimed exclusively at oneself. If I love something, it means that I wish to bring it closer to myself, to feel it, and to fill myself with it. When I fulfill my desire, when I delight in something pleasant, I call it “love.”

By the same token, we have no regard for the other half, the other force existing in reality: the force of bestowal that also contains the same notion of “love.” However, there to love someone means to fulfill them, to bring to them what they want, rather than what I want. This is completely opposite to our understanding of love.

In the past, humans were close to nature and naturally felt that there exists another force in nature, the force of bestowal in which love meant that I consider others and bestow to them. Kabbalists, as do many other people endowed with high sensitivity to nature, have revealed these forces.

And there were many people besides Kabbalists who have felt and discovered for themselves in all kinds of forms that the force of bestowal is no less than the force of reception. They realized that in this other half of reality (in bestowal) the same actions exist as in the force of reception, only their interpretations are different, opposite to those we use here in our world.

We, however, exist only in one half of reality: in reception, the desire to fulfill oneself, as we are a consequence of the breaking of the desires (Kelim). And man remains largely broken, whereas the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as Baal HaSulam writes in “Preface to the Science of Kabbalah (Pticha),” rise and fall together with man, without any calculation concerning themselves, but only to the degree in which they have to facilitate the changes that man must undergo.

Religions and beliefs, from the moment of their inception, have also arisen from the fact that they revealed the other force existing in nature: the force of bestowal. At their core they speak of love and unity. So it was while they remained the lot of a few people. But after they’ve spread in the egoistic masses that are not as sensitive, they have become a set of ceremonies, rituals, and various other actions. At that point they started to be used egoistically: to fulfill oneself, rather than to bring people to unity, love, bestowal, and balance between the two systems.

As time went on and humanity developed throughout history, fueled by the constant growth of egoism in every person and in humanity in general, we have distanced greatly even from that natural understanding that humanity once possessed—from the understanding of bestowal and love inherent to the other half of nature.
[63064]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The creature was created perfect, but this perfection is from the Creator, and this is why the creature does not even know that it exists. This is because in order to feel that you exist, you need a desire, an aspiration, an empty space.

Since the entire creation comes from the Creator’s perfection, it is completely deprived of feelings, mind, its own perception, and any sensation at all. It does not know, understand, or feel anything.

We cannot even imagine what it is like. It is not even still matter that exists in our world, in which there is the movement of atoms and other particles. After all, these particles have a need to exist and maintain themselves in a certain state or quality.

But the state of the creation of the creature is such that the creature as if does not exist at all. It is called “existence from absence” (Yesh Mi Ain). On one hand, it exists (Yesh) because it comes out of the Creator, but is absolutely “from absence” (Mi Ain) because there is absolutely nothing it can say about itself, not even as much as a dead rock.

And then the creature begins to develop under the influence of the Light. The purpose of creation is to bring it to a state when it will feel the need for the Creator in everything so as to reveal that it is opposite to Him and understand who the Creator is from this opposite state.

This way the creature attains the Creator. By attaining the form opposite to the Creator and beginning to perceive the Creator in it, a desire to attain Him and become like Him gradually develops in it. Then the creature will be able to attain the Creator according to the law of similarity of qualities.

It turns out that all the changes happen inside the creature. At first it develops itself in the negative direction and distances itself from the Creator, understanding itself better as it descends the worlds from the world of Infinity to this world and then growing its egoism in our world.

But starting with our days, a completely different process begins. The creature receives an awakening from Above, which helps it to begin to develop in a direction opposite to its nature: the direction of the Creator. In other words, the development from Above downward when the creature kept separating from the Creator, the world of Infinity, increasingly revealing its egoistic desire and discovering that it is isolated and alone is coming to an end.

Besides, the creature experiences the breaking after which every particle begins to understand that it is separated from the rest. Everyone feels like a person who exists among others like it. And it can begin to develop the form of bestowal from this darkness and ignorance in relation to the Creator. He does this against his will because the Light comes to him in a way that makes it impossible for him to receive the fulfillment of life on his own, and he needs the rest.

