The most important quality that is necessary on the spiritual path is patience, the willingness to suffer, confidence in success. Having patience means being willing to pass through all the phases that await me on the path so that neither my current corporeal sensations nor my reason would throw me off or set the truth for me.

From the start I accept faith in the sages (Kabbalists) who have already traversed this path and advise me on how to act. And I follow their instructions and actualize them. This is not at all about self-denigration, as it may first appear to an outsider. Just the opposite: I intend to attain everything in sensation and reason at every phase of the way.

I realize that I am distant and must achieve closeness, and above these two states I always receive a higher state, a new sensation and understanding, and that is how I advance. The result of all this wavering back and forth is clarification, which I make in sensation and reason, attaining a new state and constantly adding to it.

On the other hand, the process I undergo always involves the bending of my ego. I distance and feel myself in darkness and worthlessness. And that is when I must gather up my pride and say that I feel so distant precisely because I received independence. It follows that I can be proud of being against it and lacking the desire; I can be proud of being distant from the Creator. Indeed, I am lost and in a bad state, but thereby I acquire a new desire.

And now I begin to work on this new desire and draw closer to the Creator, and I begin to fill this period of distancing, confusion, darkness, and unpleasant sensations with the Light and insight, new attainments that aren’t egoistic but are above the ego. And that is how I achieve a new degree.
[55582]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/2011, Shamati #121

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Question: How can a person use his inherent qualities for bestowal?

Answer: There’s no need to think about it because it happens automatically. I don’t have to work against my inherent qualities and inclinations or try to change or “correct” them. After all, I wouldn’t have a clue as to what to do with myself.

All of our work consists of including ourselves in the correct environment and having it influence us as much as possible. Surely, I must first check and determine that this is the environment I need. But after I’ve checked and entered into it, then all I want is for this environment to influence me.

I don’t know how the strength that I receive from my environment will effect my inherent qualities and inclinations. I don’t hypothesize about what will come from this connection. My only choice and clarification is in determining whether this environment measures up to my understanding and sensation of an exalted and unique society aimed towards bestowal and revelation of the Creator.

However, how it affects me and my qualities and how one influences the other is something unknown to me at the moment. This is something I will find out about later, when I’ll begin revealing spiritual levels and understanding how things really work. More so, this won’t come to me at my current level. Only after ascending to the next level and looking down to where I was, will I be able to observe and understand this process.

The whole of spiritual work is in faith above reason, it is in attaining the force of bestowal above the force of reception. Until this system is built within me, my perception will not allow me to perceive, attain, and understand what is truly happening.

Chaining our inherent qualities isn’t our goal. While one is in bestowal for the sake of bestowal, he has no ability to attain the purpose of his inherent qualities and the influence of the environment. Only when he begins connecting with other souls and receives for the sake of bestowal, only then, due to this connection, he starts learning about himself.

I will never learn anything about myself unless I begin bestowing to others. Then, in relation to them and through my attitude towards them, I’ll begin to understand myself. They will become a reference point in relation to which I can measure. After all, we always need two points in order to measure something. If I’m alone, in relation to what will I measure?

This is why when I establish a correct connection with others and study them, I also study myself.
[55513]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/23/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The beginning of the year, “Rosh Hashanah,” is a special day when we are born as “humans.” A human is called “Ben Adam,” meaning the “son” of the level called Adam (similar to the Creator). This level begins with restriction, with the “loyalty of the soul” (Mesirut Nefesh).

Nefesh (soul) is the first and weakest Light that we attain. To do this, we have to place it above our material lives, meaning give up all the possible types of fulfillment for the sake of spiritual adhesion, connection with one another, mutual awakening and guarantee. “I am willing to give up all the material things to attain bestowal”; this is where man begins.

From this point on, he starts rising up the levels, working on perfecting the quality of bestowal inside of him and constantly trying to remain merged with it. To do this, a person builds the appropriate environment for himself, which influences him. This work is called the Creator’s work. It is work on one’s similarity to the Creator and adhesion with him.

This environment includes: the Kabbalistic group, the teacher or instructor, the books, and the study, meaning all of the boundaries that a person is in. Accordingly, one must always check himself: Are you acting correctly and doing enough to arrange your life the right way, and how should you divide your time, the forces of thought and intention in order to effectively discern your desires? This is how we judge ourselves before the beginning of the new year during the period called “repentance.”

