The desire to receive pleasure was created by the Light. This way the Light is primary, it is existence from existence, the primary cause. Whereas the desire to receive pleasure was created in it and is its consequence.

The Light created desire to make it absolute like itself. The Light can do anything with the desire. The desire is like hardware that can be programmed with different and even opposite programs. Depending on this, the desire will enjoy bitter or sweet, falsehood or truth, closeness or distance, and so on. The desire is only something that reacts to the Light. It will be what the Light programs it to be.

And so, the Light begins to work with the desire, showing its “changeable” attitude. It uses different methods to form a sensation of need in the desire—this is the first step. Fulfillment arises inside the need, the sensation of the Giver within the fulfillment, the attitude towards the Giver within the sensation of Him, and I discover who I am in relation to Him in my attitude towards Him. The Light in the desire manifests and fades in this chain of states—like a light bulb that keeps coming on and off.

From these concealments and revelations of Light the desire acquires a greater understanding, sensations, decisiveness, and analysis. Its inner reserve becomes refilled, and every time it reacts to the Light on a different level and in a different way. The Light has a simple affect on the desire, but thanks to this it becomes more complex every time and constantly undergoes qualitative changes.

We cannot characterize the parameters of these changes for we lack appropriate terminology. But one way or another, the desire operates based on what it feels at the given moment, and also what stayed in its memory from past sensation. It bases its actions on past experience. Moreover, the desire also has another memory, instincts imbedded in past states, which make it act in a certain way, even when there is no reasonable foundation for it.

Opposite forms must be present in the desire: the qualities of the creature and the qualities of Light, the Creator. Otherwise the Light would always directly control the desire. The purpose of creation is for the desire to acquire reason and feeling, become independent, and this is only possible in the conditions of opposition, clash, and separation into opposites that consist of different forces. And this is why the path always lies through ascents and descents in different forms and details of perception.

Instincts conflict with reason inside the creature. Animals that act according to the inner program do not make mistakes, but man constantly errs where he rises above the animal.

You also see this on human development: Some people develop certain habits and spend their lives living like soldiers, carrying out instructions they received back in their parents’ home. Their lives are quieter, standard; they have more balance and security.

On the other hand, a developing person has less instincts and more reason and doubts. He experiences frequent inner conflicts, learns and changes more, and acts like a child at an older age. He is always changing, full of life, and ready to be different.

And those who are closer to “instinctive” living feel more secure in life, knowledgeable, and stable. This is because they lean on stable instincts, and this provides them with an easier life.

Those who really want to rise to the Creator’s level experience changes, ascents and descents in different parts of perception. The degree of Pharaoh also lies along this path, who says: “The Creator is righteous, while I and my people are at fault.” This is a very high and important degree for a person who understands how great the difference is between the top of the ladder and its foundation. We are referring to difficult work within opposite qualities.

And this is why we must always try to see ourselves in our lives on the steps of the ladder we descend and ascend, over and over again. There is no need to fear this and wait for comfort—there is nothing worse than this.

On this path, changes are only realized through the environment. When a person is alone, he subconsciously wishes to remain in one place. He might not even be very happy or even be in very bad shape, but he still does not care for changes and constantly holds on to the routine.

It is hard to get out of a familiar swamp, and only the environment that constantly inspires man with other values will pull him out. And this is why we need to strengthen the group, to ascend and descend faster, understanding that every time we form within us the vessel for final correction.
[54533]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/9/2011, Rabash’s article

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Question: What is the purpose of the circulation of the knowledge of Kabbalah and in what forms should it be carried out?

Answer: There is a reality that we perceive in our desire to receive pleasure, and we cannot disclose it more than we feel it now. There is also a reality that we can apprehend in our desire to bestow. To the extent we desire to bestow we can reveal the upper force, the nature of which is complete bestowal. We can attain only these two qualities.

We perceive our world in our desire to receive pleasure and can develop in it. But essentially, our world is limited by our egoistic desire that absorbs everything “into itself.” Consequently, we discover ourselves existing in a body made of flesh and in the surrounding environment.

Whereas the desire to bestow reveals for us the five worlds and the upper force, where we feel ourselves eternal and perfect like the upper force. But the problem is that in our desire to enjoy we sense a need for this world. Whereas we don’t have any need for the desire to bestow, for the spiritual world, and we have to develop it. Otherwise, we will not be able to attain the spiritual world.

The question is how I can develop a need for something I don’t want, feel, or understand and have no taste for? I don’t have any prerequisites for it; I have never tasted spirituality. What should I strive for?

I can advance towards it by means of problems and blows. But then I will only want to get rid of the blows, to run away from them, pushing or pricking me from behind. And how can I discover good awaiting for me ahead? I cannot see, feel, or taste it.