At first he uses the others for his own fulfillment, but he gradually begins to feel that he needs a more correct, inner, and mutual connection with them. This way we attain the understanding that we have no right to exist without a proper connection between us.

This way nature, the Creator, the upper Light, brings us to the need to connect.
[62925]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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When a person surrounds himself with a good environment, he can easily get back on track if he discovers that he has deviated slightly off his path. If he gets distracted for a few moments, he notices his mistake and returns to unity: “I, the group, and the Creator.” These three factors always must make up one whole: a person who strives toward bestowal (“Israel”), the Light revealed in the group (Torah), and the upper force.

The slight corrections on our path are like the corrections in the flight of a rocket. It constantly corrects its trajectory in relation to the hypothetical straight line. The smaller the error, the better the rocket keeps its course. However, this requires a lot of investment and calculation, and in our case, it demands a greater effort.

On one hand, it is harder for me this way, but it is also easier on the other hand. It is fairly easy to get back on track with just a slight deviation.

When I “play” with these margins, I begin to experience wonderful sensations: a bit of pepper and a bit of sugar. I constantly go through “tastes” or states that are related to my unity with the group and the Creator. Sometimes, the Creator hides from me in a bit of smoke, sometimes the group hides, and sometimes I take a step to the side. In this way, I learn through the variety of combinations that form on the inside and outside.

As I continue my journey, I stabilize my course from day to day, every hour, until I suddenly feel that this really is my life. Habit becomes a second nature, and the work that I used to see as a game turns into reality. As I balance the nuances making fine adjustments, I suddenly discover different phenomena between the three initial components: between myself, the group, and the Creator.

Due to my constant attempts to return to unity, I build screens against my egoism, over the desires, in my mind and feelings. I act better and with more precision. Sometimes, I even let myself bear a bit to the side and come back on track again without losing control.

In this way, I walk a bit ahead of my donkey, as we call it. Dawn does not wake me; I awaken the dawn. In other words, I do not wait for the Creator to play with me with the different components; I advance on my own raising the value of the variables to make sure that they are different, but at the same time connected into one equation of unity.

When a person finds flavor in these games, he constantly adds new strokes to the common connection and ascends the degrees of the spiritual worlds. Let us try to act the following way to the best of our ability: Concentrate upon this before the lesson and return to it over the course of the day according to your schedule and ability. Let everyone set a time to obligate himself to work on unity several times a day at specific times.
[62828]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/2011, Writings of Rabash

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In The Book of Zohar, we read about the upper system in the same way that we would read about the design of some electronic or mechanical system. We just read and become connected to it, but we don’t get it going.

Putting it in motion is not the same thing as knowing how it works. It’s the same as when we run various systems and work with them without knowing anything about their design. Suppose I have a system in front of me. I have been taught which buttons to press and which way to turn the levers in order to operate it. The less I know about the inner structure of the system, the better. At least, I won’t become confused.

In a similar way, we must know how to operate the upper system. Then we act according to the principle of “by Your actions we know You”: Based on our actions, we begin to see this system, understand, feel, and establish a connection with it. We are just like a machinist who gets to know the character of his lathe as opposed to some other machine and discovers the properties of the metals which he uses for turning different shapes. He knows, hears, feels, and even smells odors coming from the machine. He can lick a workpiece and tell you what metal it is made out of just by the taste.

Thus, from actions, we begin to learn about the system. First, we are taught which “buttons” to press, just like we teach a child: “Look, if you press this button, the light lights up. If you turn this lever, the car starts moving.” This is the way we begin learning about the world.

The same thing happens in the spiritual world. We learn about a system that is extremely diverse, multifaceted, and complex. It has an infinite number of elements and connections, connecting all the souls together in all the situations, not only in this world, but in all the upper worlds as well.