One must cleave to the group in order to receive from it the force of real loyalty and, as it is written, “give one’s entire soul” (Mesirat Nefesh), like when blowing into the horn or during Isaac’s sacrifice. It is necessary to achieve this state at every level.

For now we aren’t required to make such a great sacrifice as Abraham, who sacrificed his beloved child. It’s enough for us to blow into the horn (Shofar). This is how our levels are differentiated: the forefathers belong to the level of HBD, and we to NHY. But in essence, this is the same sacrificial offering that every person must make on every new level of the will to enjoy that becomes revealed inside of him.

After that we continuously increase the importance (the beauty, Shufra) of the quality of bestowal by virtue of our willingness to attain total devotion of the soul. Everything begins with the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) and after that, the ascent of our will to enjoy. This is where man begins, and this is the meaning of the New Year, the day when we begin to grow.

Even though it seems like there are many fictional stories devoted to the beginning of the year, we must try to penetrate inside them and there, see the plan of creation to delight the creatures, the desire to be fulfilled, and its work—to once again start with the initial point and, holding on to this fundamental thread, to understand the inner meaning of the text.

After all, there are different languages of narration, and even Kabbalists write in such a way that every person understands what is written to the extent of his own degree. But even when a person perceives these stories as a children’s fairytale, he nevertheless advances and grows, and that means he has to go through these levels.

Although they might seem like fairy-tales, they conceal infinite depth inside, as high as all the spiritual levels, and we must try to attain the deeper, innermost level and from there take examples for our own correction in order to become human and start the New Year this way.
[55894]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/11, Writings of Rabash

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Kabbalists want to tell us about the development of the system in which we exist so that namely today, at this turning point, we will understand what to do. By studying this system, they became familiar with the long-lasting development in the upper worlds, with a long preparatory process with breakages and corrections, and with the establishment of various mechanisms that set the qualities of the future creature within us.

When this incipient creature had a feeling of itself in the central point of creation, our matter began to develop. Baal HaSulam tells us how this matter appeared after the Big Bang and formed the universe. During Earth’s development, alternate heating and cooling of its shell occurred for millions of years until matter found its final place, distributed according to the physical states of gas, liquid, solid, and plasma.

Then, the conditions occurred for the emergence of biological life on the shell surrounding the fiery belly of the Earth. Millions of years of development passed, including tens of thousands of years for the formation of contemporary man. We divide this time into multiple segments, but in principle, we are talking about a developing desire for pleasure. Hence, different stages of development preceded us: astrophysical (formation of the universe), geological (formation of Earth), evolutionary (formation of flora and fauna), and historical (formation of humanity).

In general, the desire to receive evolved in such a way that it grew with successive generations. Until now, we carried out its commands and had no freedom of choice in anything. We felt ourselves free only because we didn’t have the force of resistance toward our desire and acted according to the will of just one egoistic force.

Led just by it, we obeyed its will fully and willingly. It was like a master having absolute power over us, such immutable power that we followed its orders happily. We did not object at all. Whatever the master ordered, we rushed to please him. Moreover, I did’t even differentiate between us at all—I had merged with his power that much.

However, one more force is becoming revealed within us today, and that is the reason we have encountered a big problem. We can’t get along with two forces. They are opposite to each other, and we are standing in front of them, stunned by what’s going on. We seemingly have lost control, stopped understanding anything, and have found ourselves in a desperate situation.

A new system has become revealed to us where the force of bestowal and force of reception operate. The force of bestowal shows more and more power, while we had gotten used to the force of reception, complying with it by our nature. The force of bestowal rules not in us, but between us, in our surroundings, and we have to take its side, join it, merge with it, and learn to work with it. All of this is new to us, and that is why we are in crisis.

Precisely in this period, as Kabbalists have predicted, the science of Kabbalah is becoming revealed to explain to us how to exist from now on. That’s why Baal HaSulam says that first of all, we have to begin studying. Without studying, it is better to do nothing at all.

All our methods are coming from the former, obsolete system, and they only will cause harm because new laws have come into effect. That has happened on both the global and personal levels in the world and in the lives of each and every person.

Thus, let’s begin to study in order to understand the situation in which we find ourselves, inside the web where we have gotten stuck. By learning the state of things, we will understand the nature of the problems, and then we will find the right solution.
[55368]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/2011, “The Nation”

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Question: People still are far from being able to understand that the environment plays a key role in influencing a person.