Thus, we do not have any choice. Blows, suffering, problems, crises, and bankruptcies alone cannot help us: All these impacts will not assist us in reaching spirituality. Therefore, Baal HaSulam states that there should be a preliminary condition for revelation of spirituality—the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah, which is referred to as “the call of the Messiah’s horn.”

I need to disclose to the world that there is something good, pleasant, and worthy that opens everything before you. It should be so attractive that even if I do not feel any lack now, I will suddenly realize that I am missing a different world—the upper one.

How can I get a desire for it? It is possible if I get impressed by the environment that tells me about it. Meaning, I need a good, big environment that “will brainwash me” to such a degree that I will really want something I do not want now. And we can see that the society is able to do it.

Therefore, everything depends on the environment. Otherwise, sufferings will come and will bombard me with blows—until I develop a desire to disseminate and try to disseminate in any case in order to receive an aspiration to move forward. By virtue of this desire I will be able to progress towards the quality of bestowal, towards the spiritual world, and then and only then I will attain it.

Thus, dissemination is an indispensable and mandatory condition for attaining spirituality. In what forms should we disseminate? In any! How can we influence a person? Through all his senses: Let him be impressed, desire, beg, or fear—it could be anything that will make him desire spirituality, as it is said: “I want!” Otherwise, if I don’t wish to advance on my own, only sufferings will come from behind, which is not enough.

We should desire spirituality ourselves and only then we will reveal it. That desire must be complete and reach a full measure called “Seah.” And I can receive it only from the environment. Therefore, you should realize how important circulation is!
[54431]
From the New York lecture #2, 9/12/11

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Baal HaSulam, “Messiah’s Shofar (Horn)”: And the dissemination of the wisdom in the masses is called “a Shofar.” Like the Shofar, whose voice travels a great distance, the echo of the wisdom will spread all over the world so even the nations will hear and acknowledge that there is Godly wisdom in Israel.

And this task was said about Eliyahu the prophet since the disclosure of the secrets of the Torah is always referred to as “the disclosure of Eliyahu.” It is as they have said, “let it rest until Elijah comes,” and also, “the Tishbi will answer the questions and problems.” For this reason, they said that three days (a known intimation) prior to the coming of the Messiah, Elijah would walk upon the hilltops and will blow in a great horn, etc.

You must understand these intimations: The issue of the Shofar is only the disclosure of the wisdom of the hidden in great masses, which is a necessary precondition that must be met prior to the complete redemption.

We can ascend to a higher dimension, see the world from end to end, live in boundless space, become eternal and perfect here and now, and be filled with great pleasures. And this all depends on the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah.

We are talking about beginners who have not mastered the Kabbalah method but are already trying to pass it to others, as well as those who are still in the dark but feel some desire, not knowing what to do with it. Together they—those who want to bring Kabbalah to others and those who are already willing to listen—create this notion: “Messiah’s Shofar.”

Then, the great Light of Hochma (Wisdom) comes and begins to unfold in the entire world. And people’s eyes are opening, in other words, they feel from within that some higher development that is beginning to transpire in the world is built-in here. They find themselves in a multi-dimensional space, where all the souls, all the people who lived, live, and will live are held together. They know now the development of all the souls from the beginning to the end of the world: why and what for. Everything is collected into one tremendous system called “the Infinity,” and everyone begins to feel this perfect reality.

This is the “revelation of Eliyahu.” We are not talking about the name, but about the concept, the Light, revealed within us.

Then we slowly begin to rise above the point, where the Big Bang created our universe. We penetrate in what was before, higher and higher through the all the spiritual worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and the world of Infinity, getting rid of all limitations.

Today is the time of the coming of the Messiah—the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah to the whole world. These things appear unreal to us for now; however, according to the current events, we can say that everything will happen very quickly. Time accelerates at an exponential rate, becoming compressed, like the divisions of the slide ruler. Each day seems shorter than the previous one: 24 hours, 23.5 hours, 22 hours, 20 hours.… And the difference is increasing. On one hand, we will see this in the development of our world, and on the other, very soon we will find that people are searching inside, and they need a method.

The peculiarity of our time is that the science of Kabbalah is becoming the heritage of the whole world. Indeed, we will not be able to exist without the knowledge of the system of Malchut of the world of Infinity. The science of Kabbalah is revealed as needed, and soon the crisis will be so apparent, while the absence of its solution so obvious, that the need will manifest itself. And once this happens, Kabbalah will be revealed to the world.

The whole problem today is the lack of need. And we can cause it by our work in dissemination, thereby reducing the development time.
[54414]
From the New York lecture #2, 9/12/11

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Question: How do I choose a group in order to advance spiritually?

Answer: Today, for a person to advance spiritually, he needs to choose a group that disseminates. In our days, only wide dissemination can lead us into the spiritual world. This situation formed years ago, but it has only now manifested with full strength.