This is something we are not capable of imagining. The entire system cannot be correlated by our minds because the connections, dimensions, and everything that exists there are beyond time, motion, and space, and faster than the speed of light.

Regardless of all of that, we still can set this system in motion so that it influences us. We don’t know how it works, but we can operate it. This is how we often use nature. For example, there are many “grandma’s” cures that are passed from generation to generation. Do we know how they work? No, we only know that they help. In the same way, animals find a needed herb that can cure them. They don’t get confused, unlike us with our pharmacies and drugs.

Thus, we must know what will help. We need to “press the button” and get an answer. It is not easy. I don’t know what is explained in The Zohar, but by reading it together with everyone else, I have an opportunity to arouse the system so that it works on me. On the other hand, if I don’t “press the button,” it won’t work on me, but it will influence all of reality in general, the whole of humankind. I must awaken it for it to work on me personally.

Thus, by reading The Book of Zohar, we “press the button” for the system to act upon us personally: both on our group in general because we read this book together, as well as on every one of us individually. Let’s try to set this system in motion.
[61946]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/2011, The Zohar

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In articles like “The Essence of Religion and its Purpose,” Baal HaSulam refers to more sublime things than a certain religion. “Religion” in this case is one’s attitude to life, the perception and the feeling of reality. How is reality depicted to me: externally or internally? Can I see the difference between the two?

Can I be certain about what I feel? Can I rely on my mind and emotions? Do I perceive the situation correctly, or am I trapped in blurred feelings? Could it be that everything isn’t really as I see and feel it? How can I check the credibility of my image of reality? How can I understand the phenomena I perceive in this picture? How can I use them correctly? Where do I find these criteria? How can I look at myself from the side, objectively? All these questions and many more are part of the concept called “religion.”

In our ordinary life, religion is our attitude towards a certain concept that we have created for ourselves by ourselves. Almost every person in the world wants to believe in something that he doesn’t know or feel, something that he cannot test logically.

It’s convenient from the egoistic point of view to make up theories that will help one sweeten his life a bit. The answers cannot be tested, no one knows whether they are true, and each one has a theory of his own. At the same time, a person feels good with it, he suffers less and feels that what will be will be. After all, we cannot ascend above our realty and actually check and analyze it.

We need another science, another concept that comes from Above, from outside our nature. I don’t know what it means to be really objective because no matter how you look at it, I am always in my own desire, in my mind and my emotions. How objective can you be? If we take all the options into account, all the desires and the thoughts, all the sciences in the world, we will still not reach objectivity.

So in our present situation we will never be able to determine the right approach, the right outlook of life. This is why we cannot answer questions about the meaning and purpose of our lives. We shouldn’t be ashamed of these questions, but we cannot answer them because we are in a very limited position.

We don’t know how the universe was created and what preceded it. We don’t know how it develops and what drives the natural evolution of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature on earth. We don’t know anything about the process we are going through and how it will end. So, no matter how much we discuss it and the assumptions we make, it’s all worthless. No one can prove that it’s the truth. People can say that, but no one actually has any facts.

This means that we don’t need another system, but a true revelation of the upper force that operates reality. Until we discover it, we should not rely on anything.
[61862]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/27/2011, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: The crisis keeps on getting worse. The capitalists are going bankrupt, and those who work for them are going to be left without a job. We are seeing the world collapse. Who will save us from a complete demise?

Answer: Those who have ruined everything will correct everything. There is no one else who can correct this, but the Creator. He increasingly ruins our lives until we want to find out who is causing us harm. Then, we will become acquainted with Him and learn that He can correct everything.

It is like a father who manipulates a son who does not wish to know him. The father brings the son to such a state of dependence where the son is left with no choice but to come to his father. The father seems to be cruel, but he wishes his son a good life, while the son is interested in other places, and not the best ones.