Answer: It’s not that they are far from it. They simply don’t have what it takes. After all, this remedy applies solely to correction, whereas people have nothing related to correction, no notion of the external system of influence thanks to which we change. They are certain that it is they who reform the world, while they should be constructing a world that would change them.

Question: How can we convey a sense of mutual responsibility to them, responsibility for the world?

Answer: This exactly is the aim of our dissemination. We need to build a system of education and create our own media. We have to build everything anew on the Internet, as well as on our television and radio channels.

If we do it all correctly, then after the first few blows, people will realize that we have a solution. It is we who are supposed to bring them a “candy” to sweeten up the first “spankings” so that they may see it right away: This offers a solution, hope, and salvation.

This work is entrusted to us; there is no one else to count on. People are unable to hear the message of spiritual ascent. They are in another realm and simply do not understand what we want. When they do begin to understand, they won’t be able to implement it. Correction will come only from us, and our job is to explain to them the necessity thereof.

Systemic corrections occur in a ready-made form from the part of Galgalta ve Eynaim, and the rest should just agree with them, accept them. In addition, we should be quite crafty at disseminating so that the masses will come to want it, so that they would accept this idea and realize that it benefits them.

People cannot change by themselves; 99% of the people are unable to do it. So, at the end of “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Baal HaSulam writes that the upper wisdom will flow through Israel (from the words “Yashar-El” or “straight to the Creator”) to the nations of the world. It will flow from the inside out. The masses will not rise to seek it. At best, they will open their hearts to its pouring stream. God willing, they will do so, and we will have something to pour for them.

It will happen if we begin working with them together in the most intense manner. In our dissemination, we can demand nothing from them but the awareness of the current situation. Even if they do not understand everything, we’ll create a connection. By way of dissemination, we, on our part, will find common ground with them.

We can’t demand anything from an infant. It is we who must provide it with milk, bottles, pacifiers, and diapers. Moreover, we don’t expect a meaningful response from him. That will come later when he has grown up a bit.
[55379]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/2011, “The Nation”

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Baal HaSulam, The Study of The Ten Sefirot, “Histaklut Pnimit (Inner Reflection),” Part 2, Chapter 9, Item 98: The entrance and transference to the next degree does not decrease the Ohr (Light) that has acquired its place there in any way. Rather, it is like lighting one candle from another without diminishing the first.

Here too, when the Ohr leaves the first degree and descends to the next, the Ohr remains complete in both the first and the second. Likewise, when it enters the third, the Ohr does not move from the second at all; the Ohr is complete in both the second and the third.

It passes by the same manner through all the degrees that precede the last degree, being the actual receiver for which the Ohr came down from Ein Sof (Infinity), becoming fixed in all of them. The reason for this is that there is no absence in the spiritual. Any Ohr that shone in a spiritual Behina (phase) once will not move from that Behina forever, not even a bit.

We find it difficult to see examples of this in our world because all the egoistic desire fades and disappears. Every action requires the application of energy and strength. We must exert effort every moment. Otherwise, nothing happens; nothing moves. In this world, nothing is eternal, nothing that would manifest and not require renewal.

Physicists are trying to catch an X-particle in a particle collider in order to understand the origin of the gravitational force, the intra-atomic forces that make electrons spin. We do not understand how in our world, there can be a force that exists by itself and does not disappear, moving from place to place and not going off, expanding above time in infinite space, without any restrictions.

Such properties belong only to bestowal because in bestowal, it is not the Light that fills the desire, it is not the Light that passes through degrees—this is an inaccurate expression. Light cannot pass from degree to degree like water that fills communicating vessels.

When it is said that the Light fills the vessels, it means that the vessels reveal the Light and become similar to it, one after the other. They are connected in such way that after one vessel is corrected, the second one becomes corrected as well, and after it, the third. The entire vessel glows from within with the property of bestowal, which means that it is filled with the Light.

When one vessel is filled, its informational gene, Reshimo, gives rise to the next vessel that also becomes revealed and corrected. The property of bestowal becomes revealed in it as well, which means that the Light “has come” and filled the vessel.