You need to choose a group where people do not deem themselves too important, that understand what they are doing, and follow the example of the central group. It is important that their actions do not lead to separation and that they spend less time settling scores. Instead, they rise and disseminate our message.

This is the group you should choose. Keep away from those who do the opposite and fight. A good group does not look within it, but only looks toward the outside.
[54441]
From the New York lecture #2, 9/12/11

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The restriction does not affect the still, vegetative, and animate levels within me. I must exist and provide all that I need for myself. There is no shame to receive this way. But when I am done with the first three levels and begin to think about the fourth, human, level, that is when the questions begin, and the freedom of choice arises: Should I continue to receive for my own sake or begin to bestow to my neighbor? All the arguments, analysis, and work revolve around it.

As these first levels are free from the restriction, do as you please with them because you are taking what your nature requires for the sake of existence. Every person must take whatever he needs to have a normal life. A normal life means just as much as he requires to free his heart and mind in order to care for a fellow human being. This simply is our responsibility. Just as we must bestow on the fourth level, we must also receive in the three preceding levels.

On top of that, the entire fourth level only exists for bestowal. A restriction was made on it: The Reflected Light is the commandment of attaining similarity to the Creator. We must feel this well.

In other words, there are parts within me that must exist, such as the heart, the brain, and all my personal qualities, but they exist as regular meat, as matter. There is an additional layer on top of that which is the inner, spiritual work of the human within me. This is the fourth phase within the fourth phase (Dalet de Dalet), which follows the preliminary three stages of development within man himself. It is this phase that makes a restriction and a decision about the screen, the Reflected Light, and similarity of qualities.

This is what it means to be on the human level, where we have evolved from the still, vegetative, and animate nature and stopped being primates. This is why, even being at the human degree, we still keep all the previous levels of the still, vegetative, and animal body, as well as our entire corporeal development of science, intellect, and feeling. However, when we reach the human degree, we perceive it as a special aspiration that awakens toward the Creator.

The restriction, the inner work, and the concealment only apply to it and nothing else. This is why the spiritual world takes no account of how people behave in their everyday lives. When all of humanity in general reaches the stage of correction, this begins to concern everyone, but through becoming included in one another.

This is why those who so far do not feel an awakening toward the spiritual world do not need to do anything about it. Nature itself will direct them through blows. The entire responsibility falls on those who have been awakened.

We must emphasize and care for the desire that pertains to the human level, where one feels like he pertains to the Giver somehow. Everything else pertains to the essential existence that can neither be “condemned nor praised.” We only work with the Dalet de Dalet desire on which we must concentrate our attention. It can only be grown through a universal, mutual connection in society.
[54318]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/2011, TES

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Question: Where is the line between realizing your advice and blindly worshiping you?

Answer: The line is critical analysis. A person who works correctly does not agree with the teacher and feels hatred, antagonism, and total scorn for him, but at the same time he overcomes it, rises above himself, and accepts the teacher’s instructions from the bottom of his heart, completely annulling himself before the teacher.

A worshiper has just one side of the coin: He bends down without any criticism. He runs away from any negative thought like from fire. However, that is not the case with us. Yet, it also doesn’t mean that one must artificially try to evoke protest and repulsion within.

Simply start getting closer to your neighbor, and you will see how hateful he is to you. Hate has to become expressed in concordance with the need for love. Otherwise it won’t be creative. We do not fan it; it comes by itself.

Therein lies the verification: love and hatred act together, parallel to one another, while a person works in the middle line, above both of them.
[54691]
From the lesson on 9/9/11, Writings of Rabash

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There is nothing to fear. You shouldn’t be afraid of getting confused or not knowing something. Indeed, this work has never been revealed to anyone in the history of this world. We have no one to take example from since it is all happening for the first time.

We must therefore cherish the role we have been assigned. We don’t even know how we’ve merited it, and we can only be proud of this fact and exert maximum effort to disseminate and explain the knowledge of the global world in all languages. Thereby we will invoke increasingly greater changes Above, and after that, as it is written, “the Creator will finish our work for us.”

Our job is only to desire and exert efforts, like little children who grow this way—and the changes will come.
[54512]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels exist and evolve on account of nature, they grow thanks to the power of Light and can receive it so as to advance. This is called the Light of life.

However, the 4th phase (Behina Dalet) is constructed differently. It pertains to the human level and develops in a completely opposite form as compared to the three previous levels. They develop directly, from Above downward, whereas the human phase, Behina Dalet, is the exact opposite, developing from below upward.

The previous levels develop on account of growth in their ego, the desire to enjoy. The same occurs in the world of Infinity, in the four phases of the Direct Light, and then in our world, meaning everywhere. This is called the first three phases along which the Light descends, developing the desire down to the last, 4th level.