The father goes to all these places and spends a lot of money there. At one club, he asks them not to allow his son in. At another club, he asks them to beat him up. At a third club, he asks them to humiliate him, and so forth. Why is he doing this? After all, it is costing him a lot of money and pain, but all of this is done so that his son would return home.

Having seen that he cannot be happy in any other place, the son wants to cry out and beg his father to arrange a good place for him. The father has a wonderful place for his son. The son did not want it before, but now, after so many disappointments, he suddenly recalls that his father had offered him a wonderful thing. Then he comes and asks for it.

Now, everything depends on whether we will go to check out all these places that we visited in our past during our natural development and will receive the correct answer in every one of them: a slap in the face. These slaps can be horrible catastrophes and wars that will make the current bankruptcies look like nothing.

What is the big deal if someone goes bankrupt? So, he had millions written down somewhere in the bank and now he does not. What is the difference? It is very abstract. The money is not real, but virtual. Today, there is no real money in the world. No one has it. We see that even entire countries do not have money. Everything is only on paper.

And if so, we discover that we have no choice but to attain bestowal. After all, we will only be able to perceive life in the form of bestowal, the connection between us. Otherwise, we will consent to it after a deadly beating, the so-called labor pains of the Messiah, a very difficult birth.

We want to be born properly and easily. This is possible! Everything depends on us, and this is why the wisdom of Kabbalah was revealed. Essentially, it helps us to be born properly, to have a simple and merciful birth, and to come out easily, straight, and “with the water.”
[61777]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Man (Adam) means “similar” (Domeh) to the first nine Sefirot, meaning nature, the Creator. Such people gather into a group to begin their work.

At first, this work does not inspire us. We feel like it is a compulsory and unnecessary responsibility. Then we begin to become inspired by it. However, at the same time, one always needs to try to walk on two feet, like on two rails, head and heart, mind and feeling.

Essentially, everything comes out of the first and last points of our journey. At the first point, we are in a state of adhesion with the Creator because of His force because this is the way He created us and rules over us. However, at the last point, we must attain the same adhesion on our own, which means to become equal to him in all our qualities. This is our objective.

The group, our world, and this entire life are just the means to attain it. Everything that happens to me every single moment is given to me in order to reveal that my current self, my group, and my entire environment, all causes and consequences, are just an aid. They are like the three preliminary phases of the direct Light, until the development reaches the fourth phase, meaning us. In order to reach adhesion to the source, the Creator, I must view all of the still, vegetative, and animate nature as the means given to assist me with this aim.

The group and my entire life, the entire universe, everything that surrounds me are only given so that I would be able to reach adhesion to the Creator. If I organize every moment this way over the course of my life, I absolutely will be able to complete the entire program of creation.

Rabash writes in “The Purpose of Society” that the people who gather into a group feel how their points in the heart demand them to become human (Adam), that is, similar to the Creator. This is what man was created for. This is his main purpose, and everything else is just the means for realizing it.

The only way to realize it is through the fear of pointlessly losing even a moment of your life. For this, I need the influence of the environment that will show me how important and high the purpose is so that I would be afraid of failing to attain it. Then I will realize it correctly through envy, lust, and ambition.

The Creator helps me advance toward the goal every moment if I properly connect myself to the group and Him inside the group, striving to reveal Him. The goal is to reveal Him through the similarity of our qualities so that I would be more and more like Him, which is to say to become more human. To be human means to be like Him.

The more persistent I am in trying to do this, the more spoiled qualities and desires He reveals to me. I must not forget even for a moment that all of this is revealed to me only for the purpose of correction, becoming similar to the Creator. It turns out that it is even a good thing that I become confused and forget about connecting with the group and the Creator.

I reveal this in new desires and feel myself deviate off the path every time. In this way, the Creator awakens desires and thoughts in my heart and mind that are not directed straight to Him so that I would direct them on my own, that is, would bring them to unity. There is nothing else for me to do in life besides this. In this way, I correct myself.
[62835]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why wasn’t I able to connect to the feeling of the point of unity at this convention? Why is this sensation still hidden? How can I support it if I don’t feel it?