We are always looking at the vessels as if from the outside, as if at a hanging garland of many Lights, switching on one after another. However, in fact, no Light passes from one place to another (and even in an electric circuit, the current actually doesn’t flow from place to place). Rather, each vessel (desire) reveals the property of bestowal within itself and therefore, begins to glow. They are connected only by a chain of cause and effect.

Hence, in the desires working to bestow, obviously, nothing can disappear. All the corrections that occurred in one of these desires during our ascent from below upward remain forever. They can only be concealed from us.

However, the Light revealed in these desires is new in each of them for every desire is unique in its depth, in the power of its screen, and Reshimot. Otherwise, it would have been one desire. Therefore, everyone uncovers their own Light.
[55383]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/2011, TES

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You have to check whether you hate your enemies and opponents, or you understand that they are controlled by the Creator, who is protecting you in this way by not letting your opinions coincide with regular people and the material world and helping you follow just the primary sources. That is how you have to purify yourself, checking everything that is happening to you. Don’t regret or be worried about anything besides the purity of the path, so the goal of your private life and the goal of creation come together in one focus.

It doesn’t matter if you see that until this moment, you were confused by various egoistic calculations. You should always know that everything you have gone through until now amounts to “There is none else besides Him.” However, from this moment on, “No one will help me but myself.” If you are between these two conditions, then you really can say that you have reached the beginning of the new year, a new beginning.

However, the final goal that is present as far back as the initial plan has to be the attainment of love for one’s neighbor. If you have personal problems with someone, then you are no longer moving in the right direction. If you wish to rise above others, to acquire knowledge and fulfillment, or even if you want to bestow, you should also check whether or not this bestowal is egoistic.

That way, your calculations will become purer and purer, until you finally reach the first day of the New Year, when man was created. Everything begins with creating yourself.

This will occur each and every time: There are four new years, each having its own calculation and a new beginning, until a person completes all of his corrections.

The verification is to check to what extent your inner judge is not bribed, how honest and sharp he is, like a brave warrior willing to rise above all of his personal calculations. And this is not easy. This requires one calculation after another, until reaching the entire depth that a person is allowed to delve into.

However, all of this is not intended for you to nag at yourself, but on the contrary, to aspire “to see the Light in the Light of the Creator.” One should try to see everything in the light of love for the neighbor, and check oneself in relation to this standard. And don’t pay attention to all of your collisions with others because this could be the Creator’s way of confusing you by making you see others in this way, or confusing them by setting them against you. It is written, “Don’t judge another person until you are in his shoes.” Maybe the other person is so much higher than you that you simply haven’t matured enough to understand him.

Just be loyal to the Creator at all times, and advance with this.

Therefore, if we have the teaching of the Rabash, his articles that explain how to unite into a group, as well as articles by Baal HaSulam and other Kabbalists, showing us the path and containing the Light that reforms, then the longer we check ourselves according to these primary sources, the more correctly we will advance. And the most important thing is not to be afraid of anything!

We shouldn’t be scared that the path is so difficult, burdened by so many doubts, which our ego awakens in us with its constant calculations. We shouldn’t look at this, but try to attain repentance as fast as possible, which is a spiritual calculation, and raise ourselves to the beginning of the new year, the new level. The goal is reached by one who gives up everything else for it.
[55778]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/11, Writings of Rabash

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Holidays and special days described in Kabbalah are not dates on the regular calendar, but the attainment of one’s own, special, personal states where a person makes a fundamental inner calculation with himself. If a person reaches this calculation, it means he really has a new beginning, called the new year, Rosh Hashanah. And accordingly, he attains the holiday prayer.

Every holiday is a spiritual calculation and a prayer because there is nothing besides the correction of our desires. But the beginning of the new year is special because it comes after many discernments. It comes only once a person has checked himself completely, discerning all of the desires that become revealed to him, because every higher level includes all of the previous ones as a tiny part of it.

However, when a person makes a calculation with all of his actions and thoughts, he sees that he did not attain success, that he does not advance because he wasn’t created for spiritual ascension at all. He is then overcome by burdensome thoughts about spirituality and by doubt and envy toward others. He wants to be above them and thinks, “Why them and not me?”

After many calculations like this, having become completely lost in them, he finally feels that he needs a new beginning. There is no way out because all of these calculations, discernments, criticisms, envy, and hatred do not change for years. And the only thing left for him is prayer, a cry for help because only the upper force can help. This inner cry is called the prayer of Rosh Hashanah, the new beginning.