But Behina Dalet is already different! It needs to establish its independence and develop itself on its own, otherwise not a single action would be possible. It must oppose all the preceding three phases, take example from them, and turn it inside out. The way they receive the Light is the way Behina Dalet must bestow the same Light.

And though “everything comes from the earth,” from the inanimate level, it then turns inside out: Man takes everything that existed on the three preceding degrees and brings it to equivalence to the upper one Who made them.

Therefore, we are always speaking about a main hero who determines everything: the human phase of creation. And all the other levels aren’t taken into account because it is nature, the form in which the Creator appears before us so that we carry out man’s actions and achieve equivalence with Him. Indeed, on the “speaking” level we have no contact with the Creator until we begin to sense Him.

All the preceding phases of nature were given to us so that we could exist somehow until now, and then, standing on them, build the prototype of man.
[54322]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/2011, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: It seems that circumstances push us towards unity, apparently in order to overcome the crisis, but in reality in order to correct our nature and rise to the level of “human.” What is the difference between unity in the group, the nation, and the world?

Answer: The entire wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to unite in the group. This was also the system during the exile (Galut), when small amounts of Kabbalists connected into groups. This is written about by the Ari, Ramchal, Rabash, and Baal HaSulam. The wisdom of Kabbalah is realized in a group, in unity. From within that unity, Kabbalists perceived the upper world, meaning that which is felt in the attribute of bestowal they mutually developed in the group.

Today, from within a state we reach in the group, we need to exit into a state where all our groups unite into one, and this general, common group is within humanity as its part. On the other hand, the time has come to unite inside Israel. This is what Baal HaSulam writes about.

But from where can it begin? It can begin from the Kabbalist group that works on its unity and based on it, explains to the nation about the need to unite. It’s because this need has already awakened not from within man, meaning from within the point in the heart, but through a push from nature, when everyone, Israel and especially the nations of the world, feel the pressure, the problem, the general integral and global crisis. Thus they push from behind via suffering to unity.

We see that nowadays a need for unity does not arise because an individual desire, the point in the heart, appears in us. Rather, the circumstances, a historical necessity oblige us to connect, to form one complete entity from ourselves, and thus to be an example to the world, becoming “the Light for the nations,” according to the Biblical command.

If so, we continue our movement from that same wisdom of Kabbalah, from Abraham, from his system, from the nation of Israel in ancient times, from his connection of mutual love. Gradually we comprehend that today we must attain that same state: return to our roots and continue this connection from us to the whole world that evolved from the ancient Babylon and didn’t want to receive Abraham’s system of connection back then.

Thus, the Kabbalist group that engages in the wisdom of Kabbalah is inside. It is composed of people who are driven by the inner demand of the soul. The nation that feels the crisis, the external pressure, gathers around it and involuntary takes the correction upon itself. And the world gathers around the nation, with the help of our groups all over the world, which belong both to the inner group and to the nations of the world.

The inner group is called “Kabbalah La’Am (Kabbalah for the Nation),” which engages in the wisdom of Kabbalah. The nation of Israel needs to take on the form of a group, not a Kabbalistic one, but as a unification into one family of Mutual Guarantee. This is our movement. The correction of the soul is for the group, and a connection of mutual guarantee is for the nation.

From within the need to advance the system of connection, we should turn to the government and any other institutions where we can promote our idea, approach the Ministry of Education, and engage in the education of the nation. We should do it through scientists who confirm the existence of the present crisis and based on objective social reasons and reality, see the necessity to unite. And thus, with the help of the scientists, we need to turn to those above and below: above, to the government, and below, to the nation. We must invite scientists to our discussions and awaken the interest of mass media.
[54353]

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A collection of tips and principles of spiritual work studied during the Daily Kabbalah Lesson

The Truth Only Comes Forth Through Difficult Work

Spiritual work consists of preferring the truth to everything else: falsehood and sweetness vs. bitterness. When I hold onto this truth, I start attaining perfection and eternity, which I did not previously know. When I place the truth above everything else, without preferring anything else, I ultimately learn that there was nothing but it.

When the desire to receive pleasure rises above the point of one’s creation, it becomes included in the thought of the upper one where it had not yet actually existed, but was only in potential. It disappears in the upper one to such an extent that it begins to perceive eternity. All the steps that we take to return to our root remain in us.

When we ascend them, we collect them and include them within us. This is why this entire process, our entire history, becomes the inner part of our existence. We experience all the states described in the books of Kabbalah on our path. We include them within us, and we feel as one whole with all the souls of the Kabbalists who have already completed the entire path of the return to the world of Infinity.

There is nothing but desire. The place of the spiritual world is desire, similar to the Creator’s desire. The place of the corporeal world is desire opposite to that of the Creator.
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