Answer: Certainly, many of our friends have not been able to feel this point of unity yet. In any case, this first of all depends on time. There is a category of time in our world, and nothing can be done about it. A person can’t come today and enter this feeling tomorrow. He has to go through various states, to experience them. A person has to be inside of our group for some time and advance the same way we did some time ago. This is first.

Second, a person has to be properly prepared for the convention. We were getting ready by uniting in the desert as well as working hard preparing for the convention technically. We began the work in August in order to prepare all the necessary technical equipment, events, study materials, and programs.

Everything depends on a person. If he was interested in participating with us, even as a “little one,” he would reach the state where he would feel the same as we to some extent. The majority of the participants, including women who joined this sensation, felt it. This is the first convention where we were able to reach the point of unity.

What should a person who didn’t feel it do? Read, study, and disseminate. It’s desirable to go over the convention materials a few times: lectures, all activities, gatherings, discussions, the opening ceremony, and dancing. There are about 100 hours of video recordings; we need to continue taking little tastes of it, watching little bits of it each day.

In addition, starting from today and on, it’s necessary to start preparation for the next convention in the desert that will take place in a couple of months. It doesn’t matter where a person is located and where he will be physically at that time. The main thing is to prepare oneself for the connection with others. This connection is a virtual one; it’s not located in some physical place that one would have to watch from afar.

I didn’t dance in the convention hall, but that didn’t prevent me from being connected to those who were. Certainly, contact helps, but the time will come when we won’t need it.
[62844]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/2011, The Zohar

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Question: What is the point of unity that we reached at the convention? Could you describe it in more detail? Where is it with respect to the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality)? How is it felt? How do people recognize feeling it? How do they determine that they hold on to it?

Answer: This point is located on the Machsom itself. This point is the unity between our world group consisting of thousands of people who are interconnected, want to be tied together, and try to connect with each other in all possible kinds of relations. The goal of our connection is to reach mutual bestowal called “mutual guarantee.”

We are ready to support and think about each other and to take care of the common Kli among us. That is, we are ready to strengthen each other and want everyone to awaken. There is no competition or rivalry here, when I would want to become stronger at the expense of others and not think about them. On the contrary, I want for all of us to become stronger, and for my friends, who in this case become as my children to me, to feel the result of my efforts first.

With respect to the group, I have to feel myself in the following three states:

1. I take care of them as if they were the lower ones, like a mother takes care of her children or the Creator takes care of the creatures.
2. I relate to them as to the greater ones, considering them the greatest people of the generation. I’m ready to serve them and do everything for them in order to get the greatness of the goal and strength from them.
3. I want to be their friend, their equal, neither higher nor lower, and for all of us to unite in one “embrace.”

In this “embrace,” we reach a fusion of our desires. From these three relations toward the other, each of us and all of us together reach one desire, one thought, and want the Creator to fill us.

But here, we then discover that we’re not connected enough. There is still something with which we need to connect. Then we demand  for the Light that reforms to unite and then fill us. This is what our work is about.
[62847]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/2011, The Zohar

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Question: During the lesson you said that right now the main thing for your students is to grow the feeling born between them (the common desire towards the quality of mutual bestowal), which already exists independently from them on its own, like a newborn who has separated from his mother. What should our next actions be like?

Answer: Now we only need to strive to grow the newborn desire by using the egoism that has appeared in us. We should add it to our common connection and thereby strengthen it, like an athlete who becomes stronger through using the resistance of sports equipment.

Question: Since the connection is realized by the male part of our world group, how does the female part participate in it?

Answer: The female part supports the men in this, obligates, reinforces, and reassures them. It also actively engages in the dissemination of the idea of mutual guarantee, the integrated connection of all of humanity, for the 99%, meaning the general public.
[62801]

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