Before this happens, a person seems himself as completely lost. He sees that the whole world disagrees with what he is doing and he himself also does not understand what is happening to him or what this path is. All of this criticism comes from his egoism.

That is why the prayer talks about reminders, the need to analyze all of one’s desires and actions, and about blowing into the horn (Shofar) because we have to elevate our spiritual path regardless of anything (in Aramaic, Shufra means beauty). That is when one has to turn to the primary sources in order to advance.

There are many opinions and people in the world influencing a person, imbuing him with their thoughts, and pulling him in different directions. Yet one has to place a strict judge above himself and constantly verify himself with the primary sources to the extent one understands what is written there. In spite of one’s ego, one’s desire to rise, profit, and become higher than others, one should strive for the opposite, wishing to acquire only the force of bestowal and to dissolve in the nation within which the Creator dwells.
[55785]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/11, Writings of Rabash

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Our collective state in which we all exist connected together is called Malchut of Infinity, Shechina. Shechina is a “place” where the upper Light becomes revealed. It is called Shochen according to its actions: He dwells and resides in her.

We are desires connected with one another by the common property of bestowal. It is according to this property that we reveal the upper Light that fills us.

Therefore, until we feel ourselves as connected together, existing in the state of the perfect and corrected Shechina, a corrected network of connection between us, we exist in the concealment of Shechina rather than its revelation. We exist in its exile. This vessel is not revealed, and therefore, it is called Shechina in exile, which means in exile, in concealment from us.
[55465]
From the 6th lesson at the Toronto Convention 9/18/11

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Question: Is there a special trick I can use so that the society will constantly direct me despite the disturbances of my ego?

Answer: It is a very interesting point. We see that throughout history, up until our time, man becomes more clever with each generation. And this wisdom gets accumulated in each generation rather than in a person himself.

For example, a person lived for seventy years and was reborn in the next generation. But why is he born without all the knowledge and experience he had acquired in his previous life? On the other hand, why does he need to die? Why can’t he carry all the accumulated wisdom from generation to generation?

Animals operate by instincts that are programmed in them. After they are born, they don’t need to learn. They already have the natural instincts required for life. But this doesn’t exist in humans. So how can I pass all my achievements, my knowledge, and the experience I have accumulated from one generation to another?

The Creator has prepared a special method for us. If we developed like animals, only on the physical level, we wouldn’t be able to pass any of the knowledge we have acquired as humans (as corporeal beings, meaning the still, vegetative, and animate levels of the human degree).

Now when we enter the fourth and last level of our human development (which is the reason for the social global crisis), we feel that we are not adapted to this globalization, that we are not connected to society on a global level, and we don’t use it in order to develop ourselves.

Nature demands that we start developing in a very interesting manner: If I am connected to the environment and develop with its help, internally I create new levels of attaining my connection with this environment. Thus, I become a “human” since I acquire the desire to bestow. Then all my work, all my knowledge, and everything that I have acquired during the seventy years of my life remain in the environment.

When I die and am born again, beginning a new life, I connect to all the knowledge that I have left, like to a treasury, and continue! This means that from now on, to the extent that we connect to the environment correctly, every level will be like building a higher level.

I don’t have to reinvent the multiplication table and all the other rules. If I connect to the environment naturally, I receive from it all the knowledge I had acquired previously and left in it. I actually stayed there because I connected with them and established a contact.

So we see how we complete all the defects, all the empty spaces that humans have compared to animals. This is a wonderful method of advancing which the Creator has prepared for us. Similarly, for several years and perhaps several reincarnations, I can ascend to the highest level without losing anything, not even the smallest things that I have learned in this corporeal world.

When a baby is born, we teach him how to be in contact with the environment since a newborn exists only in the still, vegetative, and animate levels and needs to quickly go through all of them. But after society develops to the human level in man, he will develop like babies did in the time of the Temple, when all the people of Israel were at the level of spiritual attainment, as it is said: “There was no child from Dan to Beer Sheba who did not know the laws of impurity and purity by the age of six.”

All the attainments are preserved in the environment. I connect to it during my lifetime and become part of it. This is where all my attainments are, all my spirituality. The corporeal body lives and dies over and over again for it is only the external form of who I am.

This is all very relevant today. After all we don’t know yet the height of the degree to which we are destined to ascend.
[55586]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/23/2011, Writings of Rabash

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